Are you A Zoomer?

I'm a zoomer, are you? Some of you may be asking about now, what's a zoomer? It is a Seth Godin term, it is someone who is quick enough to master a task and restless enough to try something new. True entrepreneurs are by their very nature zoomers. While reading the competence or incompetent section of Seth Godin's book, I realized that my failure in the corporate world was not a failure but a success.

How can not fitting into a traditional job be a success? I am by no means a 'yes' woman, I am an idea person. This is why I did very well working with certain brokers who were willing to risk their marketing plans and try new things. This is why management and I had issues. I can come into a company look at how things are being done and come up with ideas to shake it up and make it different to the marketplace. My husband is on the opposite scale, not that he's a 'yes' man but that he is a detail oriented organizing genius. He walks into a position and can have it running so efficiently that it automatically saves money. He finds problems, even comes up with some on his own, I solve problems and he can efficiently handle the details of a solution.

Zoomers are idea people, risk takers, and innovators. They don't flourish in corporate settings and should not apply to live in a cubical because they will wither away and start popping anti-depressants like M&Ms. Zoomers are flexible creative problem solvers, not inflexible by the book people. I always asked for a job description so I could understand what was expected, but I rarely stayed within its confines. If you want to be a zoomer use a job description as a diving board, not a box.

Zoomers need detail oriented competent people as employees or partners. Zoomers are not administrators or implementors, they are innovators and problem solvers. Zoomers come up with a plan, but they need people who can implement the plan.

As a self employed individual you must be flexible and it is essential that you are a creative problem solver. Self Employment by its very nature means you are taking on risk, embrasing risk and all it offers. However, self employment and being an entrepreneur or not mutually exclusive. An entrepreneur has an idea, wants to do something differently and takes on innovation and a higher level of risk. You can be self employed and not be an innovator. If you want to be self employed but don't want to embrase a high level of risk, if you are more of a manager then an innovator an implementor rather then a brainstormer buy a franchise. A franchise is a business plan in a box, a system of processes that has worked over and over for a particular company. If you are like me and don't do processes and systems well, start from scratch and be a zoomer.