Name: Escape from Cubicle Nation
Author: Pamela Slim

What’s in it for me? Find the right path out of boring corporate work to working for yourself.

There is nothing more depressing than the gray, corporate office cubicle. Yet for a majority of people, this is where daily, 9-to-5 work happens.

But the cubicle is more than a physical space. Monotonous, repetitive work done in a less-than-inspiring environment under the watchful eye of an insensitive manager – cubicle work life is something to escape from, not get trapped in. But what can you do?

The answer is to get out! There is another way to work, and it’s to work for yourself. Self-employment is challenging, but if you connect with your passion and reawaken your creativity, chances are you’ve got a great business idea brewing inside of you. So enjoy these blinks and get ready to tear down those cubicle walls!

In these blinks, you’ll discover

how your body communicates that you need to change your job;
why other people’s opinions keep us stuck in jobs we hate; and
how one woman’s experience can help you unleash your creativity.

Too often we sacrifice our dearest values for the sake of a stable job and a secure paycheck.

Are you working at the job of your dreams? Unfortunately, not many of us can say that we are.

You may have strong ideals about the kind of work you believe is valuable, but chances are that you’ve sacrificed these values more than once in the face of a regular paycheck.

We all have differing preferences for what we’d like to have at work. You might prefer to work in a sunny loft for a non-profit that has a welcoming culture, a lot of business integrity and scheduling flexibility.

Yet instead, you’re working at a desk in a cramped cubicle with coworkers who are just as grumpy as you are. What’s happening here?

Having a job that doesn’t fit your values is like wearing a shoe that doesn’t fit. Say you’re looking for new running shoes to train for a marathon. If you wear a size eight, would you purchase a size six because you couldn’t find an eight and anyway, you liked the color? Of course not.

The reality is that some of us simply aren’t cut out to work in impersonal corporations under an autocratic manager. Software engineer and venture capitalist Paul Graham likens those employed in big companies to animals trapped in a zoo.

So what does that make the self-employed? Animals in the wild.

Though life in the zoo might be more routine and safer than life in the wild, it’s simply not what animals do. The same applies to humans.

So no, you aren’t crazy for complaining about a secure job with great pay, benefits, clever coworkers and social status. It could be that your values and corporate values simply don’t fit.

Seek out your professional sweet spot, the place where profit, passion and natural talent aligns.

Out of all your potential ideas, how do you know which is the right one to pursue? It’s actually easier than you’d expect, if you follow American business consultant Jim Collins’s sweet spot rule.

The sweet spot should allow three different areas of interest to align, creating a great foundation for a successful business.

Don’t get stage fright! Get your ideas out in the market quickly, make mistakes and then improve.

So you’ve got an idea that hits your sweet spot and even solves a problem or two. Now it’s time to refine, plan and prepare to put your business idea into action.

Or is it? Of course, you should do research before jumping off the entrepreneurial cliff. But the truth is that polishing a business idea to perfection isn’t always the best way to go. As they say, we learn from mistakes. So put your idea out there so you can learn!

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Escape from Cubicle Nation summary