In the past week-and-change, we had the incredible pleasure of welcoming Marc Mapes to the Cospace team. I’m a personal fan as he took the risk of playing with his name for his blog; where “SEO’Brien” has served me well – as much a handicap as a boon, you can’t argue with the genius of a personal brand like “Marc My Words.”
Now, I share a reference to Marc for a reason. This week, Forbes’ contributing writer Larissa Faw wrote an incredible piece about how Millennials are redefining the idea of a career. To simply appreciate her insight, answer this question of your own career, in the last couple years, vs. what it was 20, or maybe even only 10, years ago, “What do you do?”
As entrepreneurs, as an increasingly entrepreneurial society, we’re challenged with redefining what it means to work.
The answer to that question used to be simple writes Faw, “Individuals defined themselves by profession: teacher, engineer, pilot. Or by company: Con Edison, NASA, Kodak. But it was always one job, one identity.”
I’m reminded of a reaction I still get to my own LinkedIn profile, what exactly are you working on? Venture Capitalists will always question you with, “How much of your attention will this have?” When you’re on a job interview, have you ever dealt with a recruiter or employer trying to pigeon hole you in to a traditional “Marketing” or operations role? “I see you have 20 years of experience Mr. Jones but your consistency to hold a job in Marketing is a little questionable.”
What’s wrong with that?!
There are 84 MILLION entrepreneurs in the United States and as we continue to wrestle with unemployment, or more accurately, matching people will skills in need of work, to businesses and opportunities in need of talent, what we have to recognize is that people want to be entrepreneurs. There are three hundred and eleven million, five hundred and ninety-one thousand, nine hundred and seventy people in the United States today and, according to Gallup, Jay Ritter of the University of Florida, the U.S. Census Bureau, and Entrepreneur.com, EIGHTY FOUR MILLION define themselves as entrepreneurs. My math isn’t so good (I was pretty bored in school because they didn’t teach entrepreneurship) but I reckon that’s something like 27% of the US population… Let’s keep going with stats for a second, if onlyhalf of the US population works then 54% of everyone working is an entrepreneur. Over half of our working population needs to redefine how we work because they aren’t going to fit into the traditional convention of a job title or single employer.
I am a journalist, marketing consultant, and co-partner for an Internet company. All are equally important to my identity. And my Millennial-aged peers find themselves in similar situations. I don’t know any Millennial who self-identifies using only one “job.”
We’re wrestling with unemployment and yet we as a society continue to educate people to work from nine to five, through some structured organization, in a cubical, where the idea of workforce retention is to ensure that a ergonomics specialist is on staff so I can raise my desk to the right height. We’re trying to fit our traditional understanding of human resources in to jobs that probably shouldn’t even exist.
Troubling but what does that have to do with Marc Mapes?!
Millennials, according to Forbes’ Faw, are redefining their careers as hustlers. What makes a great entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are great hustlers. I like to think I’m a decent hustler. Marc is a hustler. The team behind Cospace: all hustlers. Our intern is one of the most incredible hustlers I’ve ever known (granted, he’s a Millennial); but Millennials aren’t the only ones redefining their careers as hustlers.
Ultimately, all employers need to realize that side hustles — be they profitable businesses or non-monetary hobbies — are advantageous, wrote Larissa Few. Added Ross Martin of Viacom’s trend-spotting and innovation division, “If I am in the t-shirt business and find out one of my employees has a successful blog, I need to say to myself, can we learn from what he is doing? How can we take what he is doing and do it here?”
Marc bought a new car recently so of course, our next trip to lunch somewhere predetermined that he was driving. The car starts and the music blasts. Marc has little kids. I have diverse music tastes that range from Zac Brown to Neil Diamond, to The Beatles, to Carly Rae Jepsen (you know what I’m talking about). I was a little surprised when A Tribe Called Quest blasted from the speakers; but not so surprised when, I swear, Marc rapped a bit before remembering that I was getting in the car too.
I haven’t yet told Marc but since that experience in his car, since my insight to the brilliant perspective of Larissa Faw and Scott Shane, I’ve had this song in my head and I’m looking to him to spin up a viral video with me….
Let’s go
Entrepreneurs!
Uh huh, hustler
You, are, ready
Entrepreneur, unstoppable, startup, young hustler
I’m a hustler baby [I’m an entrepreneur]
I just want you to know [Wanna let you know]
It ain’t my last job [It aint where I been]
But where I’m bout to go [Buildin’ a bizness!]
Now I just wanna work with you [just wanna build]
And be who I am [you know you love me]
And with all this experience [mo’ skills, mo’ opportunity]
You’ll forget your plan
Now give it to me
Gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
But don’t stifle me
C’mon, gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
*When the idea’s in the system
Ain’t no tellin will I sell it will I build it
That’s what they be yellin
I’m an entrepreneur by blood, not relation
Y’all be working, I re place them*
Huh, drunk on Lean, employee on E
Can’t keep her busy hands from working with me
Both in collaborating, building and free
*And I wish I met her sooner ya’ll…*
It gets better, met another guy
It’s, about, to go, down
Got six new things, six ideas
Four developers, got Pepsi everywhere
What do you say, me, you and your mad skills
Go somewhere private where we can discuss startups
Give it to me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
But don’t stifle me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
I said give it to me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
But don’t stifle me
Motha, gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
Yeah, save the narrative you savin it for VCs
Let’s keep it real no one said this was easy
You wanna see how far I’ma go
How, much I’ma build but you already know
Give it to me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
But don’t stifle me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
I said give it to me
gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
But don’t stifle me
Motha, gimme that lean, that agile, that innovative, that entrepreneurial stuff
I’m a hustler baby [I’m an entrepreneur]
I just want you to know [Wanna let you know]
It ain’t my last job [It aint where I been]
But where I’m bout to go [Buildin’ a bizness!]
Now I just wanna work with you [just wanna build]
And be who I am [you know you love me]
And with all this experience [mo’ skills, mo’ opportunity]
You’ll forget your plan…
