When I was growing up (and maybe when you were too), there were two ways you could earn a living. You could have a job, or have a business. Two clear choices, work for a boss, or be the boss. Career guidance advice went something like this…

“Get good grades, to get a qualification, to get a job that enables you to ‘have a life’.”

The subtext was that whoever had the most security from Monday to Friday was the winner. While our teachers had good intentions they never once encouraged us to explore what our definition of ‘having a life’ was. Thirty years on I’m not even sure if asking us to think about work and life in that way would have been going far enough.

The truth is that you don’t have a career, or a business, or a life. You make it. You choose to be the kind of employee or boss that you want to be. You decide what sort of company you want to build, how you want to lead and what legacy you want to leave. And then you create it—actively and intentionally.

You bring it about. You make it happen.
You don’t wait for someone to give you permission to have it.

[Thanks James for inspiring the headline.]

Image by Christian Mayrhofer.