The Trouble With Being Your Own Boss

Scott Stallings's business is golf. He's blogging for BNET from the Nationwide Tour as he travels about 300 days a year in pursuit of a PGA Tour card. Click here to find all of Scott's posts.
I didn't make the cut of five under par at the Albertson's Boise Open last week.

I'll admit it. I'm only five weeks out from the end of the season and I let bad habits creep into my game. I was getting sloppy.

In some ways, it's only natural to start going through the motions -- especially at this point on the Tour. I've been traveling and playing tournaments nonstop for the last five weeks. Every shot matters all season long, but now more than ever each shot affects how much money I make and where I stand on the Money List -- not to mention whether or not I go to the PGA Tour next year. I can't afford to slack off.

But now is the time when it gets tough to be my own boss.

Only three years ago, I was playing golf on the team at Tennessee Tech University. There were no distractions of being on the road 300 days a year. I had a coach who dictated when I played and when I practiced. He acted as our boss -- and none of what he said was optional.

Going pro meant losing a lot of that structure. If I don't feel like practicing, no one is going to make me.

Like most entrepreneurs, I love the freedom of not answering to anyone except myself. But it comes with a lot of challenges: Do I know myself well enough to know when I'm overdoing it? Am I honest enough to admit when I'm not putting in the time I need to get better? These are things that I constantly struggle with.

I could be the kind of player who puts all his faith in his own power to make decisions, the kind who decides on his strategy, doesn't take feedback, and never second guesses whether or not his strategy is actually sound. But I've tried that. It didn't work out so well.

At this point in my career, I know I need to lean on a few key advisers who can give me the kind of feedback that I need to hear -- even when I don't want to hear it.

Last week, for example, my swing coach called my caddy and they did something of an intervention. He asked my caddy how I had been doing this and that in my game over the last few weeks. And they came to the same conclusion: I wasn't paying enough attention to my pre-shot routine. This is something golfers rehearse so that every time they hit, they focus on exactly what they need to do. Usually I get behind the ball, pick my target, visualize what kind of shot I want to make, and then walk into the ball. It's very simple, but I'm thinking about a lot in those 30 seconds and it's the best way to gather my thoughts and a sense of calm so that when I'm finally standing over the ball, all I'm thinking about is a good swing.

In the last few weeks I had let this routine slip and they had noticed that it was throwing me off my game.

Now, when my swing coach gives me feedback, he can absolutely wear me out. He holds me accountable in great ways -- that's why we work so well together -- but he's also not afraid to keep my ego in check. The danger I see as a pro golfer, especially the longer you play, is to want to shut out people like this. (I'd be willing to bet other business owners run the same risk.) The more confident you become, the less willing you are to admit when you're wrong, or in my case, being lazy. And I was definitely getting lazy.

When I start to feel this way, I remind myself of the business/sports book, Moneyball by Michael Lewis. It's about how coach Billy Beane turned the Oakland A's into an elite team by figuring out which player traits translated into wins on the field. It turned out that a lot of the guys who looked the part -- the ones who were handpicked based on high school stats to join the pro leagues -- never developed into great players. Their sense of entitlement was huge and it got in the way.

But the undervalued guys who worked their way up were the ones who tended to turn pro and stay there and eventually become world-class players.

The takeaway for me: I may be calling the shots now in my own career and doing fairly well but the minute I start to feel like I've got it all figured out, is the moment when I know I don't.

So I'm getting my pre-shot routine back in shape and I'm working with my swing coach on rooting out the bad habits that I don't necessarily pick up on as we head into the final five tournaments of the season. The real dose of humility, however, will come next week. I'll head to the Oceanside Test Facility where Titleist reps will pick apart every little detail of my game and analyze what I do well and what is preventing me from playing my best. Stay tuned.

Find out where Scott ranks on the Nationwide Tour here.
Follow him on Twitter @stallingsgolf