Erin Brockovich: the entrepreneur in a larger context
One of the things my former NASA mentor Ted Porada used to tell me was "ya gotta make yer own job." Now, this was back in the mid-80s. Then along came the 90s, and business gurus everywhere were telling us to have the mindset of entrepreneurs, even if we worked in larger companies -- or agencies like NASA. (That line of thinking is still going on today, and it's really not surprising, as it's entrepreneurs -- not larger companies -- who are creating jobs and opportunities and new ideas.) But the business gurus were just putting pretty packaging on the Tedism above. You make your own job. Maybe you're hired to fill a position, but it's you making a niche for yourself, making yourself indispensable, creating value. In short, doing the things an entrepreneur does. The better you are at doing what entrepreneurs do, the more successful you are at your job and the more likely you will keep it.To me, the perfect example of this kind of entrepreneur, working in a larger context, is Erin Brockovich-Ellis (pictured), whose story is the basis of the movie Erin Brockovich, which stars Julia Roberts. In this movie, we see Roberts' character wriggle her way into a job that didn't previously exist in Ed Masry's law firm, find an area of real estate legal paperwork that she didn't understand and nobody could -- or would -- explain to her, and turn that into her personal niche. As she gained experience, using wiles and beauty ("they're called boobs, Ed"), she found people who were severely hurt by a polluted civic ecosystem, and championed their cause, doing the "right thing" and making herself essential to the firm at the same time. She made her own job. (And made it better since the movie.) She became an entrepreneur without having to own the company, in the context of someone else's company.
Labels: consulting
posted by Ron @ 10:23 PM
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