Steve Glaveski - Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Earn Your Freedom and Do Work That Matters

Lots of people dream of walking the path from employed to entrepreneur, but Steve Glaveskis actually done it. Best of all, he took notes on what works and what doesnt and now he decided to show you how.

David Burkus, author of FRIEND OF A FRIEND

At its core, this book is about transformation. Beyond a conversation about how you work and make money, it is a guide to reimagining a life that you fully own.

Sherry Walling, Ph.D., host of ZenFounder podcast, co-author of The Entrepreneurs Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together

Glaveski makes the case for entrepreneurship as the bastion that safeguards employment and meaningful contribution from the rapid encroachment of technologies that are distrupting every realm of traditional human work. He builds on that foundation with a framework to inspire aspiring innovators to make the leap to evolve from employees/pawns of stagnant and dying corporations suffering paralysis by analysis, to successful entrepreneurs who can embrace the right risks, walk the edge of uncertainty with confidence and good judgement, avoid (most) beginner mistakes and turn the inevitable failures into future triumphs. An optimistic book, well-articulated and worthwhile; an antidote to doomsday prophecies about the future of work.

Whitney Johnson, Thinkers50 Leading Management Thinkers, author of the bestselling Build an A Team, and critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself

Steve takes his personal learnings from years of doing the work and packages them up into one concise book making his hard-won insights available to all of us.

Pascal Finette, co-founder, radical Ventures, Chair for Entrepreneurship & Open Innovation, Singularity University

A must-read for anyone looking to make the transition from what Steve calls miserably comfortable at a large organisation to the freedom and fulfilment that comes with entrepreneurship.

Cy Wakeman, author of No Ego: How Leaders Can Cut the Cost of Workplace Drama, End Entitlement and Drive Big Results

First published in 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Ofce also in Melbourne

Typeset in 11.5/13.5 pt ITC Berkeley Oldstyle Std Medium

John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2019

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system , communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

Cover design: Wiley

Cover image: art-4-art / iStockphoto

Opener graphics: Sonic_S/Shutterstock

Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

I dedicate this book to:

My brother Sao who had so much potential and would often gaze at the night sky, dreaming of doing something thats never been done before, only to be taken away from us before he had the opportunity to make his dreams come true.

My father whose own struggles with and triumphs over adversity gave me the opportunity to write this book.

My mother whose resilience has been a lifelong inspiration.

Steve Glaveski is on a mission to unlock the latent potential of organisations so they can create more impact for humanity and empower their people to lead more fulfilling lives.

Steve is the CEO of Collective Campus, a corporate innovation and startup accelerator originally established in Melbourne, Australia, that now works with large organisations from London to New York to help them find and adopt the mindsets, methods and tools they need to successfully navigate uncertainty in an era of rapid change.

Steve and his team have worked with the likes of Telstra, National Australia Bank, Clifford Chance, King & Wood Mallesons, BNP Paribas, Microsoft, Fox Sports, Village Digital, Charter Hall, Maddocks, Mills Oakley, Australian Unity, Ascendas-Singbridge, Singapore Pools and MetLife Insurance, among others.

Collective Campus has incubated and been home to more than 100 startups, which have raised more than US$25 million between them.

Aside from working with startups and large industry incumbents, Steve founded Lemonade Stand, a program that teaches children the fundamentals of entrepreneurial thinking. This program has been rolled out across Australia and in Singapore to more than a thousand children and at the time of writing was being developed into an online platform for the global English-speaking market.

Steve also wrote The Innovation Managers Handbook, which was an Amazon bestseller across a number of its categories, including startups, management and technology. When hes not writing content, hes recording it. He hosts the Future Squared podcast, an iTunes Business chart mainstay that won an inaugural Australian Podcasting Awards Peoples Choice award in 2017. Steve often shares his message with the world through keynote talks, having presented in locations as disparate as Perth, Singapore and Lincoln, Nebraska.

Steve previously founded the office-sharing platform Hotdesk and has worked for the likes of Westpac, Dun & Bradstreet, the Victorian Auditor-Generals Office, EY (formerly Ernst & Young), KPMG and Macquarie Bank.

When hes not trying to help people unleash their potential, he can be found at the squat rack, skateboarding by the beach, cruising on his motorcycle, hiking (probably while listening to a podcast), catching a live gig or with his head buried in a book.

A number of times over the past few years Ive found myself at the intersection of preparation and opportunity (some call this intersection luck).

Transitioning from roles in big corporate with the likes of EY and Macquarie Bank, in 2013 I found myself at the helm of a modestly funded tech startup, which gave me the opportunity to spend two years immersing myself in anything and everything relating to innovation and entrepreneurship. A subsequent stroke of serendipity led me to found Collective Campus, which has blessed me with the opportunity not only to do the kind of work I most enjoy, but to work with companies, individuals and kids yes, kids, as part of our Lemonade Stand program to unlock their potential to create more impact in the world and lead more fulfilling lives.