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Some people, when they start an Alpha 2.0 business or want to start one, just want to make a good income and be free from 9-5 job slavery. These people have no interest in managing a bunch of people, which is often a pain in the ass. They just want to do their thing while setting their own schedule and making a good income while being location-independent.

Other people are very different. They want to start and grow a “big” business where they make tons of money and drive Lamborghinis and stuff.  They have no problem managing a bunch of people because they (usually) realize that managing a bunch of people will be necessary to make that fat cash. Other types of these people are more extroverted and enjoy being a leader and directing a team. Unlike the first type of people I described above, these people want to manage other people.

Both of these models are perfectly valid and they both work. They both fall into Alpha 2.0 and Unchained CEO business parameters. The issue is not which of these people are right or wrong, since this is all a matter of subjective opinion based largely on things like your upbringing and personality.

The issue is which of these two categories is right for you.

One of them will make you very happy. The other will make you miserable. Your job is to, of course, pick the one that will make you happy. And everyone is different about this.

In case you didn’t already know, one of the rules of an Alpha 2.0 business is that you don’t hire any employees. This means no one on salary, what Americans call “W2” employees. But as I’ve said many times, “no employees” doesn’t mean “no one helps you and you have to do it all yourself.” My largest company (this one, Unchained CEO) has around 20 people in it, but none of them are employees. They are all virtual assistants or subcontractors.

That’s the way you want it. When you have real employees, your collapsing Western government will shove its big fat face into your company and tell you when and how to hire these people, fire them, train them, pay them, and manage them. That isn’t freedom. I’d rather you manage your company instead of your collapsing, corrupt, quasi-socialist, quasi-corporatist Western government.

Am I saying it’s impossible to be free while owning a business with employees? No. It’s indeed possible and I’ve seen a tiny handful of humans pull it off, many of them largely because of luck. I’m just saying it’s much harder to do. Even if you do it, you’re exposed to all kinds of possible future legal, financial, and logistical problems that I am not by not having any employees.

The point here is that you can have as many people in your company (non-employees) as you want or need to hit your financial goals. Like I said, I have about 20 in my largest and I intend on growing this number to about 30-35 people when my business is all done and structured exactly the way I want it with the income I want.

That’s where it gets tricky. The rule of thumb is that, speaking generally, the more money you want to make, the more people you need in your company, which means the more people you’ll need to manage.

I’ll explain that statement because there’s a lot to it.

If all you want to make is the Unchained CEO income minimum of USD 85,000 per year or a little more, say $120,000 a year or something like that, then you can indeed do that by just working with one or two part-time admin assistants or less. I’ve done this myself and I know many others who do this.

You could even make that kind of money all by yourself not including the two or three times per year you might need technical help or have to pay your accountant. Moreover, the good news there is that very soon AI will replace low-end tech nerds and all accountants, so then you won’t need anyone to help you at that income level. Nice.

This can all be beneficial because managing people in your business is a pain in the ass. Most business owners do not enjoy it, including me. Most entrepreneurs want to spend their time doing the thing their business does (building, scaling, consulting, writing, marketing, coaching, whatever). They do not want to spend their time telling people what to do, onboarding or training people, hiring people, firing people, correcting their mistakes, getting upset when they screw up or don’t meet deadlines, mediating arguments between two or more of your team members (I hate that one the most), enforcing culture and team policies, and otherwise acting like an HR manager.

Your thought might be, “Just hire someone in your business to manage everyone then.” Yes, that’s a good idea once your team gets big enough and you should absolutely do this when you’re ready. However, that doesn’t mean that suddenly you don’t need to manage anyone anymore. You still have to:

1. Directly manage that manager.
2. Also directly manage the people outside of the purview of that manager since that manager isn’t going to manage everyone in all of your departments (operations, finance, sales, marketing, admin, etc). A person who manages everyone in your company is called a COO, and they’re extremely expensive, you have to place your entire company in the hands of this person, and it’s unlikely your company will ever grow large enough to warrant such a hire anyway.
3. Get involved if/when that manager has conflicts with anyone under him/her, which can and will happen because most humans aren’t outcome-independent and have these irritating things called “emotions” which tend to flare up from time to time.
4. Work with and manage people who can’t be managed by anyone else, like your lawyers and tax professionals. You’ve got to work with these people directly forever, unfortunately.

So no matter what you do, if you grow the size of your business, you are going to do more managing to some degree whether you like it or not. There’s no getting around this.

The question then becomes, “Do I want the big money bad enough that doing this extra irritating managing all the time is worth it?”

Again, to be clear, there is no right or wrong answer to that question. It’s totally up to you.

For most business owners that answer is no. They stay small, do everything themselves, never have to worry about managing, and that works for them (as long as you make $85K/year or more!).

For other business owners, myself included, that answer is yes.

I’ll give you my view on this as an example. Like I said, I hate managing. I’m an outcome-independent, INTJ, low-emotion, low-empathy, results-oriented, workaholic introvert. The last thing I want to, and I mean the last thing I want, is to be a boss or a “leader” and manage anyone for any reason whatsoever. Kill me, bro. I just want to be left alone, work hard, do my thing, make a lot of money, and live my amazing life.

However, I’m also ambitious, have very big goals, and am driven by a strong Mission that has deep and spiritual meaning for me. This means my financial goals are far beyond normal humans and have been for most of my adult life. My annual income and net worth objectives are not near billionaire levels (I already live a better life in many respects than most billionaires) but they are significant.

This means scale, and scale means I need to work with lots of people in my companies.

Lots of people means more managing for me which I don’t like. Still, the money I want (and all the freedom and security that comes with it) plus the fulfillment of my personal Mission is more than worth the extra few hours per week I have to spend working on irritating shit like managing humans.

My objectives also include backing off from day-to-day management functions once my businesses are “all done.” This means when I hit certain goals (which will take some time), I will still have to do some managing but much less than I have to today or over the next few years as I continue to scale.

When you read all of that, your brain is either reacting with disgust (“Wow, good thing I’m not like Caleb, that all sounds horrible”) or it’s reacting with excitement (“OMFG that’s exactly what I want too! I wish Caleb would talk more about that!”).

Either one is great. Now you know which category you’re in. You’re either the kind of person who wants to make around $85K-$150K/year and that’s it, keeping your business small and simple and fun, or you’re the ambitious excited type who wants to make six, seven, or eight-figures and build a big team to do it that you’ll have to manage.

Pick one path and stick with it. You’ll be happier that way.

There’s also a possibility that you’re still not sure. If that’s you, then you need to give this some serious thought and figure this out. The sooner you determine this and choose your path, the happier you’ll be, the easier your business will be to grow, and the fewer problems you’ll experience.

I’ve personally seen business owners who picked the wrong path and ended up doing the opposite of what they really wanted to do. It never ends well, so figure this out as fast as you can.

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