I can’t wait to open my own gym so that I can stop working for the man and finally start making my own schedule...

My boss is an impatient idiot who has no idea how undervalued I am around here…

If I had my own operation I’d free myself of these problems and start focusing on just the stuff that I enjoy…

Any (or all) of these sound like something that’s run through your head?

Well guess what…

The moment you open that hypothetical business, and you move on from the life of reporting to a boss, your new job is to accumulate paying clients.

Want to know the funny thing about those paying clients?

Every single one of them becomes your new boss the minute you swipe their credit card. If you’re especially good at building your business, you’ll get the pleasure of having hundreds of these micro bosses.

If one cranky manager was the impetus for jumping ship to “work for yourself,” can you imagine how fun dozens upon dozens of them will be to satisfy?

You think they don’t have strong opinions on what time you should open the gym? Or how late you should be expected to keep it open? Or how much you should be charging for them to be there? Or who you should hire to join your team? Or what temperature you should keep the space at? Or what music you should play?

No matter how you go about earning your living, you’re going to have to answer to someone.

Be careful what you wish for.