Promotion is not the only way to grow -Benjamin Zulu
Promotion is not the only way to grow in your career, and you shouldn’t kill yourself fighting for a managerial position. Vertical growth is not the only growth there is, and actually you should avoid it if you’re not cut out for leadership, or if you’re not exactly in the career of your dreams. You can grow horizontally by expanding and branching off crossways.
There’s a method of switching careers to self employment that we will call offshoot strategy. In this strategy you don’t quit to start your business, in order to avoid the pressure of depending on a startup business for your own survival which exerts pressure on it. Starting a business with a deadline is always a gamble.
So the offshoot style avoids these challenges by having the business grow quietly from what you’re doing currently. You assign fixed hours per day to invest in it, and you take it like a second job. All it requires is a strict discipline since the lack of pressure can also mean giving up easily and getting distracted. You avoid hit and run by assigning the venture a minimum period of time, usually in months, to try before making a conclusion as to whether it’s still worth it. ‘I’ll work on this venture for two hours every day for the next six months regardless of improvement,’ for instance.
Studies show that many run away businesses were started this way, because the owners were investing in an area of genuine passion.
When you’re in this stage, avoid over committing in your main job. Don’t take extra duties or bother with promotions. You’re incubating something else and you can only spare so much energy.
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