[Business of Design] Owning a business...or not.

Which you think you’d enjoy more: designing your own business or innovating within an existing business?

Hmmm....this is a tough question if there can only be one answer. For the three and a half years before coming to grad school I worked as a freelance designer and it was hard. Really hard. During my second year of freelancing it took me about 14 hours to do my taxes (the first year was easy because I hardly made any money), invoicing was a pain, health insurance companies are terrible, etc.

At this point in my life, when I finish grad school, I want to innovate within an existing business. I am looking forward to the perks of a benefits package and -- as Alexander Levit puts it -- the ability to turn off [my] BlackBerry without jeopardizing the company’s future.

However, that's not to say I want to work for The Man for the next 35 years. I think it's fair to assume at some point in the future I'll get sick of working for someone else and head off to do my own thing. Lately I have been thinking that it is OK to have multiple careers throughout a lifetime; I like this idea. I think it's exciting and allows yourself room to change. Plus, it allows me to focus on what I want to do now and spend less time worrying about whether I will be happy with my chosen course 15 or 20 years down the line.