Your Ideal Work Style
Whether full-time or part-time, at-home or on the road, working behind the scenes or interacting with lots of people — understand what your work style priorities are so you can define the best kind of business for you.
Another way to look at this is, what level of risk do you want to take? You may want a relatively low-pressure first-go at entrepreneurship.
Your Manifesto
This is your personal mission, your values and what drives you forward, all wrapped up into a one-page (maximum) statement. To write this, you should draw on everything you’ve already discovered about yourself in steps 1 through 6, and bring it all together into a clear statement of your principles and priorities.
Our example manifesto
Work as Freedom: We think work is about pursuing our dreams, not for the benefit of some nameless, faceless company, but for ourselves. We believe that owning our own business leads to the liberties and freedoms that the forefathers of our country envisioned for us. We’re free to choose the kind of business we conduct. We’re free to choose the way we spend our time. We’re free to choose the people with whom we work. We’re free to set our priorities.
Work as Family: We’ve tried to create a workplace environment where employees feel like they’re actually members of a greater family. There’s a sense of common purpose, mutual respect, and deep trust. Everyone should feel important and as though they’re a meaningful member of the collective effort. It’s an environment that empowers people to share in the hard work—and in the benefits.
Work as Fulfillment: We’ve made it a priority to ensure that our work gives us a sense of satisfaction. When we wake up in the morning, we can’t wait to get on the phone, get online, and get our team in gear. The work we do is truly the work we love. For us there’s nothing that turns us on more than facing a challenge and transforming it into an opportunity. There’s nothing more thrilling than seeing a customer use our product. There’s nothing more gratifying than helping someone else turn a dream into a real business. And over time, we’ve found that our fulfillment comes as much from the process of trying to achieve our goals as it does from actually achieving them.
Key Moves to Get You Where You Want to Go
These are simple strategic action items you must develop in order to transform your Life Plan from a self-assessment into an action plan. At this point in life planning, you know where you want to go, what skills you already have, as well as what type of work suits you best. Draw from that information a list of moves you’ll need to make to achieve your ideal life.