Accidental Entrepreneurs

I'm going to be talking more about the entrepreneurial and business owners' mindset, precisely because it's not just relevant to entrepreneurs. In this age, most public education (to be differentiated from self-education) is geared toward the job mindset which doesn't adequately prepare one for the present or future, including within a job. The snippets below steer a bit more towards self-employment than entrepreneurship, but illustrate it's not your father's world.

In the New Normal, the distinctions between corporate employment and self-employment are diminishing rapidly. The survivors have been forced to be strategic about their time, more thoughtful about their decisions, and even more committed to work. They've learned to survive in a risky environment. In a nutshell, those are characteristics of entrepreneurs...

In a way, the New Normal is training us all to be entrepreneurs. Whether you work for a big company or for yourself, the success formula is pretty much the same. The big question is whether or not you are willing to be your own boss, deal with your own benefits, and find your own business opportunities. - The New Normal: Great Opportunities In A Time Of Great Risks, by Roger McNamee, former Silicon Valley venture capitalist

[Permanent employees] think they have job security. They don't. In fact, they have practically no job security, especially in California, where you can be fired whenever the company likes. Job security is the ability to get a job. [Permanent employees] don't have job security because they don't have the networks. They can't call someone and get a job tomorrow morning. They think they have job security, but it's on paper. Real job security is when you have a network of managers and recruiters where you simply call them and say, "Okay, my contract finished," and they say, "Great, I can place you somewhere tomorrow morning." - interview with contractor Jose Martinez in Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy by Stephen Barley and Gideon Kunda