In my corporate life I rarely met the actual owners of businesses. Most of the people were employees, some were executives, but very few of them were owners.
Of course that is totally fine, I simply have learned so much more about people and about the things that make our society and economy work, since becoming a business owner.
At in-person and virtual meetups I’ve met people who started engineering firms and grew them to 100 employees. Or the woman who launched a charity without a lot of resources, who now employs 7 people. Or the guy who started a business building drones well before they became a big thing.
Most of my clients – and some of you are reading this right now – work in a corporate environment and I support them with their career direction, job changes, promotions, etc. I love those stories and challenges.
When I go to business meetups, I connect with people who do completely different things (and most of them would probably never need my help 😆) and it’s been a really cool way to broaden my own horizon. It also helped me see the countless different paths people choose and how they build their lives around them.
If you have the chance to go to an event or meetup (a family/friend’s BBQ counts!) that’s totally outside of your usual bubble, I encourage you to speak to people you haven’t before and see what stories come up. It could be super fascinating!