Microblog: Don’t work at the company, work on the company

This is the fourth in a series of microblogs in which I present some of my views on work, entrepreneurship and building a company.

Don’t work at the company, work on the company

It’s easy to work at a company. Especially if the company is growing rapidly. There is always a project that needs to be finished tomorrow, your mailbox will auto fill itself all day long and the phones will be ringing with questions from customers, colleagues and partners that need answering. Before you know it the workday is over.

If you want to build a great company everybody in the company will also need time to work on the company. Working on the company are the projects that make the whole of the company that 1% better. They are small steps in big projects or big steps in small projects.

If you truly want to build a great company you make sure you schedule this time in your agenda. For me it’s every Monday. My agenda is my own on Monday and I get the chance to build the stuff I want to build, think about the things I want to think about, talk to the people I need to talk to and write the stuff I want to write. Working remote on those Mondays helps a lot too. That’s a small tip I would like to share.

Make sure you don’t just work at a company, but also on the company.