Don’t Act Like the Owner: Think Like the Owner

I totally for­got where I got this (I just had it clipped in Ever­note but it didn’t have any url), so I apol­o­gize to the author. I am not the author of this piece but I totally believe it and agree to the points men­tioned here…

There’s a dif­fer­ence between act­ing like the owner and think­ing like one. As an employee, you have to worry about your lit­tle sliver of job and how it might fit into the big­ger slice of pie that is the company.

If you think that’s stress­ful, think about what the owner has to think about:

* Every sin­gle employee
* The future of the com­pany
* The rev­enue
* The com­peti­tors
* How to lower costs
* How to increase profits

The list could go on and on.

My point is this: you don’t have to worry about these things because you’re not the owner, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

Start think­ing like the owner and you’ll see how quickly your per­spec­tive changes.

Own­ers don’t check out at 5 o’clock because “the day is over.”

Own­ers don’t take a day off because they want to go to the beach.

Own­ers don’t get caught up in the minu­tiae of every­day office politics.

Is it because they’re bet­ter than the rank and file? Nope.

They just have big­ger fish to fry.

Take More Respon­si­bil­ity By act­ing like an owner, you should take on more of that respon­si­bil­ity. Trust me, the owner will appre­ci­ate an employee that is not only doing his/her job effec­tively, but is also wor­ry­ing about the big­ger pic­ture. It will make you look bet­ter and it will also change your per­spec­tive on your job.

Take the exam­ple of Ama­zon employ­ees that took the light bulbs out of their vend­ing machines—they saved the com­pany $20,000 in elec­tric­ity costs. Guess who noticed? CEO Jeff Bezos.

So where should you start? The good thing is that own­ers have so much to worry about that you could pick any one of these “prob­lems” and fig­ure out a way to improve on them:

* Costs
* Employee morale
* Com­peti­tors
* Office pol­i­tics
* Tech­nol­ogy solu­tions
* Effi­ciency (my per­sonal favorite)

The list could go on and on, but you get the point.

Start think­ing like an owner today—it will make you a more valu­able employee and it will give you some idea of what it’s like in case you want to start your own busi­ness some day.