Say the word “boss” and most people imagine a well-heeled executive, jetting between meetings and bellowing directives that a faithful group of employees dutifully carry out. Not exactly.
To me, being the boss more often than not has meant solitary hours contemplating challenges. It’s meant sleepless nights weighing options before making hard decisions that no one else wants to make and knowing that their success or failure is ultimately my responsibility. It’s meant sweating the details and spending more time working the counter in an apron to truly understand what our associates and customers experience than delivering investor presentations in a suit.
Don’t get me wrong – I wouldn’t trade being the boss for a minute. Even as I was working toward my MBA, I recognized that I had more in common with the guy who owned the nearby gas station than the peers who were nabbing jobs in consulting firms. But it’s important to be realistic as you set out to build a business. Here are some of the harder truths about calling the shots:
• Usually, the business owns you; you don’t own it. Forget 9 to 6, or even 6 to 9. Building a business is all-consuming — as in, it consumes all of your waking hours and many of the ones you should be sleeping. It’s with you in the car, the shower and on vacation. Most people who build businesses can neither turn off nor throttle down their commitment to their pursuit. For me, it’s an addiction, of sorts. I thrive on solving problems no one else can — and often those solutions begin to unfold while I’m running or sitting on the beach with my business challenges right by my side.It’s building a venture from the ground up and creating a profitable enterprise that not only provides others a livelihood, but gives them a community where they can flourish. And finally, it’s making a difference. I never set out to build a restaurant brand; I set out to impact the world by changing the way America eats. Being the boss is infinitely rewarding when you truly understand what you are working toward.
Originally published on Linkedin Pulse