In this episode of the MFCEO Project, we discuss the difference between owning your own business and being an employee in a company. You may not be able to own a business, but you can be the CEO of your own company.
00:00:18.240You're listening to the MFCEO Project.
00:00:20.280I'm your host, Andy, and I am the motherfuckin' CEO.
00:00:24.380Guys, this is an entrepreneurial podcast.
00:00:26.720One of the biggest things we struggle with as a podcast in getting this message out is helping people understand that even though you may not own a business, you may not be a CEO, you have to look at your life as if you're an entrepreneur, okay?
00:00:46.080You are the CEO of you, and I want you to be the motherfuckin' CEO of you, which means you go through life with confidence, you go through life with swagger, you go through life having fun.
00:00:56.600Enjoying yourself and being very successful in the meantime.
00:01:00.740Now, a lot of the things that we talk about on the podcast do have to do with people who own companies.
00:01:07.620They're people who are legitimate CEOs, presidents, high-level executives, entrepreneurs, and today I want to talk to you guys who are employees.
00:01:18.280I want to talk to you guys who might be at the bottom entry-level positions of a company, okay?
00:01:24.720So it's going to be a little bit different of a thing.
00:01:28.440When you start out, and a lot of guys feel hopeless because of this, okay?
00:01:33.680They feel like, man, I'm at the bottom.
00:01:37.160It's going to take me X amount of time to get ahead, or I can never get ahead, or I can't see where I'm going to fit in in this company long-term.
00:01:44.700And a lot of that comes from frustration because of lack of patience.
00:01:50.960On the other hand, there is a lot of jobs out there that you might be working that have no future for you, okay?
00:01:59.000And today I want to talk about the difference between those two things.
00:02:03.080You may not be somebody who's going to own your own business, and that's okay.
00:02:07.440Not everybody can do that, and not everybody is going to do that.
00:02:11.200In fact, the statistics show most people aren't.
00:02:14.780Most people are going to have quote-unquote regular jobs.
00:02:18.560So if most people are going to have quote-unquote regular jobs, it's important for you guys listening to understand that which jobs are going to be the ones that are going to be right for you.
00:02:31.700And I want to give you a couple things to think about today, all right?
00:02:34.940Now, when you're getting into a company and you're at the bottom level, there's a couple key things that you want to be focused on.
00:02:43.240Number one, you want to focus on does this company have upside, okay?
00:02:49.280What is the upward mobility of my opportunity in this company?
00:02:56.180And guys, there's a lot of companies out there that just aren't going to allow you to move up.
00:03:01.820Because they're already established, they're already big, they already have as much growth as they're going to have.
00:03:08.140And you may move up to, you know, you may not be the lowest guy on the totem pole, and you may move up to the next position, assistant associate director of the associate's assistant to social media and newsworthy information assistant.
00:03:24.200But, dude, that's not where you want to fucking be.
00:03:27.060You want to be able to move up into a high-level, high-value, high-pay position, a career opportunity if you're going to trade years of your life for that.
00:04:38.240So you guys have to be smart enough and on top of your game and aware enough to be able to see through that nonsense and actually pay attention to what the company is doing, not what they're saying.
00:04:52.620Because it's real easy to promise a pie in the sky.
00:04:56.080It's real easy to promise all this shit.
00:04:58.660But when you look at the reality of the situation, you have to be able to make the decision if the company is actually going to follow through on those promises, is the company going to actually grow, is the company going to actually take care of me, do they care about me, do they care about my family, do they care about other people's family, do they care about other people in the company.
00:05:19.180And you have to be able to evaluate that on your own because the company is going to fucking lie to you.
00:05:44.320You have to take the position of I'm interviewing the company.
00:05:49.180And I'm not saying you walk in the fucking interview and you say, oh, hey, I'm fucking interviewing you because, dude, they're going to tell you to get fucked.
00:05:56.280But what I am saying is that once you're in the company and once you're, you know, dedicating your blood, sweat, and tears and life to a company, you have to be able to evaluate whether or not this company actually fucking cares about you or not.
00:06:26.160Do they show a history of telling the truth?
00:06:30.220Do they show a history of taking care of their employees?
00:06:32.420Or are they just blowing a bunch of bullshit up your ass so they can get you in their system for six years or a year or two years and let you just pour in all your hard sweat and labor?
00:06:43.620Because I think that as a CEO, this is something that I feel like most employees are concerned with and what holds them back from giving their all.
00:06:54.900And when you don't give your all, it doesn't matter what position or what company you're with, you're not going to be successful.
00:07:01.320And what I've seen happen many, many times is that people lose trust in a company so they don't give their all and then the company says, hey, you're a shitty worker and then they get fired.
00:07:13.320It's a vicious cycle that people get into.
00:07:15.400So what I'm trying to get you guys to understand is that if you're picking the right company, you should feel good about going all in for that company knowing that in the next 10 to 15 years, you're going to have a legitimate, well-paying, important, valuable part of that company.
00:07:32.620And if you're not, if you don't see yourself doing that in 10, 15 years with a company, you're in the wrong fucking company.
00:08:20.100Because here's the danger in that, guys.
00:08:22.060When you try to be just like so-and-so, like a lot of people, they'll come and pitch me ideas for companies.
00:08:27.560And they'll say, Andy, I've got this great idea.
00:08:31.380And the first thing out of their mouth is, you know, it's just like Uber, but it's this.
00:08:36.640Or it's just like Best Buy, but it's this.
00:08:41.180And they have a plan in their mind in the same space.
00:08:46.400And they're trying to be just like this other company.
00:08:50.280And guys, here's the problem with that.
00:08:51.760And this goes for the same thing if they're always trying to copy other companies that are ahead of them in the game.
00:08:57.120Guys, when you fucking copy somebody else, realize that you're copying their decisions from two, three, sometimes five years ago.
00:09:06.860And what that ultimately means, because that's how long it takes the end product for the public to see, to materialize.
00:09:13.480What that ultimately means is that you're always one, two, three, four, five years behind the leader in the company.
00:09:19.520And if you're an employee and you're in a model like that and you work for someone who thinks a good idea is to take someone else's shit and just rip it off,
00:09:28.020you're always going to be five years behind, too.
00:09:31.760So why would you waste the next five, ten years of your life going to battle with someone who doesn't fucking get it and is never going to get it?
00:10:04.320Understand that even if you pick the perfect company to be a part of and you pick the perfect job to take,
00:10:11.460you've got to understand that building a national or international brand is going to take time.
00:10:19.300Now, good thing for you is it takes less time than ever.
00:10:21.960But the important thing here is to pay attention to the commitment that the owners, the CEOs, and the decision makers have made to that growth and to their employees.
00:10:33.560If that's there and you've seen a history of that and they continue to show that that's the direction they're going, you're in a good fucking spot.
00:10:41.540You can feel good about pouring your heart and soul into something.
00:10:43.840But if it's just a pie in the sky promise and a bunch of bullshit that someone's thrown in your face to get you to hustle as hard as you can for the next year or two years,
00:10:53.620dude, in two years you're going to be out of a fucking job being pissed off that you wasted the last two years.
00:10:59.500So I'm trying to save you guys some time and give you guys something to think about.
00:11:03.200Now, constantly be evaluating and be aware of the position you're in, the direction the company's going, the role you're playing in the company,
00:11:13.980and understand that you need to avoid the vicious cycle of what I just talked about, the entrepreneur.
00:12:34.700Do you see yourself fitting into that model?
00:12:36.800Do you see yourself enjoying that model?
00:12:38.940Do you see yourself doing this for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years?
00:12:42.440Where is the company going to be in 40 years?
00:12:44.620Guys, there's so many things you can ask yourself, but you have to make sure that you plant your fucking ass on the right rocket ship.
00:12:53.440Because if you're on the wrong one, it's out of your control, and that's the bottom line.
00:12:58.580So, guys, that's my talk for you guys today.
00:13:01.860A little bit different than a typical Thursday Thunder.
00:13:04.300This is aimed towards you young guys who are, you know, you're not owning your own business, you're not owning your own shit, but you're trying to find the right one to commit to.
00:13:15.200Dude, you've got to do it with your heart, man, but you've also got to do it with your brain.
00:13:19.480Don't let people take advantage of you.