Excerpt from Chapter 11: "Own Your Own Business"

No, this section is not in the wrong book. Do you think, because you are "employed" by a company that hands out paychecks, the concept of owning your own business does not apply to you? Think again. Think hard. Think beyond what you've thought before.

"BUSINESS." What does it mean? Well, let's simply break it down: busy-ness — the act of being busy. Do you stay busy? Do you engage in activities all day long in your workplace which keep you busy? O.K., then there is your busy-ness. We each have our own busy-ness. The question is, how much do you own your own business?

Ownership is an interesting concept. It puts you in charge. Rather than being dependent upon something or someone greater than you, ownership puts full responsibility for what you produce squarely in your lap. Along with that responsibility, however, comes the opportunity for great reward. Consider all the entrepreneurs out there creating their own companies. It's the old tradeoff of risk and return: the more we take responsibility for our own success and assume the onus of producing results, the greater, more satisfying the potential rewards.

We all won't become another Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, and "owning your own business" does not even mean starting a company. (If everyone started a firm, there would be nobody to work for anyone else — then I'd be out of a job!). You bought a book about using headhunters wisely because you work for someone else, right? Nothing wrong with working for someone else. But I am asking you to consider that you already have your own company: [YOUR NAME], Inc. After all, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines "incorporated" as "united in one body." I am asking you to adopt the mindset that you are self-employed. I am suggesting that, to the degree that you, as an employee, own your own busy-ness, you will reap greater rewards, because staying busy doing anything for anyone without always fully knowing your value and options is not good business.

Don't be easy pickings — own your own business. What do I mean by that? Just this: you have certain assets, right? As a professional employee, much less as a human being? Those assets could be your award-winning sales ability, your keen and persuasive public-relations skills, your ability to multi-task the elements of a busy desk, your fluency with programming code in the most difficult of computer languages, your knack for hiring the right person for the right job, your unique and motivating management style, your sense of numbers which has all the pieces of the financial puzzle come together, your engineering acumen in the face of the most challenging circumstances…I could go on, and I've only touched on professional abilities here — not to mention innate, personal strengths which single you out as a unique, special person.

So let's accept that you have certain "assets." Well, what does a business do with its assets? It deploys them in such a way as to maximize their profitability, right? The success of an enterprise depends most on its ability to utilize its assets, to "employ" them, to invest them wisely to reap the highest return. In the world of finance, it's called Return on Investment (ROI). The higher the ROI for a particular group of assets, the more successful the business — enhancing the owner's equity and causing happier owners, stockholders, etc.

You, a self-employed business owner, invest your assets in the employment "market." Whether you invest them here or there makes all the difference in the ROI you will receive. You might consider your own business's ROI as Return on Effort (ROE) or Return on Ability (ROA). Your owner's equity, or "career equity," will be impacted by your choice among investment opportunities. The degree to which you own your own business and, therefore, focus on managing your assets most effectively, is the degree to which you will get the most career satisfaction — and profit. So, the question becomes:

When used responsibly, recruiters can be viewed as brokers — investment advisors showing you the myriad career investment opportunities available. You put your paycheck, your money, in the bank so it can be managed by someone else, enabling you to deal with other things, right? Maybe you send it to your stockbroker so she can put it in the market to net you the highest return. Whatever you do with it, you place it in someone else's hands so you can focus on what you do best. There is nothing different about using a good headhunter to help you invest your employable assets.

For more excerpts, see the book's Appendices
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Important: There is no intention in these excerpts, in the book itself, or elsewhere on this site, to render professional career services. The purpose is simply to educate and entertain. For expert assistance,we recommend the services of an appropriate professional.