Tired of your job? No one appreciates how wonderful and valuable you really are? Sack your Boss and become an entrepreneur? Sure, do that! But before you do, you might like to consider the following intrapreneurship qualities:

1.     Are you REALLY good at your current job?

Ask your co-workers. Not directly, ask around it. Sniff the air, observe for yourself. Ask yourself who would miss you if you were to disappear suddenly. As you go about your daily work, visualize yourself as your manager, as your co-worker, as your direct report, as your supplier, as your customer, as your client, and give yourself some hard, honest feedback while you are wearing their shoes, from their perspective. Check yourself. Does your Boss check on you frequently because you have been missing deadlines? Do your suppliers complain because you sat on their invoices for the last three months? Do people want to come sit with you when you go for lunch? These are all indicators about whether you’re really good at your current job. Do it now. How did you fare? Score yourself from 1 to 10. Did you get a 1 or a 10? Would you hire yourself? If you would, you might just be ready for entrepreneurship from the competency point of view.

2.     How persuasive are you?

Do people take to what you say easily, without you having to shout them down? Do you see more smiles and nods rather than perplexed frowns when you talk about your ideas? Are people able to see benefits easily and accept what you say enthusiastically, rather than spitting out objection after objection? Sure, you might want to engage  particular groups of people, but isn’t it better to make sure that most people can understand what you say? This, by the way, is one of my biggest issues!

3.     How well do you network?

Be honest. What do you know about networking? What is the level of your networking now? With whom do you network? Why would others want to get to know you? Do they want to get to know you because they can sell you something easily, get you to help them sell their stuff, or because they gain so much value just by being around you?

Think about just these three simple things – how good you are at your current job, how persuasive you really are, and how well you network. Not what you’d like to be and do, but what you are right now! Don’t think that you’ll get good at these three things when you fire your Boss and become an entrepreneur! You need to start now!

Guess what? When you improve in these three things, you might just decide to stay in your current organization! If you still want to move out on your own, well, you’ll probably succeed anyway!