I remember the exact moment I made the decision to become an entrepreneur. I was 18, working in the US on a Christmas tree lot. I would take the tree that the customer wanted, saw off the lower branches and secure it to their car. I was paid $3.25 an hour. The boss – who was a tyrant – had no respect for me, knowing that I could be replaced with 30 other students waiting to take my job.

One day, I started to do the sums in my head. Each tree sold for around $50, and myself and the four other workers in the same position each got through four trees an hour. The boss was making $6500 a day, while on the busiest days I was earning a maximum $32.50.

I knew I wanted to be on the other side of this deal, to be the entrepreneur. I even came up with a way to streamline the process, so that each worker could process up to ten trees an hour. Excited with this innovation, I presented the idea to my boss, and asked for a raise.

He fired me.

Why let someone else make money out of your talents? Your boss is making money – probably a lot of money – out of your gifts.

A rebel entrepreneur understands their own worth. If they have to temporarily work for a boss, they are aware that their boss is profiting off their talents. They will learn from the experience and prepare themselves to jump off that cliff into entrepreneurship. As Jack Welch once said “Control your own destiny or someone else will.”