Apprentice Directors and Trainee Investors

A trainee or apprentice employee is a particularly severe example of a wage slave. They are usually very underpaid, have next to no autonomy or decision making capability in their work, and are subordinate to everyone around them.

The flip side of this is that they generally enjoy diminished expectations and accountability compared to other employees or the business owners, since not as much is expected of them and they are less likely to suffer consequences for mistakes or professional underperformance.

This creates a particularly stark contrast in the case of a junior contributor to a self employer joint venture. At first glance, it seems strange for a junior team member, who is largely reliant on help and instruction from seniors, to be exposed to the full accountability of the business succeeding or failing in the marketplace.

It makes sense however when you consider that no one in a self employer joint venture gets to be “just” an apprentice chef, or trainee receptionist, or junior software engineer. Rather, because they are entitled to make decisions about the business and to receive a share of it’s profits, they are ALWAYS an Apprentice Director, as well as a Trainee Investor.

Learning to make decisions about what businesses to invest their time into, how best to run a business, how to manage business and personal risk, and who to trust as a business partner, is exactly what the professions of investor and director involve.

A junior contributor to a self employer joint venture has the opportunity to practice these investment and directorial skills on a real business, while being supported by more senior and experienced people who have a serious “skin in the game” incentive to provide safe and profitable guidance.

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