Which of the following terms do you relate to more: worker bee or owner of a company?

Don’t worry, this isn’t one of those depressing quizzes that lets you know what your personality type is.
I am just simply bringing to light an issue that has been bothering me for a while. Will I be a leader of a follower?

Knowing which you are will certainly affect your career.
I mean look at us. We are herded through 17 to 20 years of school (depending on how much fun you have!) only to become herded into unfulfilling jobs.

A friend of mine recently expressed her feeling that our sole purpose in the work place is to make money for other people.

Think about it . . . you will spend the rest of your life working for and making money for another person. 

Sure you will get a salary for it. However, this salary is minimal and confines you to a certain social class for the rest of your life.
As if that isn’t enoug, you, the worker bee, must work with an enthusiasm that makes others feel that you really are a part of your company.

You sing the company song, all the while shackled to a desk that won’t rise above the tenth floor.

The company encourages your worker bee mentality and actually works hard to keep you in your place.

Don’t get me wrong, people do move up the corporate ladder.
Wouldn’t it be nice, though, to have your own company? Wouldn’t it be nice to strip off the daily clothes and routine of the loyal worker bee and, just for once, think for yourself?

In college we all have aspirations of greatness, no matter how small they are. Then when we graduate we enter into the ominous “real world.”

There we discover that all our seemingly brilliant ideas are considered trite and less ingenious. We are encouraged to move away from the glorious free thinking college days into the dull, monotonous daily work routine.

We basically go from the height of a four year degree, where we have become the most knowledgeable and creative of our chosen major (as most seniors should be considered!), to the low man on the totem pole . . . the gofer . . . the coffee maker. 

Why do we tolerate this? Well, maybe it is because of the promises that are to come. We believe that we will eventually run the company one day and write our own ticket.

However, five or ten years down the road, we begin to accept our lives. We accept the not too great salary or position. We embrace the fact that we are worker bees.

Some of us will break out of this mold early on. These will be the people who found companies like Amazon.com or start their own empire like Victoria’s Secret.

What makes these ordinary people so lucky that they break out of the mold? I believe that it goes beyond intelligence or social status. 
I think that these are the people who one day decided that they were going to be the masters of their own domains. They were not going to live in the colony and support the queen anymore.

I would like to think that I am one of these people. I want to break out of the mold and be my own boss. Since I am graduating this summer and have not yet been in the “real world,” I am sure there are many who think this determination will die out. 

However, I am not a worker bee . . . if you are, then more power to you. The world needs worker bees and, without you, I would have to do some things I wouldn’t want to.

The point is that you decide who and what you will become, and wouldn’t it be nice if we could hold onto that invincible feeling we get in college?

I hope that I retain that feeling, because I have no intention of working for a company for the next thirty years of my life getting one week of vacation a year--I plan to own it instead.