“Other people” can be work—at least in part why so many people have shifted solo in both career and relationships. Yes, that’s right, studies show that more people are flying single by choice than ever before.
And speaking of relationships, my new relationship with ChatGPT is going swimmingly so far. It’s too early to tell, and the Sunday shows raised some caution this weekend. But again, so far, so good, as far as I know.
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Other People in Work and Life
So, here is what ChatGPT gave me when I asked for some statistics on the current rise of entrepreneurialism for this piece:
Certainly! Here are some statistics and references that indicate that entrepreneurialism is on the rise:
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2021/2022 report found that the rate of early-stage entrepreneurship activity increased from 12.6% in 2019 to 16.3% in 2021, marking the highest rate in the past decade. The report also found that over 40% of adults in 21 of the 50 economies surveyed reported that they intended to start a business within the next three years.
According to a report from Shopify, the number of new businesses created in the US increased by 24% from 2019 to 2020, despite the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study from the Kauffman Foundation found that the rate of new entrepreneurs in the US increased from 0.30% of the adult population in 2019 to 0.45% in 2020, marking the largest year-over-year increase in the past two decades.
In a survey of over 5,000 small business owners conducted by the online payment platform Square, 72% of respondents reported that they started their business because they wanted to pursue their passion or follow a new opportunity.
The number of registered UK businesses has been increasing steadily in recent years, with over 4.7 million businesses registered as of March 2021, up from 3.5 million in 2010, according to data from the UK government’s Companies House.
These statistics and studies suggest that entrepreneurialism is indeed on the rise. However, it’s worth noting that entrepreneurship can be challenging, and not all new businesses will succeed. As such, it’s important for entrepreneurs to do their research and seek out support and resources to help them succeed.
And therein lies the rub. Even entrepreneurs have to deal with “support and resources,” aka other people, “to help them succeed.” So why all the startups? From a previous 2021 post:
Startups? Well, a lot of people are leaving their jobs: 4.3 million in August, 3% of the workforce. “The Great Resignation.” There is much debate on why people don’t want the jobs they used to have, but here’s what I am seeing.
Think of it this way: Why did Beethoven write the 9th? Because he could. Same reason a lot of people are leaving their jobs, and founding Startups. Because they can.
They’ve already worked through their detachment from office life. And they’ve had a taste of a new kind of agency, adventure, work/life integration maybe…never before known to them.
Technology makes it possible to work from anywhere. And they like it. Instead of complaining about their commutes, they’re dreaming about, and figuring out, how they really want to spend the next phase of their lives.
And how they wanted to spend the rest of their lives was not so much at the behest of other people now that things had changed and they didn’t feel they had to anymore. Although, no surprise, despite the initial high of finally being one’s own boss, things appear to be changing back again. Now we have the “Great Regret,” with 80% of workers regretting that they quit.
But here’s the thing. Any which way we turn, personally or professionally, there are people to contend with. And, how we are doing with the people in our lives just so happens to make a huge difference.
Witness the Harvard longitudinal study finding that “personal connections are the most important factor in long-term health and happiness.” Any not just any old connections, but ones that nourish more than not. So, let’s see what we can learn and do to make our own connections better.
Kevin: Case Example
My client, we’ll call him Kevin, is gifted. Everything he touches turns to gold. People want to be on his teams because they know that, whatever the mission, it will be successful.
Among his many other talents, Kevin has amazing radar for what others might be feeling. He’s noticing that he gets great talent on his teams but that the talent tends to recede, leaving him to carry the ball pretty much on his own.
He’s actually fine with that for the moment, nobody better in his own opinion. But Kevin also knows that something is going on that will not serve anyone’s long term aims and ambitions, including and especially his own. So, I told him the story of Justin:
Justin was a great kid who was the striker on a youth soccer team. He was so good that when Justin had to be away one weekend with his family everyone was really worried about the game without him. Lo and behold, because the rest of the players didn’t have Justin to rely on, they played their hearts out like no one even knew they could.
After the storytelling, I complimented Kevin on how brilliant he was at picking up what was going on with other people, i.e., how the people on his team who were capable of so much seemed to be hanging back, just like the other kids on Justin’s team.
Then I added that it seemed he didn’t know what to do with all this awareness once he accessed it. He laughed and agreed there is something more to learn.
5 Things to Know About Other People
There are many recently published books on how to get along with and get to great with other people. Multipliers is one. Cues is another really interesting (and perhaps controversial) read.
But I have a long-held fav, which is Roger Fisher and Dan Shapiro’s, Beyond Reason, with its model of tapping into 5 aspects of human concerns that can have a powerful impact on how things will go.
The link that I sent Kevin is a 7-minute clip of Shapiro on these 5 core human concerns:
1. Appreciation: Do you (as the other person) feel misunderstood? Unheard? Devalued? Why?
2. Affiliation: Do you (as the other person) feel distanced? Excluded? Why?
3. Autonomy: Do you (as the other person) feel that your freedom to make choices is constrained? Why?
4. Status: Do you (as the other person) feel demeaned? Put down? Why?
5. Role: Do you (as the other person) feel unfulfilled in what you are doing? Why?
Just the other day another client told me how she didn’t owe any explanations to an investor on why she might reject his offer, even though she was quite clear that she didn’t want to burn that bridge. Just as with Kevin, I thought it might help improve things for everyone if she took these 5 concerns into account.
Kevin knows that the unaddressed concerns of other people leave him feeling so drained that it would be better for him and for them if he takes their human concerns into account, rather than leave them feeling put out and put down. Most of us mean well, and may do even better, especially when things feel sticky, and even before—to ask and address some of the questions above about our impact on others.
Practice, practice, practice…and let s know what you find. And, for help with this or something else, contact me at weissmadelaine@gmail.com.
Warmly,
Madelaine
Photo by Unsplash Jaycek Dylag
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