4 Reasons Why & How Our Day Jobs (Still) Have a Place in Our Lives

I’m being real here

I’ve been there.

Entrepreneurship can be glamorous. Introducing ourselves as entrepreneurs, the founder of the company, or the C.E.O. of our startup fills our chest with puff.

We stand taller, speak louder, and smile brighter.

Yellow teeth can sparkle brightly in photos, too.

But.

It is also true that that path is littered with setbacks, disappointments, lack of support, and loneliness.

These are experiences college never prepared us for.

And our day jobs can.

From College to Workplace

I graduated from B-school.

We were educated on how to dig the hole where the gold is buried beneath.

We were, however, never taught how to identify potential sites to start digging.

Our day job fills that gap.

And you may ask.

What is that gap?

It refers to,

• Selling to prospects and clients,
• Retaining customers year after year,
• Developing products that customers want more of,
• Leading a team of average joes to hit our monthly targets,
• Become your team’s pillar of support when the going gets tough,
• Request for funding from venture capitalists,
• Making hire and fire decisions,
• Making small talk.

The actual list is longer than this. You know that.

My point is this.

There is nothing wrong with the curriculum in B-school, or broadly speaking, all college degrees. They come with baked-in limitations. And it is up to us to identify where it falls short.

The experience we get in our workplace fills that gap.

1. Selling to Customers

I’ve been a consultant for 15 years.

I spent the past 7 years in sales.

Let me be transparent with you. Sales is the lifeblood of the company. It is commonly referred to as the topline in accounting.

That is apt.

To me, it is the top of the line.

Sales revenue represents cash coming in. We need it. Without it, there is no way we can pay our bills. Corporate bills aren’t small-ticket items, you know.

These items are expensive.

You know them, too.

• Marketing spending.
• Salaries for all departments.
• Procurement of assets and working equipment.
• Enterprise software subscriptions.
• Work claims and expenses.

You don’t want to bear this financial burden as the founder of your startup without honing your sales skills. Remember.

You must be the top salesperson in your own startup. No one else cares about financial viability more than you do.

If you cannot sell — You will bleed big money in your business.

Avoid that.

Instead, go get experience in sales. Learn to sell. Start from low-ticket 3-digit items. Then pitch for 5-digit, 6-digit, and 7-digit deals.

Get comfortable acquiring customers without worrying about bills.

The best sales school is in the sales department of your company.

2. Managing Human Relationships

Academic theories are useless… when it comes to office politics, client management, and team bonding.

We cannot learn from reading.

We must be in the trenches to…

• Enjoy the grumbles,
• Pretend not to be irritated,
• Carry the performance of our teams,
• Be accountable for mistakes,
• Make tough decisions,

… and to appreciate the psychological element of business.

Every individual is rightfully different. Finding team member(s) we can gel with is an art. Managing their expectations is the same.

Working with difficult-to-handle clients, colleagues, or bosses boosts our fluid intelligence.

You don’t experience that when you work for yourself.

3. Pushing Back

The workplace taught me the importance of 2 things.

• Saying yes.
• Saying no.

The former is critical for personal and professional growth.

The latter is instrumental to prioritization and focus.

The late Steve Jobs bet big on saying no.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.”

You have things to work on.

Others will come to pile another million to-do’s on your desk.

You must learn to plant a red flag deep in the ground, hold your defense, push back, and focus on delivering what you must.

This, to me, is the game we learn to play in our workplace.

This skillset or experience becomes handy when we handle future clients in our 1-person business.

4. Stability of Income

This point is highly underappreciated.

Everyone wants an explosive upside potential. But.

The nature of business is in its variability. Sales revenue goes up, and it comes down. Customer acquisition shoots up, and it falls. Profits pop. Profits drops.

The green shoot in business is a fixed salary.

You get your income, with certainty, at the end of the month.

The keyword is certainty.

It is a good thing.

You get stability in your cash inflow. You can use that cash to pay your bills and tide yourself through when there is a sales drought in your 1-person business.

You have less money stress.

The Close

Unpopular opinion.

Day jobs have a place in our lives.

I say so because our day jobs help us to,

• Sell better,
• Manage human relationships better,
• Get better at pushing back unrealistic expectations,
• Be financially covered with the stability of a monthly income.

All these points turn us into a better person, personally and professionally.

Don’t you think so?

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