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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On October 03 2012 11:16 vpatrickd wrote:Hi MightyAtom, Great post! A really good read. I read Felix Dennis' book and finished it about 4 months ago.. I'm in my early 20s, and this book has really inspired me to start my own business and jump in the race of getting rich. But after reading your post I'm now having doubts, because I never start my own business, nor have I any experience in being a company exec or a manager.. The only work experience I have is as an entry level consultant, and even that was part-time. As someone who's experienced, can you give me some advices as to how do you overcome that fear of starting.. fear of failure, fear of losing a lot of money? Looking forward to your next post 
The only thing I can say, is that I didn't want to regret not trying, but I'm not someone who was a natural entrepreneur. At the time I started I was already a senior executive of a major multi-national in my industry, and really by that time, it was probably too late to get started on it because it has been extremely extremely brutally tough. If I could do it all over again, of course I would, but it's not one of those things for me that I would be looking forward to- and I probably won't ever do this again, I promised my wife one shot at it and that's pretty much it.
I'd say, the main thing is: are you product guy- can you make your own product, or can you really see how the product works with the market and what can be hot. If you can't then being an entreprenuer is very difficult as you have to hire others to work with you and your burn rate is so much higher. Having more experience helps a lot, but the time you spend to get that experience is not always 100% transferable. Much of the knowledge I have at the executive level has no application to the first 2 years of the new company I began, now after 2 year that past knowledge has started to give a lot of benefits, but not for the first 2 years where it was extremely difficult.
But the thing is, if you fear, like really fear, then it may not be for you,- being afraid in seeking the challenge is one thing, but to truly have fear, this is not the path for you and really success has so many paths. My own dream was to be an international rugby player, and if I had accomplished that, I do think I would have been fulfilled in my own way.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On October 09 2012 02:50 jacosajh wrote:
Thanks for doing this.
I'm on a similar path, and have the same issues/concerns.
I couldn't really tell definitively from your OP or following posts, so let me ask you: What was the number one thing that made you want to be rid of the corporate world? Was it the prospect of taking a prospect from the ground-up (i.e. self-achievement)? Was it because you were afraid that the top of the corporate ladder wasn't that stable? Were you just tired of all the bs that goes long with it?
I'd guess it was the first point, I wanted to prove to myself that I was the best in the industry and the best at what I do and I felt on the corporate level that I had accomplished that (as arrogantly as that sounds, but again, we are talking alpha males here as the norm). I left that it was only by running my own company from the ground up, I wanted to know what it took and from all accounts, it wasn't likely that I would succeed and I'm still at that point where I can't say I have succeeded yet.
But being at the top of the corporate ladder, if your company is the market leader, is a stable as it gets and once you get to the top, you're the one dictating the bs for the most part. But for me, I have pride in what I do, that if it matters to me, I want to be the best in whatever I do, and I am willing to compete with the world to do it. I think the most glorious thing would be if I am able to create a company that eventually takes the market leader position from my old company, a nearly impossible task, but I think that would definitely put me on top for all time in my industry like Lee Iacocca.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On October 04 2012 17:30 NerdFace wrote:
I have to get smarter to understand this fully :D
the smarter you get, the less you'll understand ^^, business is all about experience, the more experience you get, you'll see how simple is the crap I wrote keke
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On September 21 2012 04:26 Warrior Madness wrote:Very interesting post MightyAtom, some people have that one book (or in my case those few books) that alters the trajectory of their professional and personal lives. I liked "How to Get Rich" and Felix is an intriguing character but I didn't find it that practical. I much preferred "The Millionaire Next Door" which was a lot less dramatic and more practical for me. Live below your means, and acquire equity (Through mutual funds, stocks, your own business etc). I live by that maxim. I pack my own lunch, I negotiate every chance I get (Even my rent), rent a small but cozy apartment, I have a bus pass for commuting, I use every credit card and tax trick that's out there and when I travel I'm frugal as well (Saved thousands on a trip to fiji by doing "global volunteering"). Even my salary is relatively low, but I own the majority of the equity in my company. Anyone can become wealthy (i.e. Healthy net worth, financially independent) using these methods. You don't have to be an entrepreneur. Though everything in his list rings true. MightyAtom, I look forward to your article on management in a big company. If I may suggest a couple of topics that others might enjoy, how about operational excellence or the art of talent finding? And also project management. I recently got on the "cloud management and collaboration" bandwagon. I don't know what software you use but I use Clarizen and Salesforce predominately.
Thanks for pointing out The Millionaire Next Door book. Reading through it now and while I was halfway a long the line of thought presented I am now thoroughly set on going all the way.
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I don't really see how this is a knowhow, isn't more like a diary? Interesting read anyway even if the mentality is totally foreign to me.
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On November 07 2012 16:50 Elitios wrote:
I don't really see how this is a knowhow, isn't more like a diary? Interesting read anyway even if the mentality is totally foreign to me.
knowhow is that operational understanding gained via experiencing in doing something, so it is very much based on experience and that context. It is a matter of coming to same situation and instead of taking 5 steps to resolve it, hopefully with the insight here it only takes you 4 or 3 steps if that makes any sense. ^^
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Thank you very much MA! Great post as usual. Any chance you could elaborate more about your "Rambo" bit or being "molded" into a business exec?
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
On November 20 2012 10:28 Kyokai wrote:
Thank you very much MA! Great post as usual. Any chance you could elaborate more about your "Rambo" bit or being "molded" into a business exec?
Well, for the Rambo bit, I think it comes from two very hardcore corporate backgrounds: management consultant and being part of corporate Korea.
I wouldn't think that I'm anything special within the professional corporate culture in Korea- even back in the 90's being a good corporate guy was basically 'how long you could sit your ass at the desk' and how many hours you could log in. But of course, when the crap hit the fan or there was a deadline, the impossible would get done (usually make the foreigners working in Korea at that time think that Koreans were all totally irrational nut jobs- seemingly just going through the motions on one side, then declaring to take over the world the next and actually succeeding in totally out of reach projects that get launched in a month when it normally takes 5 months of pre work..).
But with all the foreign educated CEO nowadays, it is less like that and it is about getting results. Thing is, corporate Korea is still about biting off more than you can choose and really- failure isn't an option.
In terms of being a management consultant, there are lots of hacks out there and just cause you are management consultant doesn't mean you're the best at business, but for sure- anyone who was a management consultant and a tier 1 or Big 4 accountancy firm at least has one thing going for them - super quick thinkers, super quick at understanding and can turn out work like a motherfucker. If someone has a background as a management consultant, no doubt they will be usually the first to the punch line.
Put that together and then put me in a UK multinational and basically I killed it and made regional director from senior manager in a year and a bit and took out 2 senior line managers above me. I never waited for further resources or wasn't willing to put my job on the line for every project I took on. If we were short cash, I'd pull out 20k out of my own pocket and get it reimbursed later (my wife would always say, 'are you paying to work for this company?' cause the company would always be owning me massive expenses each month), but I just did whatever I needed to do.
The biggest thing was waiting for 'headcount' meaning when you need more staff, you need to request it via HR and its a big deal, but hell, fuck it - I'd put the request it and not expect it to come through for at least 8 months and just do the work anyway.
The other biggest thing was that I trained my own staff, if they didn't have the skill, then I'd just train em until they could do what they needed to do. The biggest thing about the inexperienced is that they don't understand what is a 'professional standard', meaning that what they think is their best, should be good enough- when it's far from enough. An example is, most of the inexperienced think, 'well it is good enough for me...' well FUCK OFF, are you making 200k a year? If our consumer is in that income range, you think they'd be happy driving your shit car too? - So understanding that and setting the standards was a major part of training.
But the funny thing is, if this is really all my staff knows as 'how corporate life should be' then the just assume that people work like this at that level. Lots of swearing, lots of threatening to fire them, but also, lots of gifts, complements and bonuses when they did well.
It does seem like a lifetime ago, most of my juniors now are nearing the director level so its good to see that they have kept the edge, if I do see them, they always tell me that they tell stories their juniors when they complaint or do shit work and say, 'if you knew who trained us before, he'd have ripped you a new asshole by now etc..' so I'm pretty flattered about that and yeah, they all appreciated that time as I did as well to have a team that was able and willing (sometimes forced) to go to hell and back. And hell and back was working 16 hour days for 3 months straight, or working non-stop with 4 hour naps for 2 weeks straight to hit a dead line etc.
But when you see your staff more than your family, I mean, you can't help but be close; but I'd say, you do need to be sensitive to what kind of staff you have- if you wanna go rambo style, you have to walk the walk, but also you need staff who are ambitious- who will look at you and think they are learning something in this hell, or else you will break them or simply not retain them either. ^^
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Woah. I was definitely interested in working for a big 4 Accounting firm one day.
Your post now makes me want it as bad as I need to breathe o.o
I'd still want to drop into the jungle with you even if there was a fuckload of cyborg t-rexes with death lasers >
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