| Being a spare room entrepreneur is more than just a | | | | expresses who we are. |
| way of making a living, it is a way of living your life. | | | | Of course, we need to compromise; we can't expect |
| It isn't an easy way to live. In the past, being in | | | | always to be doing what we love. Striving for balance |
| business independently was the norm, and people | | | | in our lives is a never-ending challenge. Most of us |
| typically worked and lived in the same place. That | | | | discover that we must establish clear boundaries |
| isn't the case today, when most people are | | | | between our personal lives and our careers in order |
| employees. Everyone from the tax collector to our | | | | to preserve our health, our families, and our sanity. |
| mothers would understand us better if we would just | | | | Nevertheless, even those who draw that line most |
| go out and get a job. | | | | distinctly still view their businesses as embodiments |
| Moreover, many of us who choose independence | | | | of their personal talents and values. |
| make the further decision to stay small. This | | | | It is true that there are also many employees who |
| contradicts a popular conception of entrepreneurship, | | | | hope that their work will utilize their talents and |
| which holds that everyone wants to run a big | | | | enable them to have a lasting and positive impact on |
| business and get rich. If you want to be a spare | | | | the world. In general, though, our culture doesn't |
| room entrepreneur, then, get ready to | | | | support such aspirations. We are encouraged to view |
| bemisunderstood. | | | | our paycheck as full recompense for our labors, while |
| When I talk about spare room entrepreneurs, I often | | | | personal satisfaction is to be found in our private |
| find myself describing what we aren't. We aren't | | | | lives, which will be made more elaborate, exciting and |
| unemployed. We aren't between jobs. We don't loll | | | | fulfilling by all that money can buy. |
| around all day in our pajamas. We aren't failing just | | | | During an airplane flight, I read an article in a business |
| because we're not taking on new employees and | | | | magazine. It argued that seeing your business as an |
| tripling our business each year. We aren't idle just | | | | outgrowth of yourself is a sickness. The article said |
| because we're home, nor, by contrast, are we | | | | that we should view our businesses solely as ways |
| workaholics just because our home lives and our | | | | to make a lot of money as quickly as we can. Then |
| productive lives frequently overlap. | | | | we should use that money to live the lives we want. |
| It is more difficult, given that spare room | | | | For some this might be relaxation on a small tropical |
| entrepreneurs are so disparate and represent so | | | | island, but it could also mean writing a novel, engaging |
| many different, strongly held views, to make a | | | | in philanthropy, living a life of prayer and |
| positive statement of what we are. | | | | contemplation, or playing the stock market. |
| My interviewing convinces me, however, that we do | | | | This argument is attractive because it identifies |
| have some important common characteristics. One is | | | | entrepreneurship with the core beliefs of our society |
| that we are impatient. We want to do what we | | | | about getting and spending. Moreover, it feeds into |
| want to do when we want to do it, without waiting | | | | our fantasies of riches and freedom. It implies that |
| for someone else to give us permission. And while | | | | fabulous wealth is lying around for the taking, |
| anxieties and insecurities are our frequent | | | | available to all. I know I'd love to have enough |
| companions, we have a very high estimation of our | | | | money to realize all my dreams, and so would the |
| own abilities. We're people who don't exactly fit in, | | | | rest of the people in this world. |
| and are proud not to. We may make our own | | | | But I also understand enough about the culture I live |
| mistakes sometimes, but we despise making | | | | in to know that I would then begin to have more |
| somebody else's. Most of us recall, even as children, | | | | expensive dreams, and that I'd have to keep laboring |
| having an independent streak and all the troubles and | | | | to realize those. I'd never be able to disentangle the |
| rewards that such a personality can bring. And while I | | | | price of my material indulgences from my value as a |
| haven't found any research that backs this up, many | | | | person. |
| of us come from families with members who were in | | | | Our lives consist not just in how we spend our |
| business for themselves. | | | | money but also, and probably more crucially, in what |
| What are we looking for is money, naturally, but we | | | | we do to earn it. Our work is the way in which we |
| shouldn't be too quick to accept that as the only | | | | have an impact on our place and our times. We |
| answer. For all the people in this book, business is | | | | express ourselves in the world through our work. |
| more than making money. It is how they express | | | | You can't simply avert your eyes from what you do |
| themselves in the world. They can't say that what | | | | and still be the sort of person you want to be. You |
| they do is just a job--because it is not just a job. | | | | can't just buy a good life. You have to live a good |
| What we are looking for, I think, is integrity. We are | | | | life. And though many of us might shy away from |
| seeking to integrate all our interests, talents, | | | | such grand pronouncements, living a good life is what |
| personality, and character into a way of life that | | | | most spare room entrepreneurs are trying to do. |