“I learned more from a 3 minute record than I ever learned in school”
- Bruce Springsteen – “No Retreat, No Surrender”
In the mid 80s I used to play this song over and over again.
A great anthem for rebellion, friendship the longing to be independent as a 16 year old high school sophomore.
Last night a live version of Springsteen’s performance of this song came up in the You Tube feed.
It resonated but in a different way as I thought about owning a business.
No longer was it about rebellion but rather finding freedom in not doing the same thing everyone else is doing.
In rejecting… “well this is how it’s done in my business…”
Also it’s not about rejecting education but rejecting the lifetime training we received in schools in how to be a good employee.
We are not employees of a business we own.
So we need to stop thinking and acting like we are.
If we are not employees then what are we?
Investors
We are investors in our own business because we make the decision every day to invest our time, money, and energy in the business when we could focus anywhere else.
Which begs the question.
Are you running your business like an employee or an investor?
Do you know how you can tell if you are?
In my mind it comes down to this… No retreat from the freedom you should earn by owning your business.. no surrender of the future you deserve.
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P.S. Want to make your business more attractive to run…and that investors would love to own?
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George Sotiropoulos uses Bruce Springsteen’s No Retreat No Surrender as a lens for reframing business ownership from an employee mindset to an investor mindset. The article argues that business owners who treat themselves as employees of their own companies sacrifice the freedom and future returns they deserve, and challenges readers to examine which role they are actually playing in their business