For goodness’ sake, please do not start your own startup. There is nothing great about being an entrepreneur. The top one percent of successful entrepreneurs are over glamorized and romanticized, to say the least, at tech conferences and media interviews.
The royal road to the land of rainbows, IPOs, and billion-dollar exits is narrow, insidious, and covered with the bloodied carcasses of donkeys pretending to be the next unicorn. If you wander close enough to one, you might almost hear them whisper their last words, “But my product is the next Uber of…” For every Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Ma or Elon Musk, there will be almost 10,000 “wantrepreneurs” who claim to be the next big thing, walking around tech conferences in a suit and throwing out nicely embossed business cards to anyone they make eye contact with.
If you’re looking for corporate freedom by starting your own startup, do not walk down this path. If you’re starting a startup just because of the glorious fables of million-dollar exits, do not start your own startup. If you are looking for fame and bragging rights, my advice is for you to wake up, head back to that cubicle, and get to work. If you want to create a startup just because you have a brilliant business idea that you believe is the next Uber or Airbnb or [insert unicorn here] of whichever industry, I am going to stop you right there.
You will not want to wander down this god-forsaken path with naivety and ignorance. There is grave danger in mistaking childlike faith for blind stupidity disguised as positivity and an optimistic can-do spirit.
Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, not an occupation. If there are images of private jets, yacht parties and public speeches a la Jordan Belfort in The Wolf on Wall Street appearing in your head as I mention “lifestyle”, you cannot be more wrong. When I say “lifestyle”, I mean that entrepreneurship will invade your life like a Spartan warrior on steroids, filling your days with sacrifices, endless long nights, instant noodles dinners, constant heartaches, and a non-existent social life. An entrepreneur with a good work-life balance is as mythical as Bigfoot.
If you are not ready to sacrifice precious time with your family or your significant other, do not walk down this path. If you are not ready for 70, 80-hour work weeks for a good five years, rethink your options (ha, talk about “corporate freedom”).
Entrepreneurship is a daylight nightmare. You will bend over backwards in a feeble attempt to market your product while raising funds and finding, hiring, and keeping talents around you. You worry about a thousand things on a daily basis and juggle another thousand on the go. And when you go to bed, you will literally sleep like a baby – sleeping for a couple of hours and then waking up crying and panicking.
I can almost see some of your smug faces reading this and scorning, “I had already secured capital funding for a runway of X months. Nothing can go wrong.” I would congratulate you for securing seed funding or a successful Series A round but may I suggest to you that this is not yet the end. It’s the beginning. Now, you need to manage the expectations of your investors and key stakeholders. Consider the fact that you now have a direct stake in the livelihood of your employees. There is no room for self-doubt or negativity in the face of failure. If you’re not relentless in character and enduring in integrity, then entrepreneurship should not be your cup of tea.
So, what exactly is my point of writing this, if not to discourage new and eager entrepreneurs? I will come to that, but first, allow me to illustrate my experience as an entrepreneur.
I was a “wantrepreneur.” I wanted the glorified and empowered lifestyle of being my own boss and creating a legacy I can call my own. I did secure seed funding, but I could not endure the constant beating of being an entrepreneur. The 80-hour work weeks caused me to make sacrifices that I simply could not afford. I was eloquent in communicating my business ideas, but in actual fact, I possessed neither the real-world expertise nor the guts to get my hand dirty and work on the idea.
At the end of my one-year stint, I was down to my final dollar in my bank account. Not only had I lost money and time; I lost friendships and relationships. However, in exchange, I did gain something in the process; I learned two valuable lessons.
Not any Tom, Dick and Harry can be an entrepreneur.
You need more than capital and expertise to start your own startup. What’s on the outward is nothing compared to what’s inside. Connections and capital can get you to your destination quicker, but if you do not have the tenacity, fighting spirit, and perseverance to stomach the roller coaster ride, you’d probably fall out midway. Entrepreneurship is a mindset and an attitude. Not everybody can endure, much less enjoy, this journey. But don’t be discouraged just yet. Here’s the second lesson.
No one is born an entrepreneur.
As brilliant as Mark Zuckerberg is, no one told him as a child that he was going to kick ass and create one of the largest and strongest social networks ever seen by man. While there are innate traits that makes someone a better entrepreneur, chances are those characteristics can be trained. Take risk-taking for example. While some people can take calculated risks better than others, it does not mean people who are more conservative in their choices cannot be good entrepreneurs. Given enough time and support, anyone can learn to take calculated risks equally well as the more adventurous founders.
Which brings me to my point of this article. Why be an entrepreneur? I want to show the sobering reality to young entrepreneurs who are mesmerised by the glamour of entrepreneurship. You need to love what you do and have the passion to change the world into a better place before taking the leap of faith. If there is anything I learned from conversing with startup founders, it is that they have sparks in their eyes and fire in their belly. They possess contagious courage and unwavering tenacity, which will help them walk a route that could either lead them nowhere, or make the the world a better place.
So now, are you still sure you want to create your own startup? Failure is almost guaranteed. There’s a joke in the startup world that goes, “for every 10 startups you see in the market, 11 of them will fail.” It’s not easy, but I am betting that last dollar in my bank account that it’s going to be worth it.