David v Goliath
Through most of my working years, I have been associated with small- to medium-sized firms, believing that they would offer me a much richer experience and allow me to hone my skills in many different areas. The trade-off is, of course, the kind of exposure that a large enterprise provides, with its systems & processes and scale of operations and its ability to build “stable”, well-charted, careers.
I have tried the large-enterprise route too. And come to the realization that the two represent two very different personalities. Neither route is more right or wrong. But the probability of success with any one approach will depend strongly on the kind of person *you* are.
Entrepreneurship is not for every one. It’s a different kind of world that you get into. And it’s better to understand it somewhat, before you take the crucial step.
Dan Bricklin summed it up best when he explained the difference between the Davids and Goliaths of the working world :
In big business, when you need to cross a river, you simply design a bridge, build it, and march right across.
But in a small venture, you must climb the rocks. You don’t know where each step will take you, but you do know the general direction you are moving in. If you make a mistake, you get wet. If your calculations are wrong, you have to inch your way back to safety and find a different route.
And, as you jump from rock to slippery rock, you have to *like* the feeling.
Until the next post on this subject, read this excellent series on Entrepreneurship by Rajesh Jain to know more.
An all too familiar territory.Its an interesting spectrum actually. At one end I find myself only dabbling in the unknowns and the untowards; at the other, I find myself quite a veteran.I for one, believe that it takes a break to make a successful career.This break may present itself in the form of an opportunity to employ your already acquired skills or it may present itself in an opportunity to ass-lick your immediate superior or anyone else in the high ranks.My blood does not agree with licking, so I find myself still at the end of the long line of optimistic wait, sprinkled with some amount of wishful thinking.Also, I often feel, that we mistake taking a path, with succumbing to sequences set logically (purely by virtue of their logic, not ours) by our predecessors. So when step 3 does not happen after a certain amount of time, we invariably declare ourselves as having taken the wrong path, thus shunning our own propensity to deliver by exploiting trial and error.Life is much more complicated than it was 10 years ago. And each complication gives rise to multiple unknowns, whether we detect each one of them or not.Its difficult to chart an exact course and follow that altruistically, without knowing that you will be stepping on people’s shoes, tummy and intellectual well-being.There are some who have known to be disillusioned by the corporate life as well as others who suffer the miasma every other day in the confines of a gala in an industrial estate of a small floundering outfit.Personally, large edifices and crystal clear glass facades can only be awe inspiring, but never inspiring intellect. Its the people that you meet up with that really makes the difference and help you decide how much more you want to do in life.More to come maybe…
I work for a young company now and enjoy being a part of the organisation because of its progressive culture,well defined policies and strong systems.it is generally held out to be true that as organisations grow larger they lose the nimbleness and the close bonding that its employees take comfort in.many large organisations take note of these issues and strive to create those conditions inherent in those of a smaller size. Growth in size and scale of operations has its inevitable effects.it is a necessary evil. as the author of this site correctly pointed out,neither kind of organisation is essentially superior to the other.your career path is your choice and it had better be lest you should regret later for the poor decisions that were inflicted on you by someone else.the examples of bad companies in either category is legion, so you ought to look out for those.good companies in my experience tend to adopt the best of both worlds and are acutely aware of the shortcomings and advantages of their size.as an individual you should seize opportunities to fulfill your long-term plan.these opportunities could leverage your potential value and experiential value.as you start your career,you are hired on the basis of the perception of your potential to contribute to the growth of the organisation.with the passage of time you gain experience that becomes attractive to employers in the same or related field of work.at any point of time after you have begun your career you hold both potential and experiential value.you are more likely to get opportunities based on your potential value in small organisations where hiring is not conducted on strictly formulated criteria so perceptions of your worth with a large dose of discretion take the upper hand in contrast to the well documented practice in corporate juggernauts.Build your career experience to a plan keeping your ears to the ground on your value and do not be daunted by change whenever it happens..I recommend a visit to http://www.5patterns.com to learn about a book that should be useful reading. My attention is,currently, on that book