The Employee Trap: Why "Get It Done and Move On" Kills Entrepreneurial Dreams

For thirty-five years as a "card-carrying union electrician," the formula for success was crystal clear:

1. Assess the situation quickly
2. Make a game plan
3. Work the plan
4. Get it done
5. Then move on

This approach made me a "badass" employee — the guy supervisors called when they needed someone who could handle emergencies, tackle complex projects, and deliver results under pressure.

But now, as a "white belt" entrepreneur trying to build my own business, I'm discovering a profound truth:

What set me apart as an employee is holding me back as an entrepreneur.

The Great Shift: From Security to Self-Reliance

I was raised in the Boomer/Early Gen X era where the path was straightforward: get good grades (I didn't), get a good job (I did), and work it for your career to get a good retirement (I did).

This wasn't just a career strategy — it was a social contract.

Companies provided stability, benefits, and retirement security in exchange for loyalty and competent work.

For decades, this system worked.

But that system has been systematically dismantled before our eyes:

First, employer-based retirement disappeared, shifting responsibility to employees through 401(k) plans that transfer market risk from institutions to individuals.

Second, mergers and acquisitions transformed employees from valued team members into line-items on a spreadsheet for investors to get their quarterly gains and dividend checks.

The idea of working a career—let alone staying with one company—your entire life has gone out the window.

The social contract has been broken, and workers are left to navigate an uncertain economic landscape without the traditional safety nets.

The Entrepreneurial Imperative

Today, we all need to learn entrepreneurial skills, even if we never plan to start our own business.

Why?

Because understanding value creation, customer service, and business fundamentals makes you a better employee.

I learned that my job really is making my immediate supervisor (my main customer) life easier, better, and happier.​

This reframe transforms employment from "doing tasks" to "solving problems for a specific customer."

It's an entrepreneurial mindset applied to an employee role.

But more importantly, entrepreneurial skills provide more influence over your financial well-being rather than leaving it entirely in the hands of employers who may not have your long-term interests at heart.

The Pension Reality Check: Even "Secure" Isn't Secure

Even with a union pension — supposedly one of the most secure forms of retirement benefit — I'm learning entrepreneurial skills because my pension isn't guaranteed.

The IBEW electrical union has been strong for decades, but who's to say that in ten or twenty years (if I'm fortunate to live that long), the business model won't require "restructuring"?

When that happens, guess who gets prioritized?

Not the pension-earning retirees — it'll be the dues-paying active members.

Retirees have less political power within unions and fewer options if benefits get cut.

This reality forced a crucial realization:

I need to learn these skills before I "need" them.

Waiting until a crisis hits to develop entrepreneurial capabilities is like waiting until you're drowning to learn how to swim.

The Electrician's Edge: Mastering "One and Done"

As a union electrician, I developed a specific set of skills that made me valuable in industrial and commercial construction:

Quick Assessment: Walk into any situation and rapidly understand the scope, complexity, and requirements of the problem.

Strategic Planning: Create an efficient sequence of steps that minimizes wasted time, materials, and effort while maximizing safety and quality.

Focused Execution: Work the plan systematically without getting distracted by irrelevant factors or perfectionist tendencies that slow progress.

Results Delivery: Complete projects to specification, on time, and ready for the next phase or team to take over.

Move to Next Challenge: Once complete, immediately transition to the next emergency, fire, or project where these skills are needed.

This approach — one and done — created tremendous value in the electrical field.

Supervisors knew they could give me a problem and I'd solve it completely, efficiently, and permanently.

• No follow-up needed.
• No ongoing management required.
• Problem eliminated, move to the next one.

For thirty-five years, this methodology served me exceptionally well.

The Entrepreneurial Awakening: When Strengths Become Weaknesses

But now, as a "white belt" entrepreneur (helping my wife build her business taught me that I could develop business skills, but applying them to my own venture is a completely different challenge), I'm experiencing something unexpected and humbling: my "one and done" approach is hamstringing me as a business owner.

The very mindset that made me exceptional as an employee is sabotaging my potential as an entrepreneur.

Why "One and Done" Fails in Business

Customer Relationships: In electrical work, you solve a problem and move on. In business, you solve a problem to build a relationship that leads to more opportunities.

Marketing vs. Completion: Electricians market their capabilities to get the job, then focus on execution. Entrepreneurs must market continuously, even while executing, because the next sale might come from anywhere at any time.

Project vs. Process: Electrical projects have clear beginnings, middles, and ends. Business building is an ongoing process with no clear completion point.

Individual Achievement vs. System Building: As an electrician, personal competence drives results. As an entrepreneur, you must build systems that work even when you're not personally involved.

Linear vs. Compound: Electrical work creates linear value — you complete one project, get paid, and start another. Business building creates compound value where today's efforts multiply future returns.

The Alex Hormozi Revelation: Even Superstars Play the Long Game

The lesson really hit home when I saw an Alex Hormozi YouTube short that shattered my assumptions about how business actually works.

Alex holds the Guinness World Record for selling the most non-fiction books in a 24-hour period and made over $90 million in one weekend — results that seem to validate the "one and done" approach.

But here's what the short revealed:

Most of his audience still doesn't buy from him quickly.

Some take as much as two years or more to attend his upsells and masterminds.

Even someone operating at the absolute pinnacle of marketing and sales effectiveness must play the long game.

This insight revealed the fundamental difference between employee and entrepreneurial mindsets:

The Employee Mindset: Problem → Solution → Complete → Move On

1. Customer has immediate problem
2. Apply specific skills to solve problem
3. Deliver solution that eliminates problem
4. Get paid for solution
5. Move to next customer with next problem

The Entrepreneurial Mindset: Value → Relationship → Trust → Sale → More Value

1. Identify potential customers who might have problems you can solve
2. Create ongoing value even before they realize they need your solution
3. Build relationships and trust over time through consistent value delivery
4. When they're ready (which might be years later), they remember you
5. Convert relationship into sale, then deepen relationship for future opportunities

The Real Business Lesson: Marketing Is Forever, Sales Are Unpredictable

You need to market your business constantly, but you can't control when the sale happens, and it can take years even for successful influencers like Alex Hormozi.​

This represents a complete reversal of the employee mindset.

As an electrician:

• Marketing was finite: Get the job, stop marketing (and as an employee, if you're not marketing yourself, that's the first problem)
• Sales were predictable: Complete the work, get paid
• Timing was controlled: Finish project by deadline, move to next

As an entrepreneur:

• Marketing is infinite: Always building awareness, relationships, and trust
• Sales are unpredictable: People buy when they're ready, not when you need them to
• Timing is uncontrolled: Your timeline for needing revenue doesn't match their timeline for being ready to buy

The Edison Parallel: 10,000 Attempts at Entrepreneurial Success

This is possibly the most important lesson I'm learning.

It's almost like Thomas Edison and the 10,000 attempts at inventing a working lightbulb that could be mass-produced.

Edison's approach to innovation mirrors the entrepreneurial process:

• Hypothesis: Each attempt represents a theory about what might work
• Experiment: Testing the theory under real conditions
• Data: Learning what works, what doesn't, and why
• Iteration: Using that learning to inform the next attempt
• Persistence: Continuing despite failures because each failure provides valuable information

Being in business is like that, I'm discovering.

Almost like being on the mat and being willing to get thrown down time after time after time, and then keep getting back up to try again.

The Mat Metaphor: Business as Martial Arts

The martial arts mat provides the perfect analogy for entrepreneurial development:

• Daily Defeat: You get thrown, submitted, and dominated regularly
• Learning from Loss: Each defeat teaches you something about technique, timing, or strategy
• Incremental Progress: Improvement comes in small increments over long periods
• Persistence Requirement: You must keep showing up despite repeated failures
• Long-term Mastery: Eventually, accumulated experience creates genuine competence

The difference is that on the mat, everyone expects this process.

In business, people expect immediate results and quit when they don't get them.

The Compound Effect: Why Entrepreneurial Thinking Takes Time

It's not "one and done" anymore like it was for me as an electrician.

This represents the fundamental shift from linear thinking to compound thinking.

Linear Thinking (Employee Mindset)

• Effort input = Predictable output
• Work performed = Payment received
• Problem solved = Value delivered = Transaction complete
• Today's work affects today's results
• Success measured by task completion

Compound Thinking (Entrepreneurial Mindset)

• Effort input = Uncertain output that builds over time
• Value created today may generate payment months or years later
• Problem solved = Relationship built = Future opportunities created
• Today's work affects next year's results
• Success measured by system improvement and relationship development

The Great Entrepreneurial Failure: Quitting Too Early

That's the biggest lesson I'm learning, and it's also why so many wannabe entrepreneurs fail — they quit too early.

The employee mindset creates an expectation of immediate feedback and predictable results.

When entrepreneurial efforts don't produce quick outcomes, people assume they're doing something wrong and either quit or constantly change strategies.

The Timing Mismatch

Employee Timeline:

• Apply for job → Get hired within weeks
• Do work → Get paid within days
• Complete project → Immediate recognition and next assignment

Entrepreneurial Timeline:

• Start business → Customers may take months or years to appear
• Create value → Revenue may be delayed or disconnected from specific efforts
• Build systems → Results may not be visible for extended periods

This timing mismatch kills most entrepreneurial attempts.

People expect employee-style feedback loops in an entrepreneurial environment that operates on completely different principles.

The Mindset Transformation: From Task to Relationship

The shift from employee to entrepreneurial thinking requires fundamental changes in how you approach daily work:

Old Approach: Task Focus

• Goal: Complete assigned work efficiently
• Measurement: Tasks finished per day
• Success: Problem eliminated, customer satisfied, move to next job
• Timeline: Immediate completion and payment
• Relationship: Transactional — provide service, receive payment, relationship ends

New Approach: Relationship Focus

• Goal: Build systems that create ongoing value for customers
• Measurement: Relationships built, trust earned, future opportunities created
• Success: Customer success that leads to referrals, repeat business, and expanded opportunities
• Timeline: Long-term compound growth of value and revenue
• Relationship: Ongoing — continue providing value to deepen trust and create more opportunities

Practical Applications: Bridging Employee Skills to Entrepreneurial Success

The good news is that employee skills aren't useless in entrepreneurship — they need to be recontextualized:

Transferable Skills

Problem-Solving → Customer Problem Identification: Your ability to quickly assess and solve problems helps you identify market opportunities and create solutions customers actually want.

Efficiency → System Optimization: Your focus on doing things efficiently translates to building business systems that scale without proportional increases in effort.

Quality Focus → Brand Building: Your commitment to delivering quality work becomes the foundation for building a reputation that attracts customers over time.

Deadline Management → Project Delivery: Your ability to complete work on time ensures customer satisfaction that leads to referrals and repeat business.

Continuous Learning → Market Adaptation: Your willingness to develop new skills helps you adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Required Additions

Long-term Thinking: Develop the ability to work on projects where results may not be visible for months or years.

Relationship Building: Learn to nurture ongoing connections rather than viewing each interaction as a one-time transaction.

Marketing Mindset: Understand that promoting your value is an ongoing process, not a one-time activity.

Uncertainty Tolerance: Develop comfort with not knowing when or how your efforts will pay off.

Systems Thinking: Focus on building processes that work without your direct involvement.

The Union Electrician's Entrepreneurial Advantage

Interestingly, my background as a union electrician provides some unique advantages for entrepreneurial thinking:

Problem-Solving Under Pressure: Construction sites teach you to think clearly and act decisively when everything is going wrong.

Quality Standards: Union training emphasizes doing work right the first time, which translates to building business systems that actually function.

Safety Mindset: Understanding how to manage risk in high-stakes environments helps with business decision-making.

Teamwork Skills: Large construction projects require coordination with multiple trades, which translates to managing business relationships and partnerships.

Continuous Education: The electrical field requires ongoing learning to keep up with code changes and new technologies, which prepares you for the constant adaptation required in business.

Conclusion: The Long Game Advantage

The transition from employee to entrepreneurial mindset isn't about abandoning everything that made you successful as an employee — it's about expanding your time horizon and shifting your focus from completing tasks to building relationships.

The employee mindset optimizes for immediate results and predictable outcomes.

The entrepreneurial mindset optimizes for long-term growth and compound benefits.

Alex Hormozi can make $90 million in a weekend precisely because he spent years building relationships, creating value, and establishing trust with his audience. The weekend success was the visible result of invisible work done over years.

As I continue learning to think like an entrepreneur while maintaining the execution skills that made me effective as an electrician, the key insight remains:

Success in business isn't about getting it done faster — it's about building relationships that compound over time.

The "one and done" approach that served me well for thirty-five years in electrical work must evolve into an "ongoing and deepening" approach that serves customers over years and decades.

It's not about working harder or faster — it's about working with a completely different understanding of how value is created and captured over time.

The mat will continue teaching me to get back up after being thrown down.

The business will continue teaching me that getting back up is just the beginning — the real work is learning to dance with uncertainty while building something valuable for the long term.