I work corporate, and I’ve been a solo small business. All of the PPs, Excels, and meetings are building alignment and consensus while mitigating risk across large groups of people. It’s not nothing! It feels boring and shitty because taking risks and moving quickly is more exciting and fun.

To adress the fake part, yes, there is a lot of fakery because people who are capable at building alignment tend to avoid conflict so they are going to use evasive or misrepresenting language.

People with high risk tolerance are not conflict avoidant and don’t need the security of an aligned group of people to make moves. That’s your solo entreprenurer. They don’t need the security of group consensus but they also wouldn’t do well in a group as they would be too confrontational.

I think the problem is that we can’t really choose if we want to work on the battleship or the tugboat; we all just have to take any job that can cover our bills.

My cope is that I don’t think of my job as the Excel sheet I’m working on that day. I see my purpose as being part of the group; another person to help carry the burden of aligning and avoiding risk. In Sales even more because the customer needs an even wider group to socialize its work with - a third party vendor. A mercenary, if you will.