Up and Running Blog

You Aren't Crazy, You're Just an Entrepreneur

by Tim Berry on August 17, 2009

You may have noticed from other posts on this blog that I’m a fan of Pamela Slim, author of Escape From Cubicle Nation.  That’s a great book for people looking to migrate from a corporate job to their own business, and Pam is touring recently, giving a great workshop on the same subject. I was a guest speaker at her event in Portland a couple of months ago.

Escape from Cubicle Nation
by Pamela Slim Read more about this book…

So I may be biased, but I enjoyed her post You Aren’t Crazy, You’re Just an Entrepreneur on the American Express OPEN Forum. Borrowing from her mentor Martha Beck, Pam summarizes four stages of entrepreneurship:

  1. Death and Rebirth: when you leave your day job and get started. “I don’t know what’s going on, and that’s okay.”
  2. Dreaming and Scheming: you get comfortable, begin to brainstorm. “There are no rules, and that’s okay.”
  3. The Hero’s Saga:  whittling ideas down to the one that’s viable. “This is much worse than I expected, and that’s okay.”
  4. The Promised Land: you get through the growing pains and stabilize. “Everything is changing, and that’s okay.

Pam finishes that with this link to “an in-depth, multimedia overview of the change cycle that entrepreneurs go through.”

About Tim Berry

Tim Berry

Tim Berry is the founder of Palo Alto Software, a co-founder of Borland International, and a recognized expert in business planning. Tim is the originator of plan-as-you-go business planning. He has an MBA from Stanford and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. Today, Tim dedicates most of his time to blogging, teaching, and evangelizing for business planning. His full biography is available on his blog.

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Randy Nichols August 17, 2009 at 6:32 am

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

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