Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Dive in before you're ready and you won't have the tools and experiences you need to meet the challenges as they arise.
Some people learn the ropes of entrepreneurship by through a test fire, but there is an easier and more effective route:employment in the company. While many entrepreneurs hate the idea of working for someone else, the lessons I learned working at Goldman Sachs provided context and clarity that have greatly benefited me on my entrepreneurial journey. br />Related: 6 guiding principles to simplify your entrepreneurial journey
No matter how many books you read or how many conferences you attend, nothing adequately replicates the value of hands-on experience. During my time as an employee, I've seen countless examples of what works — and what doesn't — as my colleagues and bosses collide and collide. As a green recruit, my roles and expectations were constantly changing, but each of my experiences helped me understand how to run a business before I even knew what products or services my future business would provide.
I learned dozens of important lessons during my time at Goldman Sachs, but these four stood out to me as the fundamentals every entrepreneur should know:
1. Discipline
Larger organizations naturally create more social pressure. When you are around people who adhere to certain expectations, you also strive to meet those expectations. And to do that, you need to analyze how and why those standards exist. During this process, you will learn more about the norms of the business world and how it works so that when you do it yourself, you understand what you, your customers and your employees can and should expect from one on the other.
Working for a company allowed me to learn to follow the processes and programs before embarking on the development of my own. Many entrepreneurs try to reinvent the wheel because they believe they have to do everything differently to be successful. This is not the case. The thing is, “best practices” are only good for a reason, and it helps to find ways to innovate within –– not outside of –– proven methodologies. When you learn to operate within these tested and established models, you learn to see the value of existing processes.
Business discipline has helped me understand why certain standards retain their value for so long. I reiterated these processes after I left, but rarely felt the need to replace them entirely.
For example, Goldman Sachs uses a very structured review system. Most startups overlook the importance of feedback, but I had learned that soliciting employee input is the best way to stay ahead of the market. Today, my company holds anonymous 360-degree feedback sessions twice a year, and I use them to guide the direction of our growth.
2. Resilience
The investment bank earned its reputation as a meat grinder the honest way. During my time at Goldman Sachs, we were working 100 hour weeks and if we had to leave before 10 p.m. on a Friday, we considered it a win.
When you join an environment with high expectations, you have to push yourself to understand how resilient you can be. It's a grueling test, but as you dig deeper, you learn that you can do more than you ever thought possible. Just as people push themselves in competitive sports and marathons, tough corporate life forces you to challenge your mental, emotional, and physical limits. By learning this lesson when you're young, you can stay confident through the difficult times you'll face on the other side. 'investment. There are many corporate jobs that may be too soft to contribute to entrepreneurial resilience. If your employer only asks you to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and allows you several hours off a day, you're not learning to struggle, you're learning to be complacent. Humans crave stability, but business owners don't have that luxury. Entrepreneurs need to be familiar with mistakes and setbacks. Because entrepreneurship is inherently unpredictable, people who live in chaotic environments are more often successful.
To truly gain the level of resilience that will serve you well in an entrepreneurial role down the road, you have need an intense corporate environment that demands a higher level. It's what makes you successful when you go it alone.
3. Social Intelligence
Office politics and social intelligence are close cousins. You can't navigate dangerous waters without a little tact. While you may not want or necessarily become a master manipulator to successfully run your startup, you must learn to handle sticky social situations with grace and foresight.
Deeply hierarchical organizations like corporations make excellent training grounds for developing social intelligence. When you're an entry-level employee, you have to learn how to make people like you. You also have to work in larger teams and find the delicate balance between standing out and crossing the line.
At Goldman Sachs, I watched how the leaders above me interacted and learned from each other. others within the parameters of operational command. They did not march against each other by assigning tasks to someone else's subordinates. They operated within the system and made sure everyone felt respected. Instead of learning that lesson the hard way – hurting someone's feelings and having to make amends – I started my business with a broad understanding of how to work well with others. High performers in corporate environments learn to prove their worth without a ton of one-on-one time with their superiors. As a business leader, you need your employees to respect your abilities and your vision, even if you don't see them every day. Fresh college graduates rarely possess these social skills, but the demands of a corporate environment can transform you into a more capable leader.
4. Cultivation
Don't wait to invest in culture. Of all the lessons I've learned in the corporate world, this is perhaps the most important.
When you work in a large organization, you see how difficult it is to make ensure that everyone is aligned and working towards the same goals. Bad cultures create friction, while good cultures allow teams to become more than the sum of their parts.
A goal that goes beyond personal well-being goes a long way in creating a culture positive. In finance, most of us wanted to make as much money as possible, regardless of how that mission affected the people around us. As I got older, I saw how quickly this environment can become toxic and superficial. In this case, I learned from a large organization by observing both its best practices and its dysfunction.
Today, I reflect on how my corporate culture is forming. For example, we host an internal journal club every two months. The company buys a book on a professional or personal development topic, then we buy pizza for everyone and discuss our takeaways. The goal is to get people – whether or not they've been through the book – talking about ideas and takeaways from other businesses that might be meaningful to our organization. Little things like that have helped us build a sustainable and successful business.
I'm not saying you have to put your entrepreneurial dream on hold to earn your stripes in a corporate office. If you have a brilliant idea and the tools to execute it, then go for it. However, don't force yourself to get into the entrepreneurial spirit either. You can learn a lot by spending time in the life of the company. After absorbing the lessons of a challenging business environment, you will have great confidence and a better understanding of what it takes to start your own successful business.
