Working in the corporate jungle can be a grind. The sea of cubicles, the clueless bosses, the meaningless busywork: it’s the stuff of Office Space, The Office, Dilbert, and countless other workplace satires. They’re funny because they’re true. If you haven’t figured it out by now, the entire purpose of this blog is to create an antidote for that. Today, I’m going to zero-in on the mindset of an entrepreneur.

I’ve spent the majority of my career interacting and networking with other corporate-types. There is a whole other breed of professional out there: the entrepreneur. They are small business owners, doing their own thing. I initially thought I’d really have nothing to learn from them. I thought, small business is nothing like big business. The problems are different and the challenges are different. Furthermore, there’s a different ethos. Most entrepreneurs I know have a gag-reflex reaction to the idea of working in a large corporation. Most of them had a taste of it early in their career, then bailed. They think, “I’ll be my own boss, set my own hours, and work in my PJ’s.” They look at what I do with disdain, thinking I’m a lifeless cog in massive soulless machine that’s probably killing the planet. What I do can probably be traced to everything that’s wrong with the world. The classic Mitt Romney defense, “Corporations are people too” comes to mind.

Given this gulf between corporates and entrepreneurs, what can be learned? Is it really just one extreme or the other? I decided to find out.

I started this journey by accident. In my pursuit for high quality, free leadership resources, I stumbled upon a couple of good podcasts that were specifically aimed at entrepreneurs. Most notably is the Entreleadership Podcast. I’ve also frequented Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Work Week), Gary Vaynerchuk, Andy Stanley, and Michael Hyatt (This Is Your Life). In addition to the podcasts themselves, I also got introduced to a number of great books from authors that were interviewed on these podcasts.

I figured, leadership is leadership regardless of the context. It turns out, I picked up quite a few useful ideas. More recently, I started intentionally networking with entrepreneurs. I even joined a leadership roundtable specifically designed to mix corporate and entrepreneurial leaders.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned from entrepreneurs:

Work Like Your Life Depends On It

Starting a business takes an insane amount of work. Those that embark upon that task know the odds are against them. Those that succeed have a tremendous amount of hustle. Working in a corporation can make you soft and stagnant. Leadership means keeping the pressure and discipline to bring the hustle every day, even in the cubicle farm.

Learn to Sell

Personally for me, the #1 reason I’m not an entrepreneur is that I hate selling stuff, and I really don’t like selling myself. Working for a corporation means I don’t have to do that, right? Wrong. Sure, I’m not peddling widgets every day, but as a leader I need to sell ideas, vision, strategy, budgets, and project proposals. Entrepreneurs know how to sell. By hanging out with them, reading the same books as them, and listening to the same podcasts, I’ve grown my skills in this area, and it’s helped become a better leader in my corporation.

Be the CEO of You, Inc

I like working in corporations because it’s fun to be a part of a big team and accomplish tasks of significant scale. That doesn’t mean I’m “working for the man.” I’m working for myself. As I described in my article on Linchpin, corporations aren’t really looking out for their replaceable employees anymore. The economy has changed. Given that, being a leader means taking charge of your own career, like an entrepreneur. I covered the how-to’s of building a personal brand in the digital economy in this article. I’ve also chronicled the steps I’ve taken to proactively manage my career each step of the way, in my Rules for Advancement series. In this way, I’ve led my career like an entrepreneur, even though I’ve been a corporate employee all along.

Ideate, Innovate, and Iterate

Entrepreneurs need to come to market with something novel. It’s not optional. Somehow, corporations get by with surviving on old ideas due to their scale and market penetration, at least for a while. Before your corporation goes the way of the dodo bird, be your corporation’s internal, captive entrepreneur. Reinvent the business from within. It’s hard, but it’s doable. Being a leader means creating change. Try something, fail, then try something else. This is a habit and discipline of its own. Don’t rely exclusively on tried and true best practices. Make your own. Google “Corporate Entrepreneurship” for more on this topic.

Those are the key themes that I’ve learned so far. Are you a corporate leader that hangs out with entrepreneurs? Share your ideas below.