Ep 11: Corporate First, Entrepreneur later

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Before we built businesses, we survived the trenches.

In this episode of The Ron Table, Nicole Gray, Laine Belcastro and I unpack how corporate America—love it or hate it—can actually sharpen you for entrepreneurship. From bad bosses and office politics to endless approvals and Kool-Aid culture, corporate life is less a career ladder and more like Shawshank: you crawl through the muck, but you come out tougher.

We talk about:

• Why a tour through corporate is the best (and cheapest) training for future entrepreneurs.
• The “Five Ps” corporate life teaches you: Process, Policy, Politics, People, and Pacing.
• Learning when to play the game… and when to break the rules.
• How scars from corporate trauma actually prepare you to survive entrepreneurship’s chaos.
• Why burning bridges on the way out is the worst rookie mistake you can make.

Don’t downplay the time you spent in the system—it might just be the playbook that fuels your rebellion.