So, if you took my advice from a week ago and started thinking that your employer is a client, and you are self-employed, no doubt you have come up with some great ideas. You have gotten three attaboys, and they are saying things to you like “You really have blossomed in the last week...!”
Well, if not yet, then as soon as you have three attaboys for good work, good problem solving (because that is what the self-employed do for money) then do this: Monday morning, from work, call the owner of your boss’s toughest competitor.
You call from work because you are self employed, and you think and act like it.
You reach the secretary of the competitor. And you say, please give your boss a message: my name is (you) and I am the (fill in your job title) at the (name the company at which you labor.) I want to take your boss to coffee and tell him three problems I solved at (name the company where you are “employed,” or I should say “self-employed.”)
The boss either replies, or not.
If the boss replies, since in your mind you are self-employed, schedule the meet during working hours. If you have to take an afternoon off to drive across town, or 3 days off to fly to New York for the meeting, then do so, take some sick leave. When self-employed, you will often find yourself playing along with the petty rules of your clients (stop thinking “employer”). Get used to it.
Now you are probably thinking his kind of advice will get you more unemployed than self-employed. But bear with me... thinking this way is new, it is a transformation, stick with me till the end of this note. It does not hurt to read. Let me give you some deep background, to help orient you. There is the esoteric and the exoteric. The exoteric is the mind frame of almost everyone. The esoteric is the mind frame of a very select few. This personal transformation can be tricky, cause you are moving into an esoteric world in which you are not an employee, but self employed. The rest of the world is acting in an exoteric mindset, where you are viewed as an employee. When Joseph met Pharaoh, he gave Pharaoh esoteric ideas as solutions to problems. The ideas may have been exoteric among Israel, but they were esoteric in Egypt. You play it like Joseph.
But do let me address your “employment agreement” that you signed with those people from that exoteric world. Maybe you signed something stronger, like a non-compete or a non disclosure agreement. Three things:
1. Bodrin and Levine have laid out where on the east coast courts tend to enforce NDAs and NCAs, and their economies falter under lack of competition. West Coast judges tend not to enforce NDAs and NCAs, so creativity and the economy flowers on the west coast. Facebook moved to California because the East Coast is in decline, like Venice in the 1700s.
2. The NDA or NCA was signed as a condition of employment. You needed the job bad. So the NDA or NCA or both were signed under duress, and contracts signed under duress are null and void.
3. From the esoteric point of view, you are making a sales call to another potential client. From the exoteric point of view, the meeting with the other boss will look like a job interview. In every job interview, in the exoteric world, there is a discussion of what success you had at your last (or present) job, You will not get sued or violate any laws by sticking to “what I did for the other boss.” To all outsiders it looks like a job interview. No one is going to outlaw a job interview.
My opinion is under the ancient legal principle, lex dubia non obligat, no problem.
Now, so you meet with the boss of the other company. Your view on noncompete is esoteric, but you are talking to someone whose views are exoteric. The first thing you say is “Thank you for meeting with me. I have ground rules:
1. under no conditions will I disclose any trade secrets of my present associates.” He hears this as you are honorable and trustworthy in accordance with the law. Let him. You say this because you are honorable and trustworthy in accordance with self employment. Let people think what they want.
2. You say “I see myself as self-employed, and my current “employer” as merely another client. The world has changed and businesses cannot sustain the level of support that is mandated by the state. The employee is becoming extinct. We can die off, or adapt. I am adapting. I am sure, as a business owner yourself, like me, you understand.” Now this is critical, no matter what, this guy will not forget you. You are at least interesting.
3. Tell him the three things you did, subsequent to you “going native” and considering yourself self-employed, not an employee, that you did that helped your present client (the boss).
Let him listen, digest, ask questions, whatever.
When the topic is covered, you then say, “Please give me one problem you are experiencing in your business. The toughest nut you are trying to crack. And what I will do is think it over, study the problem, apply my intelligence and experience to the problem, and when I think I have my best solution thought out, I will give you my best advice, absolutely free.”
Now, what you are doing is taking a page form those heroes of the USA economy, the illegal drug dealers, people who assist those who are trying to be responsible for their own pain management, since our brutal medical system recognizes only a narrow category of pain. Self-medication is something outlawed in USA. These heroes always offer the first pill free, like a dotcom that offers free trial software.
The boss you are meeting with either gives you the problem to work on, or not. if yes, then work on it. If this offer goes well, you may pick up a second client.
Now, since I only deal in real world ideas, in the real world, every industry is a village, this guy is going to tell someone else about the coffee he had with you, and your ideas on “employee is over” and clients and self-employed and so on. One person talks to another. Every industry is a village. Soon enough your boss will hear about your moonlighting on the job. How should you handle that?
So your client (who thinks he is your boss) calls you into his office. He says ”I heard you met with my competitor.”
And you say “Yes... last Tuesday, in New York. I bought him coffee.”
And your boss is starting to get mad. “You claimed you were out sick.”
“Yes, but it is common practice to take sick time for other purposes, and if I revealed what I was doing, then the word might get out. You and I cannot have that.”
Now he is really getting mad.
“What did you talk to my competitor about?”
“O We talked about all the good things I have done for you.”
“Like what?” you client asks sarcastically.
This is a good time for you to remind your client (who thinks he is your employer) of all the good things you have done for him, just as he said in all those earlier attaboys.
Now he is well and truly angry, because his frame of reference is exoteric. He says something about ingratitude, disloyalty, whatever, but in any event, he starts talking about firing you.
And you cut him off and say, “But I did this for your benefit. “
And he says “And just how did your actions benefit me?”
You say, “Well, in 20 minutes and for a $4.00 starbucks, which I submitted as a reimbursable business expense, I got your toughest competitor to tell me what his #1 problem is, what keeps him awake at night, in effect his competitive weakness. ... and wait... what? You want to fire ME? You’ve got a sales manager who is costing us $240,000 a year who is clueless, has no idea what is going on in the market, and has no idea how to figure it out. In 20 minutes and for $4 I found out your competitors #1 weakness. Aren’t you considering firing the wrong person? Shouldn't you be firing HIM? You want me to leave and work for the other side?***
He says, “Wait ... what? You took sick leave and flew to New York to meet with my competitor to find out how we could be more competitive?”
You say... “Well, yes... “
This will give your client (who thinks he is your employer) something to think about.
It could be risky, but there it is. You already knew personal transformation takes personal risk.
Now, I’d even make it more risky. when in the conversation your client (who thinks he is your employer) says “Wait ... what? You took sick leave and flew to New York to meet with my competitor to find out how we could be more competitive?”
“Well, yes... I ‘d do that for any client.”
“Client? What do you mean?”
And then you explain you are no stinking employee, he is your client. You are self employed.
And explain how the world is changing, “I see myself as self-employed, and my current “employer” as merely another client. The world has changed and businesses cannot sustain the level of support that is mandated by the state. The employee is becoming extinct. We can die off, or adapt. I am adapting. I am sure, as a business owner yourself, like me, you understand.”
No one will disrespect you, but they will likely want you around for your ideas, in some capacity.
So he says, "Let me think about this."
And you say, "OK... should I go fire the sales manager?"
He'll say not, but rock your fearlessness.
In this way you are liberating yourself at the same time you bring down the evil capitalist corporate structure. When the people behind the iron curtain brought down the evil communist corporate structure, it was by esoteric thinking that they did it.
Monday contact your boss’s (who thinks he is your employer) number one competitors and set up a meet. Then email me with how it went.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
0 comments:
Post a Comment