Sure, there are wonderful days when things are working even better than I had planned. But then there are also the regular sleepless nights where I wake up puking, just from the stress. And it's been like this for years. It's a great path for the right person, but if you need someone to talk you into starting a business, then you're probably not cut out to be an entrepreneur. Owning a business isn't all it's chalked up to be. Turns out it ends up owning you. And yet, there's an amazing satisfaction that comes from entrepreneurship that you just can't get by working for someone else.
I don't know why, but comments like this rub me the wrong way. Not that I don't agree that entrepreneurship is extremely difficult, it is!... just that I think people have a way of surviving and developing coping mechanisms for whatever life throws at them.
The fact that you have sleepness nights and puke from the stress tells me that you are not cut out for it.. yet, you are doing it...and without regrets.
Humans have a way of being resilliant.There is only one measure that determines if you are cut out for it or not...and that's if you try and it ends up ruining your life.
This idea that entrepreneurs tell others - that they are not cut out for doing a startup is really just a classic case of putting others down to prop yourself up.
If you want to do a startup, DO IT! Don't let others talk you out of it by convincing you that you aren't cut out for it. Short of a therapist encouraging you to avoid it, I would discount that advice as an insecure founder trying to make himself feel better about coping so poorly.
People aren't born ready for anything but shitting and sucking nipples. They learn everything else.
[1] Roll the Dice - https://vimeo.com/78472610
if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.
go all the way. it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail, it could mean derision, mockery, isolation. isolation is the gift, all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. and you’ll do it despite rejection and the worst odds and it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire.
do it, do it, do it. do it.
all the way all the way.
you will ride life straight to perfect laughter, its the only good fight there is.
Could you please try me?
I have a good job as a software engineer at a successful start up. I am introvert and somewhat shy (although less then I used to be). I don't think many people could imagine me as a CEO. Nonetheless here are the reasons I want to start a company:
- I want to do something meaningful. I don't mean curing cancer, but having small, positive impact on other people though software. My current job provides that, but only in very small, indirect way.
- I need to have as much control as possible over what I work on, if my work seems pointless it's a huge demotivator for me.
- My father is an successful entrepreneur and I think that rolemodel influenced me.
- I dream of financial independence in my 30ies (working only when I want to). I know that this is not a good reason, but nonetheless part of my motivation.
EDIT: I rewrote some of this, because my I failed to express myself in my first attempt
Here are my personal highs and lows....
Pros & Highs... - My resume is nifty; neat/awesome jobs are easy to land - Been accredited for creating first of its kind idea - Alway receiving spontaneous applause when demoing due to concepts being novel/cool - Featured in many tech publications - Receiving seed money - Winning awards at tech events - Exciting things happen for weeks in a row
Lows... - Being pretty much broke & in debt - G/f of many years wants stability before kids - Doing this pretty much alone & at my age (late 30s) connecting w/local techies has been tough. Though I've tried. - Nothing going on for weeks in a row - Not able to keep cool job opportunities for more then a year. Those who hire me are cool with my start-ups then not - INSTABILITY!!!
Is it worth it, for me YES, as the highs I noted above can never be experienced at 9 to 5 desk job! Though I do long for stability as I want to have a family.
Are you sure about this? For everyone? How?
Some advice from someone in the trenches.
First, assume that you will never raise a dollar of outside Angel or VC money. Smart, great board, great product, it won't matter. An investor's null hypothesis is that you will fail and it is incredibly difficult to convince them otherwise. If you're the CEO and you don't have Brad Pitt like charisma and you're not a sociopath then it will be very very hard to raise capital.
Second, be prepared for the dreads. The worst part about it is that once these wounds are opened they will be there for life. You're going to wake up at 4:00 and won't be able to sleep because your mind is churning, trying to find some solution to your problem. This usually boils down to insipid growth rates and lack of capital to properly execute.
Third, there will always be 100 things to do and you get to pick 3. What you have will be imperfect. You won't have the metrics you need, and you'll be apologizing for everyhing. It also makes it that much harder to get others to see your vision.
Fourth, the longer it takes you to raise capital the more your team will doubt your competence.
Fifth, you will be rejected every day. VCs, customers, partners, potential employees. This takes a massive psychological toll even as you're get back up to put on that brave face. Unless you are a sociopath it is bound to chip away at your confidence and it may be that split second of doubt that hurts you in your next meeting.
I'm not saying this to be snide. Those problems feel real and scary enough. But as the other replies to this comment demonstrate, there is a vast spectrum of human misery that we live on the far end of.
Anything you can do to remain mindful of that will have the side effect of letting you sleep like a baby, even the night before the big investor meeting.
The "vast spectrum of human misery" exists unless or until someone's mind-churn waking them up at night results in viable solutions and real growth.
It's not one or the other, both are linked situations. There is a seriousness about all the "preoccupation" ... it's even natural and organic in the sense that it is how one hand washes the other in the grand scheme of it all.
My dad has AD and I'm his primary caregiver and compared to caregiving, entrepreneurship with all its pain is literally a fucking joy. Happiest part of my day even when making $0. I've failed at entprenreurship badly for a 2+ years but psychologically I have none of the pain associated with it because I know how much harder life can be.
Don't get me wrong, if I had the chance I would walk away from both but once you've experienced the toll of careigvng, you quit complaining about how hard entrepreneurship is.
I sometimes think that all wannabe entrepreneurs should work as a fulltime caregiver at an old age home or childrens ward at a hospital for 2 weeks. It would lessen the "pain" of entrepreneurship 10 fold.
That would reframe a lot of the pain away and help you focus on what needs to be done to market/sell a product and build it.
The truth is that the "pain" is 100% psychological and most children bought up in middle class and above families have never experienced what it means to have nothing.
Entrepreneurs who have grown up poor don't even understand what I'm talking about when I try to explain this concept.
So volunteer in the peace corps and it'll take away 100% of the pain of entrepreneurship and help you focus on executing.
And working as a minimum wage 'robo-slave' in a pen factory for one week when I was at high school made me realize that this kind of work is no cake either.
Entrepreneurship, however hard, is still one of the easiest methods how to make a living.
The point, from my interpretation, is not that entrepreneurship is mind-numbingly painful but that it is deceitfully painful, while care-giving for an Alzheimer's patient is expected to be painful.
Some advice from someone who has also been in the trenches:
First, you don't need to waste time thinking or complaining about angels and VCs when you start a business you can fund yourself.
Second, if you're expecting growth to come easily and quickly, and you don't have the capital necessary to execute a realistic plan in a realistic amount of time, you're setting yourself up for unnecessary disappointment before you even begin.
Third, if you can't identify the primary drivers of your success and truly believe that you have 100 things to do, you don't have a good understanding of your business.
Fourth, fundraising won't impact your team when you don't need to raise capital.
Fifth, rejection, while hard, is a part of life. Even the most successful salespeople hear "no" far more often than they hear "yes." If you have unrealistic expectations about this and can't maintain a positive attitude unless you close the majority of the people you sell to, you might want to reconsider entrepreneurship.
When I first started seeing results in my business, I quit my job and was able to spend a lot of time doing whatever I wanted. My wife would post pictures of us constantly going on day trips and vacations. It pissed some important people in my life off, and they became very passive aggressive towards me.
It's easy for people who haven't experienced it to assume it's easy to ignore, but when your family members start off by criticizing you, then doubting you, then watching you succeed beyond what they could have imagined, they can end up feeling extremely violated.
I spent the first two years feeling sorry for myself that so and so wasn't talking to me. Now, I've moved on and am stronger than ever.
His take on it was he wasn't going to not do these things because it caused problems, he just wouldn't socialize. When you have kids and your friends don't, they don't want to hear about your kids and yet they are consuming your life. When your an entrepreneur and your friends aren't they don't want to hear about your business and yet your business is all you spend your time on.
1. It's important to separate good and bad forms of envy. Bad envy involves wishing misfortune upon someone. Good envy doesn't. Many people envy Elon Musk, but don't wish him any ill and want him to succeed.
I don't know why I'm wired the way I am, but I'm just not susceptible to envy--at all. However, I hardly think that most people successful or otherwise are like me. In fact, I'd say a good bit of successful people are so because of their envy.
Envy is the worst of the 7 deadly sins. It's like Charlie Munger says, "It's the only deadly sin you're not going to have any fun with."
That is their own personal issue if being proven wrong makes someone feel 'violated'.
For example, one of the people who won't speak to me anymore is a family member who was my biggest hero growing up and the reason why I got into computer programming. I was very angry that he stopped talking to me, and he gave me all sorts of excuses as to why, but his criticisms told the truth of what was really bothering him.
Over time, what I've had to accept is that he has limitations, and he's not the hero I had made him out to be. It's takes time coming to terms with reality that way, especially when you thought so highly of the person to begin with.
The stresses of being an entrepreneur take a tremendous toll and given the risk-taking nature of the condition (entrepreneurialism) I absolutely see those stresses lead to dangerous and addictive behaviors in those who follow an entrepreneurial path - whether it's drugs, drink, sex or gambling I have seen all behaviors triggered in individuals.
The absolutism of your position on what does/does not constitute an alcoholic and what triggers the behavior is misplaced.
i second that; you might increase the amount you're drinking on a dailly basis for a bit of relief, but that has absolutely nothing to do with being an alcoholic.
The problem is, I cannot forego my job income because of upcoming personal situation. Potential customer will not give me lump sum money, and wants to hire me as a consultant, but then I would not be able to sell it to other customers. If I build the product in my spare time, my employer owns it as it is directly in company's field of operation. Angel networking people I have talked to have also asked for a working prototype, but I have none and for building one a good developer will be needed.
So can somebody please give some suggestions on this? Or if someone from Edmonton or Alberta is reading this please get in touch with me @ msedm@outlook.com .
The most crucial first step is to change your frame of mind: you're not bound to any employer, and your personal time is entirely your own.
Develop a prototype in your own time, get lots of feedback to improve it, and suddenly all sorts of avenues and options will be open to you.
You could license it back to your company (for a price); if that's rejected, go somewhere else. It certainly sounds as though there's a gap in the market, so the obvious thing to do would be to fill it - ASAP.
Think of it this way: you're working your way toward financial freedom. Why allow anyone to put obstacles in your way?
Maybe iamshs could switch to another job, perhaps something a bit more part time without the non competes and build the thing on the side then?
The cool thing about running your own business is that you can run it any way you like. Yes, you can work 120 hour weeks, lose your wife, and have your heart attack at 45. But you can also work one 8 hour day per week, with a quick 10 minute email spin on the other weekdays, and spend the rest of your time enjoying your life.
Both of those routes will get your product shipped, fit it to the market, and ramp you up to a full time living if you do it right.
The idea that you have to work yourself into the ground is just a story they tell people to scare them off. The reality is that entrepreneurship isn't particularly hard, particularly stressful, or particularly scary. Unless you want it to be.
By hiring out to vet the idea it reduces the confirmation bias that entrepreneurs face when researching their own ideas. As you noted, it forces an upfront financial commitment on the part of the entrepreneur, helping them realize what it will take to properly fund a startup at scale. It's also a time saver - trying to talk to potential customers (particularly for B2B startups) while holding down a full-time job is very difficult.
Of course, the entrepreneur should still be involved to the greatest extent possible, otherwise any early learning from the customer conversations, MVPs, etc. is lost...
Honestly the entire notion of building my own company and not having the security of a stable paycheck is frightening. But even taking that into account, it doesn't diminish my desire to keep following this path regardless of the risk and warnings I've frequently heard.
Maybe this means I'm "over optimistic" bordering on "completely delusional" but I'll be damned if I don't try and make this work anyways.
I like to surround myself with family and activities I love to recharge my battery. Often when I come back to working on my project the creative ideas come flowing out.
Not if you're picking your battles, planning ahead, and executing right.
[I assume you mean "work late". There's nothing wrong with working hard, 9-5, 5 days a week.]
The entrepreneur is the responsible one that will work hard and work late when he has to. The trick is never having to.
"Management literature is full of guff about how entrepreneurs should embrace failure as a “learning experience”. But being punched in the face is also a learning experience."
- We have chosen this path ourselves, nobody forced us to run our own business and play the startup game.
- We are able to do something we love all day and possibly even make a lot of money doing so.
- We can decide ourselves how much we actually work and how we organize our life (even if most people pretend they can't).
- If our business fails, we can (mostly) just go back working in a high-paying job in industry.
That's not exactly what I call a hard life. If you think it is, you might wanna take a look outside your IT-/Silicon-Valley bubble, where many people get up every day at 5 am, work 12 hours in a job they don't like but can't quit because they need the money and still are barely able to make ends meet. To them, most of our "problems" would be luxuries to have.
That being said, and as a print subscriber to The Economist, I was a bit overwhelmed by this article, which reads like propaganda or cult literature. What I do is hard work, sure, but society doesn't owe me respect for all my hard work (and sympathy for my sacrifices) anymore than they owe farmers or factory workers. And definitely not as much as the guys working on the garbage trucks.
Anyone entering the startup space thinking their lives will be easier is going in with their 'eyes wide shut'. Having said that, if you manage your own personal expectations of being the next Mark Zuckerberg and are realistic, then you should manage.
Always make sure you have more money then you think you need to prove your concept, always estimate longer then you need and always listen to what your body says it needs.
Great article.
Someone in his 20s who has already raised hundreds of millions of dollars and is already a millionaire.
Hardly the example of the struggling entrepreneur the article is warning us about.
This is the #1 priority for me now.
