head of a rat or the tail of a lion? Reasonable doubt

I have been delaying the writing and publication of this article for almost two years, but in recent weeks I have received messages and calls from friends and contacts asking me for advice on whether it would be a good idea to return to be a lion tail after their bad experience in their IoT start-ups. I also have some friends who after being a lion’s tail for more than 20 years have been fired and are considering finding other lions until early retirement or create an IoT microenterprise or freelance business (I do not want to call it Startup?).

Reasonable doubt

I love TV series in which lawyers, in adverse circumstances for their defendants, seek to leave a reasonable doubt before the juries in their final speech.

Many IoT entrepreneurs have been thinking during last two years between abandoning the ship by closing or selling their start-ups and seeking refuge in a multinational lion tail or continue trusting that things will change after the last turns of the IoT market. It is not easy to decide for these entrepreneurs who, in the face of all odds, have pushed themselves to the limit, believing that life is more fantastic being their own boss and dreaming of taking their companies to the glory of success.

No less reasonable doubt that arises to employees of large multinationals dismissed after many years of service and that they see how their age is an almost insurmountable obstacle to seek the shelter of another lion and assaults them the doubt what to do to be undertaken with money of dismissal: Demonstrate to himself and his former employers that they still have a lot to give to those powerful lions who have rejected him without mercy.?

There is no single answer to this reasonable doubt. There are no more successful cases of those who have opted for one option or the other. The glass will always be measured full or half empty depending on who is telling you the story.

As I am not a professional of the coaching or Human Resources to advise these friends, I thought that I could help them more if you, the readers expose your opinions with your comments unless you are afraid to express your opinions publicly.

Motivations versus need

For some people there are motivations to want to give change in one direction or another.

• Has it been satisfying and pleasant to be in a more or less secure job where your opinions and actions have not been appreciated, valued, analyzed and much less executed?
• Have you felt undervalued by your different managers over the years and now you just care about your survival by going unnoticed?
• Are you afraid of losing the shelter of the big brand and fail with your startup?
• Are you satisfied with receiving the award for the best employee of the year or do you want to be the one who awards the prizes?
• Is it worth it to continue fighting for my piece of market pie?

In other cases, in a need

• By your age, do lions no longer want you in their tail despite your knowledge and experience?
• Because of your family responsibilities, do you need to take a salary to your house every month?
• Do you want to live the experience and trust that you will always have time to rectify if you are wrong?
• Do you have a good plan and good travel companions to face the new and unknown challenges of a start-up?

And what do I want to be now?

I just want to tell you that I also raise this reasonable doubt. I miss being in a big lion (not in the tail of course), but I value what I have right now, even though I have not achieved my ambitious initial goals.

I would like to have the influence to convince a large horde of followers to punish the arrogant, incoherent and hypocritical behaviour of the increasingly powerful lions. Could you imagine if people over 50 years old no longer buy Amazon, or use Microsoft Office and their search engine is not Google?

I would like to have the influence to convince large companies and consumers to give opportunities to start-up products and services and not to be afraid to take a decision against the big brands when deciding their trusted suppliers. Why pay the extra-bonus of large corporations if in the end who do the real work are those subcontracted by them?

It is nice to daydream. If dreams were fulfilled it would be easier to answer our reasonable doubt.

Note: For obvious reasons of confidentiality I cannot provide names of people or companies that have requested my advice.

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