In this clarifying episode, Scott Ritzheimer, Founder of Scale Architects, shares how to decide whether you should stay in stage 1 as a purposeful employee or move to stage 2 and start your own thing. If you're a dissatisfied employee feeling pulled to launch but unsure if it's right for you, you won't want to miss it.

You will discover:

- Why level 1 can be the ideal stage for mastering your craft and living with stability

- How to become a purposeful employee instead of settling as a dissatisfied one

- What signs show it's truly time to move from level 1 to becoming a startup entrepreneur

This episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stages 1,2 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quiz

Scott helped start nearly 20,000 new businesses and nonprofits and with his business partner started led their multimillion-dollar business through an exceptional and extended growth phase (over 10 years of double-digit growth) all before he turned 35.He founded Scale Architects to help founders and CEOs identify and implement the one essential strategy they need right now to get them on the fast track to Predictable Success.

Want to learn more about Scott Ritzheimer's work at Scale Architects? Check out his website at https://www.scalearchitects.com/

Connect with Scott through his LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottritzheimer/

Hello, hello, and welcome, welcome once again

to the Start, Scale, and Succeed podcast, the only podcast that

grows with you through all seven levels of your journey as a

founder. I'm your host, Scott Ritzheimer, and today we are

tackling a question that our culture, at least here in the

West, rarely lets you ask: Do you actually need to start your

own thing? Do you really need to quit your job or drop out of

school to start your own business? Do you really need to

take the leap and launch your own church or nonprofit? You

see, especially over the last five, maybe 10 years, now we've

been sold the myth that if you're not building your own

thing, then you're settling, and that pressure pushes really good

people to launch businesses and nonprofits that they never

needed to launch. So let's figure this out, and whether or

not they should is entirely irrelevant. What we want to

figure out today is whether or not you should, because take it

from someone who's helped 20,000 people do this, a lot of them

shouldn't have, and take it from someone who's had probably just

as many conversations with folks who are thinking about it, and

many of them should have, but they never did, and so what I

want, I don't want to talk you into, you know, if you should or

if you shouldn't, that's not the goal of this episode. The goal

of this episode, and quite frankly, for the remainder of

this series, because this is part two of a seven part series,

by the way, if you missed one, go back, because you're going to

get some really, really helpful context for what this series is

all about. Links in the show notes, just go back there and

watch if you're on YouTube, or if you're on Spotify, or Apple

Podcast, the video is available on all those platforms. If

you're anywhere else, or if you prefer audio, you can listen to

it as well. All right, so what we really want to figure out is,

is I want to give you the information that you need to

make the best decision about whether or not launching your

own organization is right for you. So what we're talking about

here again is the difference between level one being that

dissatisfied employee, and the two alternatives to that, which

are for this series, at least, which are to actually stay in

level one, and instead of being a dissatisfied employee, become

what I call a purposeful employee, and for the vast

majority of people feeling the dissatisfaction of level one,

that's the right way to go. So we're going to talk about that.

The other alternative is to progress to the next level,

which means moving to becoming a startup entrepreneur, and that's

pretty cool for the right people too. But which one is right for

you? Maybe even which one's right for you, for right now,

because those are two different things. Reasons one. Let's start

here. Reasons one. Reasons why level one might already be your

ideal level. So, what are the circumstances that fit? How do

you know if you have what it takes to succeed here, so first

off, and this, this won't necessarily be true for a lot of

you, but it can be, is if you're in a role, and if not, if you

can find a role where you can build valuable, marketable

expertise, so even if one day you're going to start your own

organization, if for now, or even if you're not going to

start an organization for as long as you're working, if you

can find a role that makes you more valuable, that's awesome,

that's fantastic, and and it might not be in your current

role, you might have to do the hard work and vulnerable work of

finding another, but if you can, if you can find a role that adds

value to you and and creates marketable expertise that can

only help if or when the time comes that you do want to make

the leap and start your own organization, so that's the

first one. Second one, can you work for an organization that

values mastery and rewards excellence?

Because one of the things that folks mistake, they think that

if you're great at cutting hair, for example, that you should go

and start your own hair business, because that's where

you'll cut hair, but the truth of it is you'll, you can cut

more hair, and you can, you can develop a greater mastery for

doing that, and get more reward from it in level one than you

can by going and starting a business doing it, because if

you go and start a business doing it at most. Cutting hair

is like half of what you're going to do, because you have to

go find new clients, you have to deal with all the administrative

stuff that comes along with that, you have to deal with the

problems that come with that. There are so many other things

that you have to do that aren't cutting hair, that if, if

whatever it is that you do is what you want to do. You're

probably going to have a better experience doing that in the

context of an enterprise that already has other people to do

all that other stuff. So, if you don't want to do all that other

stuff, but you really just want to master what it is that you

do, or you want to get in a role where you can master what it is

that you do, then it's probably better to stay in level one than

to start your own business or nonprofit, because your

attention is going to be divided a lot in level two. Another

reason why you might find that level one is a fit is if your

vision for your life is to become world class at what you

do, so this is closely related to the earlier point, and it's

kind of the theme of this is like if you want to be great at

what it is you do, now what is it that you do? It might be the

actual skill, like welding or carpentry or cutting hair might

be the trades, it might be the skill of leading a team,

managing folks, like there are there are way easier ways to

find fulfillment managing a team of employees than going and

starting your own business or nonprofit, so if you want to be

world class at whatever it is that you do, and generally,

whatever the thing is that you spend your day doing, then

that's usually easier to do within an organization than by

creating one. If you are at a stage of life, if you have other

things outside of work that will benefit from stability and

predictability from a paycheck, from a work schedule, from, you

know, the benefits themselves. Then that's that's a strong plug

for level one, if you are willing to let someone else

carry the organizational weight while you focus on your craft,

then level one might be great for you, if you are on the, you

know, average to less than average in terms of risk

profile, then everything comes with risk. You can be fired from

a job, just like you can be fired by an employee, but there

is a much, much greater level of risk in creating something from

nothing than there is from taking part in an organization

that's already functioning, so if you have a, an average or

less than average risk profile, then level one might, might not

be a bad gig. So, the reason why I'm not necessarily talking

about how to do that is because what I've found is that for most

folks, if they develop a conviction that what they're

doing is right for them, so it is right for me to stay in level

one. Well, then what happens pretty quickly is you realize

everything else is just a problem to be solved, and, and

so once you understand the tensions to be managed, you

won't own the thing, you'll have to work with other people in

some way, shape, or form, you won't have absolute autonomy

over how something happens. Those are tensions to be

managed.

Those just come with level one, but everything else, like a bad

job, a bad boss, low pay, work that doesn't interest you, those

are all problems to be solved, and you can solve them inside of

level one without having to take the often foolish risk of

starting something else, so those are all arguments for,

hey, level one's not a bad gig. You can actually be a purposeful

employee by solving some of those problems and just managing

the few tensions that are left over. However, that's not

everybody, it's not me, it's not the many founders that I work

with to get to even level three, level four, level five, where

you're being a CEO. Oftentimes the way to do that is to go

through level two. There's a caveat for buying into an

organization. We're not going to talk about that right now, but

what are some signs that it's actually time to move to level

two. One of the most common, actually, is that things are

going really, really well in level one. When you look at it,

this is an old stat now, but founders, successful founders,

if you rewind the take. To what they were doing before they

started their organization, before they jumped to level two,

they, they're not unemployed slackers living in their mom's

basement, they, they're actually typically employed, and they're

making somewhere between 125% 175% of what people normally do

in in that occupation, that means they're good at what they

do. So folks who start the dissatisfied employees who

become successful entrepreneurs, successful solopreneurs, and

onward, they are, they're not failing most of the time, but

the they're not finding fulfillment, and that's probably

the clearest indication you, you have to build something, not

just contribute, you're winning in your role, but it's not

satisfying your soul, and you've tried, I would say, not even

thought about, but you've tried to go to another place, and,

and, and to find satisfaction in the work there, and here's what

it boils down to. You should start an organization and move

to level two if you can't do anything else, if your vision

demands it of you, if your soul cannot be settled, and you give

it a legitimate college try. Then, then it's time. It could

be time for you to move. Well, let me say, it could be right

for you to move. Timing is a little bit different, and so if

you're, if you're trying, if you're thinking about starting

an organization because you're not thriving, chances are pretty

good you're going to make a bad decision. So, you really want to

solve for thriving first, and then from a good place that

still isn't satisfactory. Now you know that you know, and so

for those of you that are kind of teetering on the fence,

you're not quite sure, don't go to level two yet, yet instead,

this is the timing piece I just mentioned. Figure out how to

truly thrive in level one and become a purposeful employee,

and from that position of I found this place where I can

have mastery. I've done it, and it's still not the right thing.

Then you'll know that you'll know that moving to level two is

right for you, and, and so, what are some other things that you

need to know about this stage? Just real quick, level one, you

know, if you're choosing, hey, should I stay here. Level one is

where you're not limited to what you can do, which is kind of

cool, like from a size perspective, you can join

whatever size organization works for you. Here's a really

interesting point. There are, I would say, roughly half the

population, maybe a little less will become dissatisfied working

in a large enterprise because they're really designed for the

more entrepreneurial space, but that doesn't mean that they are

founders. There's a difference in being a founder and being an

being entrepreneurial, those are two different things, and so

there's a lot of folks who they don't need to start their own

thing, they just need to go and work for a smaller organization,

because it's going to fit them culturally better.

So you can be in level one and work for a startup, right, as

part of the team, you can work for a more established but still

entrepreneurial kind of small business, if you will,

medium-sized business, or many of you, about half the

population, especially those who shouldn't be a founder. They'll

find a great fit in a larger organization with a little bit

more structure, a little bit more defined roles, and things

of that nature. So one of the things you might want to play

around with is just finding the right size organization to be

part of, and that might do the trick for you. Activities, you

get to do what you do best in this level. That's what's really

cool about it. You really do get to focus the most on your craft,

however you define that. From a schedule perspective, this is

obviously changing a lot in COVID times, and with

millennials and Gen Zs, where nine to five kind of isn't a

thing right now, but nine to five isn't a bad thing. We've

made being a dissatisfied employee equivalent to working a

nine to five, and that's not true. You can be a purposeful

employee working a nine to five, and that's a pretty damn great

deal. Like, if you can show up nine to five, do something that

you're passionate about and that you've mastered, that makes your

five to nine life better. It doesn't make it worse, and so if

your nine to five is sucking life out of you. Don't settle

for that, but also don't buy into the fact that the only way

out of that is to go start your own business or nonprofit,

because that's a false choice. There is a middle ground there

that's great. Pros of staying in level one, for those of you who

think, "Hey, I might not need to start my own enterprise, there

is zero ownership pressure, which means that, especially

once you control for taking control of your situation, the

chaos stays at the office, and this is one of those things

that's hard. If you've never had the pressure of ownership, it's

difficult to understand what that feels like. I was actually

just working with a client and friend of mine who's going to be

buying into an organization, and we spent a whole session just

talking about the move from not owning to owning, and the

pressure that that creates. It's financial, it's it's a lack of

clarity, it's volatility. There's an immense pressure for

owners, right? Which, when you become a startup entrepreneur,

you're an owner, you're not in the owner stage, but or level,

but you, you have ownership pressure, and the benefit of

level ones, like it's someone else's problem, which is

fantastic, and you get to focus on mastering what it is you do.

There's there tends to be a lot more stability in something like

this. There's a lot of pros here. There are some cons. We

have to be honest about those. One of the biggest is just the

what ifs. I see a lot of folks, and you'll see this with any

person, regardless of whether they choose one or two, but

there's a especially later in life. Well, what if I had done

that? What if I had taken the chance? And so, for those of you

who really should go to level two, but don't, because of fear,

insecurity, anxiety, just a lack of intentionality in pursuing it

might suffer from the what ifs that that can gnaw at you,

especially later in life. You do have to play by the rules, at

least to some extent. You have to engage with other people's

priorities, and while that sounds like, man, if I could

just be my own boss, I wouldn't have to do with, do with any of

that. That's kind of never true, I guess. To some extent, it's

true in level two, where you get to set your priorities, but

what's actually happening in level two is your clients are

setting your priorities, and then once you get to level

three, you've got to have priorities that are shared with

everybody else. Now you have a little bit more say in them than

you would otherwise, but not full say, because, like, we're

going to talk about in that episode, people need stuff from

you, and, and so that's there.

And then there's this temptation to phone it in. I think that's

true of every level, but it's particularly true of level one,

and so what this really boils down to is what's your vision

for your life. What's the work that you want to do, and if you

can achieve that vision, and if you can do that work within the

context of someone else's organization, you probably

should. If you can't, if there's a better way, and, and the, the

way for you to get that, either the only, or at least the best

way to get to that other way to create that other product, to

add that other service, to help those other people, is to start

an organization, then that might be the right call for you,

because the world needs both. The world needs people who are

world class at what they do. The world needs entrepreneurs who

are changing the way that we do what we do. What the world

doesn't need is more people chasing someone else's borrowed

vision. We don't need more people buying the lie that level

two, starting your own thing is inherently better than level

one. That's patently false. And so, if you're sitting there and

you're struggling with this question, should I start my own

thing? Here's the great news that I want to end with. You

have two really good options. I want to say that you have two

really good options. You can find a way to stay in level one

and thrive as a purposeful employee, or this might just be

the moment where you make the call, you start getting ready,

and you ultimately take the leap and start your own organization.

In either case, I'm rooting for you. I'm excited for you. If

you're, if you're a dissatisfied employee, there truly is really

only one way to go, and that is up in one way, shape, or form.

When you take control of the situation and you decide what's

best for you, so that's level one for those who are thinking

about going to level two. Hope this was great for you. If

you're one of those folks who've already been there, you've

already done that, you've already started your own thing.

Then the next episode might be just the perfect episode for

you. We're going to jump forward to the transition from level two

to level three, and we're going to talk about this question of

should you really hire and manage a whole team, or is there

another way? We'll talk about what that other way might be in

the next episode, and with that, you know your time and attention

mean the absolute world to us. I hope you got just a little bit

more clarity than you had before, and I cannot wait to see

you in the next episode in this series. Take care. Hey everyone,

ScoreTheimer here. Thank you so much for listening to the Start

Scale and Succeed podcast. I hope this episode gave you

exactly what you need for the level you're in right now. If

you want to discover what level you're in, take our 10 question

founders evolution quiz for [email protected] That's

foundersquiz.com It'll pinpoint exactly where you are and give

you tailored tips to move forward and reach that next

level in your journey as a founder. If you got something

out of today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or

review. It helps us reach more founders like you, and let's be

honest, it means a ton to me, my team, and all our incredible

guests, so keep starting, scaling, and succeeding, and

I'll see you in the next episode.