Change Agent - Issue 34

You have time. Time is on your side in two ways. First, you have time to work on the important stuff, because your business isn't huge. Since you're not being pulled in a hundred directions, you can focus on what matters. Second, at least for a little while, you can compress time. Every employee at Bloomingdale's won't pull an all-nighter to get something out the door. But you can. And because you can compress time, you can get stuff done much, much faster.

Even if you do work for a big company, it may not be too late to start acting like a small company. You may still have time to realize that the assets that you count on are disappearing -- and to work hard to put yourself out of business. And if you work for a big company that won't listen to you, then it's time to leave. Hurry! Put your former employer out of business -- before someone else does!

Seth Godin (sgodin@fastcompany.com) is the author of "Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers" (Simon & Schuster, 1999) and the founder of Yoyodyne Entertainment.