You're Not My Boss and I'll Wear What I Want

Today it hit me that there was more to talk about from my discussion with my players from last evening. One of them mentioned that they couldn’t imagine working for anybody else and have someone else determine their schedule and how much they make. Another player mentioned that he would never work anywhere that had a dress code or uniform. If you can ponder that for a moment, there is small guarantee that we discussed this further.

First, we will discuss working for yourself versus not. It doesn’t really matter whether you are corporate, small business, or an entrepreneur you are working for someone. If you are corporate employee there are business hours, holidays, paid vacation, and a particular clientele that you are trying to gain. If you are a small business you also have business hours, holidays become optional, you probably aren’t getting paid on vacation, but you still have a certain clientele you are trying to gain. As an entrepreneur, you mirror the small business but you may not have the overhead attached to an office or as much staff but you still are going after the clientele needed to be successful. The part that became the argument for the evening was that if they worked for themselves they did not have to work for anybody. I attempted to make the point that no matter what you do you are always working for someone. If you are working for a corporation you are working for a boss who is working for shareholders. If you have a small business or are an entrepreneur, you are still working for someone. These people you are working for are your customers. If you teach tennis you work for those you are trying to teach. If you are a realtor you are working for the seller or the buyer. An attorney works for his client. It doesn’t matter what you do and if you work for yourself you are going to work for someone.

The second part was the whole dress code/uniform debate. This is just a fun argument but I feel has a lot of validity. Doctors wear white robes, painters wear white clothes, teachers wear flats and teacher clothes. I coach college tennis so there are a lot of red and grey polos with khaki shorts. Even though over the past few years the dress has become more casual there are still industries that wear suites every day. Think about going to Starbucks, McDonald’s, Publix, etc. and you know what they are wearing and if they are in management or just staff. We all wear a uniform or have a dress code. Even when we want to be a rebel there is a dress code for that. When I was in high school you would have been Goth. When I was in college you were a granola. It doesn’t really matter what the industry is or what your profession is you are going to wear what is demanded to be successful in your position. It is very rare that those that abandon what is accepted that they succeed. We all want to be individuals and have our own style. That is awesome if it fits with what we are trying to be successful doing.

These conversations are incredibly fun and it is awesome when they fight back. It just means that they are thinking. I am not saying I am correct I am just saying what I have seen during all my time observing those working for their clients. So for all of you who don’t want to work for anybody make sure you wear your uniform.