All posts in Leadership

The 99% Don’t Own Businesses

by Nate Ritter on 1/5/2012 in Business, Entrepreneurship, Leadership with 1 Comment

Now that the news channels have let go of making the #Occupy stuff, I feel like I can talk about it a bit. This post won’t come anywhere near what I believe as a whole about it, but we’ll make this a start of dialogue now that we can all be a little more rational.

One interesting fact Scott Shane mentioned recently was the “Top One Percent” (in the US) own businesses. Honestly, I’m not surprised.  But, it is nice to bring it to be explicit and have this knowledge at our the forefront of our brains.

Source: Created from data from the IRS Statistics of Income

Think about it.  There’s all these people who are running around ticked off (with no particular common reason, which is a different post altogether), and nobody is at work. Either they are out of jobs, or think their particular job is inconsequential enough to ignore for a few days, weeks, or months.

Regardless of the things they’re rallying against, one thing is certain.  Hopefully everyone can now put two and two together and figure out that owning your own business is truly the only way to have any possible control over your own financial security.

Screw the banks.

Screw the bailouts.

Obviously there are macro-economics in play here which matter also in the long run. But, from the standpoint of the individual, voting with your jobs – perhaps by not having one – seems to continue to be the epicenter of change.

Trust me, there’s a movement going on.

It’s not Occupy. Occupying is passive.

It’s Become.  Becoming is active.

Become a business owner.  It’s tough, but you need to be tough.  The days of taking what people give you (a job) is over.  Jobs aren’t secure.  The only person who’s secure is the owner.  Become an owner.  Become the bourgeoisie.  You can be what you want to in this country, so Become.

Stop Occupying.

Create Your Life

by Nate Ritter on 12/21/2011 in Entrepreneurship, Leadership with 4 Comments

Entrepreneurship is awesome. It’s freedom. It’s creativity. It’s creation. It’s visionary.  But, but it’s not without it’s faults.

Tuesday night, Tilly and I met with some of our closest friends – a husband and wife who we’ve been blessed to live life with.  Both are leaders and visionaries. The husband is a close friend with an amazing heart and powerfully driven entrepreneur, and the wife is one of the most inspiring, leadership-driving, beauty-loving person I’ve had the pleasure of spending a dinner with.

In our conversations, our personal lives naturally mingle with our professional and Tuesday was no exception.  One of my takeaways from the evening was the following:

Entrepreneurs create.  Everything else (even the money) takes second seat to the act of creation.  It’s one of the biggest pleasures we get out of having the freedom to do what we want, how we want.

But the number one problem with entrepreneurs is being able to say “no” to things. It’s what breaks up marriages, ruins friendships, and makes us unhealthy while we work at our desks all day.  Many of us understand the power of saying “no”, of focusing.  We don’t, however, understand what this kind of inherent trait does to us.

It means we’re in a perpetual state of reaction.  And, the irony of it all, is that reaction is not creation.

The solution is this one tiny phase.  “Create your life.”

Notice, it’s not “create your lifestyle.”  That’s a given. We all work towards that.  But creating your life is a different thing altogether. It means creating a structure, a foundation, by which we will choose to live our lives on a daily basis.  Not because we want more structure, but because we want to be free to live our lives the way we want.

Seriously, what’s the point in being an entrepreneur if you’re simply reacting to everyone else all day long.  Create boundaries.  Create the life you’ve wanted.

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