From Seth Godin:

Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself.

Odds are, you’re doing it poorly.

If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you’d quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much as your time as you do, they’d fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under.

If you work for yourself, you’ve got no one to answer to, ultimately, but yourself. How much time do you spend on training, professional development and networking? How much money do you allocate in your budget every year for these things?

As you start 2011, think about not only how you’re working on developing your business, but also how you’re developing its most valuable asset: yourself.