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Guest post by: James Chan Become an Author

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I~{!/~}ve known Jim, an insurance executive, for 30 years, and I~{!/~}ve always considered him, in some ways, to be the opposite of me. He~{!/~}s a perfect employee, well briefed, good at what he does, adept at dealing with external pressures, and able to deflect the fallout of messy situations away from himself. Lately, though, he has been showing subtle signs of curiosity about going out on his own, so he was very interested when he heard I was going to write a book about it.

~{!0~}You~{!/~}ve got to do a chapter,~{!1~} he said, ~{!0~}on what you do when you get up in the morning.~{!1~}

If he hadn~{!/~}t said this, the idea never would have occurred to me. I~{!/~}m rarely at a loss about what to do in the morning. Many days, there~{!/~}s a pileup of work that needs to be attended to. When it~{!/~}s eight in the morning at my office in Philadelphia, it~{!/~}s eight~{!*~}or sometimes nine~{!*~}at night in Shanghai and Beijing. Some people have a hard time getting started on their work, but I don~{!/~}t have that luxury. The very brief period during which I can reach people in Asia virtually forces me to swallow some coffee, then hit the ground running.

While I have been sleeping, Asia has been generating crises, problems that can be exasperating but nonetheless form the basis of my livelihood. A heap of paper in the inbox of my fax machine often begins to tell the tale, though this must be followed up with telephone calls both to agents and business contacts in China and my clients in North America to sort out the problems. Then I write memos, both for my clients and my own records, to help me keep track of where matters stand. Often, by the time I have things under control, the morning is gone.

I think that Jim, who often functions as a trouble-shooter within the big company for which he works, would recognize what I do in the morning, even though he can~{!/~}t understand all the languages I do it in.

But I realize, too, that this is not really the question he is asking. He is wondering about moving from a life where he takes the same train to his office each morning, arrives at the same time, and operates within an organization with well-defined rules, procedures, and expectations, to one he defines himself. He is wondering about those first mornings, when you don~{!/~}t have the clients who do the business that generate the crises and the faxes. He is wondering about replacing the external discipline of the corporate world with an order of his own making. Corporate life often has too much structure, too many silly rules, yet at least some of them have to be replaced when you go into business for yourself.

I seem to have an easier time of this than many. I know several self-employed people who are extremely efficient when they have a project to finish, but who go to pieces when the pressure for immediate performance subsides. And when you~{!/~}re self-employed, one of the things that will make you fall apart is uncertainty about where your next dollar is coming from. I~{!/~}ve always believed that getting new jobs is one of my most important jobs. Thus, on mornings when there~{!/~}s no grief coming from the other side of the globe and my projects here are under control, I work on direct mail, faxing and other ways to promote my business.

That doesn~{!/~}t mean that you shouldn~{!/~}t take advantage of the flexibility of working for yourself. There are some mornings when the most productive thing you can do is take a walk and let stray thoughts come into your mind. One morning, I realized that the next few days wouldn~{!/~}t be busy, then I noticed a newspaper advertisement for cheap, last-minute airfares. Two mornings later, I was in Utah, hiking in Zion National Park, savoring the freedom of being a entrepreneur.

But these moments of freedom must come within a disciplined structure. Otherwise, you don~{!/~}t have the money to pay the airfare.

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