The Entrepreneurial Cubicle

Many entrepreneurs cite the escape from the employment 'cubicle' and the resulting freedom as key motivations to take the leap and set up their own business.

Fast forward 12-24 months, I wonder how many entrepreneurs still feel enthused with excitement and a sense of freedom?

The reality, I think, is that many entrepreneurs find themselves back in a cubicle. (Figuratively, if not in actual fact).

It doesn't matter that you have the 'freedom' to work from coffee-shop to coffee-shop if your interactions are limited to yourself and some digitised forms of communication, like email and online chat. This is silo working. Much like working in a cubicle. You're just completely on your own, not even now with a water-cooler to hang-out and moan at!

As more and more workers take the leap into entrepreneurship, I see this as becoming a real problem. The freedom that technology has granted us - to be able to work anywhere - is actually causing us to retreat inwardly and away from real human (as opposed to digital) interaction. This is not good for us.

There are thousands of years of hard-wired tribal instinct within us. We want to interact with one another. Not just in a constructive world-changing business-building context but also for idle chatter and giggles. Yet over the past 10-20 years, with the advances in technology, this is starting to slip away.

We can work on the beach. We can work in a coffee-shop. We can work in a serviced office. But in each case, we might be working alone.

What price might this change of work patterns have for our long-term mental and physical health?

I, for one, don't think it's good. Yet I find myself in this position quite frequently. Yes, I have the freedom to work anywhere - as long as I have a laptop or just a smartphone. But I am conscious that I need to keep pushing outward to interact with people. Even if it's just making sure that, at the very least, I am on the phone with clients and buddies on the days when I don't get out and about.

Otherwise, I might wake up one day soon and find myself stuck in an 'entrepreneurial cubicle' of my own making...