My motivation - Choice & Control
A sidebar from our regular programming :)
This article is more personal and less amusing than I’d normally write, but it follows on from the decisions I’ve made in the last 12 months or so - and therefore it feels important to write it, even if nobody ever reads it!
Choice & Control beats money as a motivator - hands down.
Choice & Control is why I left full time employment and started a business - 23 years ago
Choice & Control is why I let my staff go last summer and went back to basics
Choice & Control beats everything else as a way of thinking about your career.
Sorry for the dogmatic starting point, but sometimes needs must 🙂 - let me explain.
When I had a job in the 80’s and 90’s, I lived with what I assume is the same pressure as people in their 30’s have today. Sell more, do more, work more - or you won’t get promoted, won’t get that pay rise, won’t get that next job, won’t impress the boss who ends up making those decisions…
And it’s stressful, because in the end you have no control. If you work for a dickhead (or even someone lovely who can’t find the money) - you won’t earn any more than you are earning. That house, that baby, that wedding... they’re all dependent on moving upwards financially.
I married a wonderful woman who was as hungry as me. We liked the good things, and through both luck and hard work we’d bought a house, gained a dog, and we were making our employers a great deal of money. But I couldn’t sleep... I constantly felt that despite being good, the boss I had could bin me in an instant, and leaping forward to me as a 55 year old sales director I could see that at once I was older I’d become less and less employable.
So - I’d had an idea for a business, which gave me control back. 3 bosses instead of one... if I got fired I’d still have work, so after a few attempts to summon up the guts I bit the bullet. I only resigned when I had three clients though - zero risk! Plus, if I got it right I’d be able to choose clients, choose my bosses... no more alphas offloading their sales growth targets onto me to take on solo.
It was dreamy to be honest. We did good work, we won clients through that good work, those clients shared my values of “selling without selling”, and they were good at what they did too - IndigoBlue, Javelin, E2X, Peer 1 Hosting, some truly brilliant businesses who we really helped to grow.
10 years in with three young kids now, the business grew around me. I’d tried to have no plan, no ambition, but the thing had ideas of its own. Suffice to say that by May 2025 we’d worked for nearly 1,000 clients over 23 years - run 800+ events etc. etc.
The downsides? I wasn’t a very good MD, I was solely responsible for all revenue and overhead, and with a staff of 30 people I had no choice or control any more. I worked for the staff, and frankly in the end could not really see how it might come back. Selling the business wasn’t an answer either - who needs a 3yr earn-out with NO control... i know how that story ends.
But - I like to work. I love the content I now produce, I enjoy more than anything the Commerce Futures Community i’ve built, and I also get a big kick out of creating conference agendas - and of course hustling and making recommendations for vendors to brands... so I’ve gained my control back... I choose what I do and who I work for, Not only that, but I continue to tell the truth as I’ve done throughout my time as a business owner. Every salesperson I know in employment loses that luxury the moment they take the first paycheck.
I hope people who were in my position back in the 2001 read this... if you’re thinking about starting your own thing for the reasons I’ve outlined... give me a call - I’d love to explain.
Jamie
NB - Next week we’ll be back to our regular programming - and I’ll try to synchronise the social channels better.
