Three years ago, I made the leap from being ‘employed’ to being ‘self-employed’ and felt different. More confident. Some said it was bravado. The jury is still out. 

There is literature ad infinitum on the differences between people who choose to be employed and individuals who take the entrepreneurial plunge. The somewhat newer species of employees who earn sweat equity are somewhere in the middle, willing to work hard for wealth creation but yet not quite ready to take the plunge. 

The psychological differences amongst the three groups are postulated to be significant. These variances making them react differently to different stimuli: not taking bs from a boss but taking loads of bs from a client is one of my favourite characteristics of an entrepreneur that differentiates her/him from an employee. I have had the opportunity to note several employees (especially government employees) exhibiting exactly the reverse behaviour – underscoring the rationality of chemical dissimilarity between them. A few other such distinguishing traits include creativity, time-sensitivity, and perseverance – but more about that later.