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Behind Every Good Entrepreneur is a Bad Employment Story...

By Jacqueline Drew
START Marketing Inc.
www.startmarketing.com

I have a theory: Behind just about every real entrepreneur, is a bad employment story. In fact, I think there are often a string of bad employment stories.  Because to get to the point where a person actually gives up the security of employment in favour of the risk and poverty of starting a business,  the employment situation has to be pretty darned miserable….to a point where the mistrust of all employers exceeds the hope that a good  enough job will ever be achieved.

For fun, I thought I would share my own top 10 bad employment experiences. 

1. An equipment assembly job where the training program was so bad I had about 50 parts left over at the end of my shift.  Unfortunately it was in a hospital.
2. A manager who told me that if I could put on my eye makeup, I should be able to figure out the procedures myself. Same hospital.
3. A boss who enjoyed, at length, describing his religious beliefs that all women should be obeying the men in their lives, and that I was far too difficult and contrary. Of course I disagreed.
4. A supervisor who refused to give me any technical training, who told me I would never succeed in life because I was so poor at receiving instructions.
5. A sales bonus system that was implemented by a boss who then made claims on my accounts to ensure that I couldn't ever reach the bonus.
6. Experiencing the elation of landing a major client, and the defeat of being told that the job would be late, indefinitely, all in the same week.
7. Being given lectures on how important it was to get more sales calls done, while being told not to bring in too much business, all in the same conversation.
8. After having a baby and wanting to rejoin the work force, being told by a female employer that flexible hours would disrupt her workplace and set a bad example for the other employees. But otherwise she was ready to hire me.
9. As a new hire sent off for 6 weeks of job training, being told when I got there that the training program was in fact 6 months long.  Then wasting about 5 of 6 months out of town while the Canadian and US head offices fought about what the training should have been.
10. Receiving a layoff notice from a top “Fortune 100” employer when I was almost 7 months pregnant.

So there you have it.  One person unlucky in the world of employment, one determined entrepreneur.  But at least it's inspired me to ensure my company is one of the kindest, most people-sensitive companies around. So I guess I only have all my bad former employers to thank…and maybe some day I'll get around to doing just that. Yeah, right!