A very wise man once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Most of you may recognize this quote from the Spider-Man film series as spoken by the character Ben Parker, but it was originally written in 1962 by Stanley Martin Lieber. You will probably know him better by his pen name Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and most of Marvel Comics‘ other major characters, and the most recognizable figure in the comics industry.
To this day it remains one of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard. The fact that it came from a comic book is inconsequential. Good advice is good advice, and it’s something all of you out there reading this should be keeping in mind as well. You see, when you leave the 9-5 world and go into business for yourself, all of the power is in your hands. But by that same token, so is all of the responsibility. The buck stops with you.
Let’s say you’ve got your business up and running. You’ve chosen your path, built a team, done all the math, and now you’ve got a successful business endeavor on your hands. Your Personal Independent Earnings are growing. You’re making money. Life is good. Very good, in fact. You my friend, are large and in charge. You have great power indeed.
But now the great responsibility comes in to play.
Now that your business is successful, it is your responsibility to keep it that way. After all, not only are you dependent on it for your income, but so is the team you built. You’ve all worked together to become successful, but you’re the captain of the ship. Contrary to the old adage, if the ship goes down, the whole crew goes with it, and it is on you to make sure that doesn’t happen. Sure, there will be times when that just won’t be possible, but it is your responsibility to try your best to avoid it.
That means you’re responsible for making sure the bills are paid, your co-workers are paid, any freelancers you’ve contracted for outside work are paid, all of the money passes through you (or someone whom you have assigned this task to, but ultimately their actions are your, say it with me now, responsibility).
Your responsibilities are not purely financial either. Becoming a success is actually pretty easy. Remaining a success, and becoming an even bigger one, there’s the rub. And as captain of the ship, the king of the castle, guess who that falls on? You guessed it, you. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and at times your head may feel quite heavy indeed.
Chin up, I’m making it sound far worse than it actually is to help drive my point home. Dramatic effect and all that. It sounds like you have a ton of responsibility on your shoulders, and you do. But if you’ve been following the advice in this blog and running your business properly, you won’t even notice it. It will all become habit. It will all fall into your daily routine. All that responsibility won’t feel like much of a big deal at all, as long as you’re doing your job right. And since your success, and your Personal Independent Earnings all hinge on you doing your job right, well, that’s all the more reason for you to throw yourself into making sure things are done correctly.
Just keep that thought in the back of your head, as Stan Lee said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”
