Slightly Askew

It’s a free country

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

“It’s a free country.”

It’s a favoured riposte amongst today’s yoof when some old fogey points out that their twenty-strong huddle may be an inconvenience to the rest of the world.

Let’s hope that these same teenagers remember that phrase when it comes to choosing their career path.

Because when I was at school, the idea of starting your own business was a non-starter. You were not to entertain such thoughts. Multi-millionaires like Richard Branson start their own business. Mere mortals like us don’t.

Our education system must get away from this idea that starting your own business is synonymous with taking over the world and making a frigging fortune.

Yes, some people do make lots of money. But many business owners make a decent if not extraordinary wage doing something they love, by doing it better than most other businesses.

And let’s face it: all of us, on a daily basis, think we can do better than a business we come into contact with.

Maybe you can’t do it better on a grand scale, and maybe you can’t afford 30 second slots during X-Factor, but if you can do something remarkably better than other companies, people will talk and your customer base will grow.

You don’t have to run a business how people run businesses on TV.

You don’t have to wear a suit, drive a like a prat, and be an all-round arsehole to be a ‘boss’.

You don’t have to have a row of PCs under fluorescent lighting in an uninspiring room to call it an office.

And you needn’t have offices in all the major cities, a workforce of thousands and a turnover of billions to be a success.

You can run your business however you bloody-well like.

It is, after all, a free country.