The entrepreneur initially may have good intentions. Create a new product or service. Innovate and save the world. Replace the old with the new and better.

But the devastating truth is that the fruits of entrepreneurship benefit the 1%. And its the 1% of 1% (1 in 10,000) who become rich. And 1% of those (1 in a million) become famous.

In “legitimate” business, “winner” takes most. Or more honestly, almost everyone gets scraps.

Entrepreneurs may start out trying to create their own little piece of the pie. But actually the cake will swallow them! In business, in capitalism, power and money is concentrated in the few. And those in power don't share.

When economic reality sets in, the idealistic entrepreneur who “went big” is now struggling to survive. The entrepreneur sees the 1% and feels inadequate and unhappy. Our “hero” is usually overworked and lives in fear, may suffer from mental illness, and is often lonely and quite stressed. Just work better and harder for longer to become the 1% of the 1%. Money is never enough.

Millions are fooled by the entrepreneur’s paradox. Why look down when you can look up? Never mind reality or looking at where you are.

In these extreme times of devastating inequality, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the way to make it is to get rich yourself. You will almost certainly fail. You will ruin your health and become emotionally and spiritually devastated along the way even if you don’t. And if you actually “succeed,” you'll still be doing harm by making things seem relatively worse for everyone else.

Don't aim to get rich. You are doing the world a disservice.

The real happiness in life is in ordinary people. The middle. Set your sights on what makes you happy. Do what you love. Help others and the world where it really matters. Live in the present. The best things in life cost nothing. Buy less, own less. Don't strive for material possessions, instead strive for security and freedom. Live with honor. Be unusually grateful and hopeful. Find outlets for your creativity. Be appealing to friends and lovers who like you for who you really are.

Run a business if practical, one that’s sensible and realistic. Strive to work less, and to work smarter. Never gamble. Become an entrepreneur if, where and when the odds are in your favor.

The good news is this will not make you rich. But you will succeed.

Addendum

From my own experience as an independent entrepreneur of seven years, entrepreneurship takes independant thinking, along with dedication and the ability to persevere in times of crisis and instability.

Finding a market niche and finding creative ways to improve your business require the ability to think independently. I would advise giving little attention the mainstream startup media and startup scene which have the unfortunate side effect of narrow your thinking.

The mainstream startup media and startup scene are not primarily focussed on creating sensible independent entrepreneurs, rather their focus is on high-risk ventures controlled by investors, and on the goal of acquisition by larger firms. In these institutions the role of the entrepreneur takes the form of labor for the powers that be, acting like highly-selective human resources agencies for corporations. From the entrepreneur’s perspective, this means not only an extremely high probability of failure, but also a lack of independance, work-life balance, and the other things I mentioned earlier in this article.

The ability to manage one’s self is critical to being an independent entrepreneur.

Personally, I do this by working where I’m most effective, away from the stresses of the world and the tiring grind of the daily commute, and that’s usually at home and sometimes another relaxing location. To balance that out, I spend my free time energetically pursuing my own interests, and actively avoiding most business-related activities and people.

Its necessary to roughly quantify your actions and goals, and make sure the bulk of your work time is spent towards achieving practical, profitable ends. And making sure that for each of your actions the odds are in your favor.

The law of the vital few, or Pareto principle, states that roughly 80% of your results will come from 20% of your actions. Critically, to whatever extent possible, try to eliminate the roughly 80% of your actions which lead to little results. Most of your actions are taking you almost nowhere. Rather, aggressively expand your actions in the areas which you believe will be more effective.

But don't be strict, rather keep yourself open to new ideas and experiments. Its in these seemingly random iterations and creative bursts when you’ll discover some of your greatest advances. But on the other hand, don't let yourself endlessly iterate to the point where you're almost going nowhere or are even going in circles. Move on quickly once your actions seem ineffective.

Learn to learn quickly and inexpensively. The slow and expensive way to learn something is to build a business. Research and lightweight experiments will get you that same knowledge, but much faster and much less painfully. Often times many others have been down the same path as you, and probably also failed along the way. Scour the web for information about those often invisible failures, and also for the latest iterations by companies which seem to be in the lead.

Its important to also respect your body’s natural rhythms as humans don't operate like machines, but rather in cycles. I’ll often work extremely hard for a period of a few weeks, after which I find myself emotionally, physically and mentally drained. Then, its critical for me to take a break of a few weeks, during which time I'll usually only dedicate a few hours a week to work.

Its critical to respect your sleep, as this is when your body recharges and builds up its brain — and also when your subconscious works best. Often times it better to just go to sleep and leave a work problem unsolved, only to find that the next day the solution has somehow occurred to you.

One of the most difficult things to accept as an entrepreneur (and as a person) is the ability to criticize and improve one’s self. This means staying extremely open to the suggestions of others, and actively internalising others’ ideas even when they oppose your way of thinking.

The hardest part is finding faults in yourself, some perhaps dreadful, and subsequently adjusting your personality. I personally realised that I myself was engaged in pride, wrath and greed. These negative traits were holding me back, even contributing to my own downfall. Yet I made painful and difficult adjustments, and now I’ve never been better. Unfortunately I’d say that most of us as humans have some negative, and sometimes horrible characteristics. Usually we're mostly blind to our own faults. But once we're willing to look deeper, and confront ourselves, we can then truly prosper both personally and as entrepreneurs.

Second Addendum

Develop systems to automate as much of your business as practical, and keep refining and rebuilding those systems as needed. But make sure you only build systems if they help you meet your goals. Create systems which resist entropy, or the tendency to fall apart over time, by making them flexible, problem-resistant and robust. Systems are only as good as your ability to maintain them, so make yours as simple as possible. Build your systems on platforms and with partners that are inexpensive, open, stable and that you expect to be around a long time.

When it comes to developing a product or service, don't simply look to find customers. Look instead, at if customers actually exist. Chances are, almost no real customers will even exist for what you're offering! There may be many people who say they like or even love your product, but would they pay for it? If they didn't know you? Given all the other unnecessary products and numerous distractions in life?

Instead of looking to prove that your idea works with customers, look to disprove it. Be prepared for the reality that you'll almost certainly abandon your idea when you realise its something that’s simply not needed. You will also need a channel which continually brings you significant quantities of customers, at a profitable cost. Try to find out if such a channel even exists. Chances it doesn’t. But don't be discouraged. When your idea fails, move on quickly to the next idea or iteration.