Being an Entrepreneur Sucks
Disclaimer: I decided to write this because I have a lot of people ask me what it’s like being an entrepreneur and how they can become one. I’m still early into my journey of being an entrepreneur, so I thought it might be useful to share my experiences with others. I wrote this in one sitting, without editing. So please excuse any typos and grammatical boo-boos.
Reach for your dreams…they said. Being an entrepreneur is fun…they said. When you’re an entrepreneur, you get to be your own boss and make all the decisions…they said. Being an entrepreneur is sexy…they said.
Well, they lied…mostly. Being an entrepreneur sucks, and if you try it without the right motivations and mindset, it will probably be the worst experience of you life.
Think of it this way…let’s say you make toast every morning for breakfast, but then decide one day that you’re not satisfied and are going to design a better toaster. Maybe you want to program it to start at a certain time, automagically (that’s the technical term). Well, in the course of designing your new toaster, you’re going to burn your toast 9 times out of 10, and 2 out of 10 times you’re also going to nearly burn your house down, because let’s be honest, you probably won’t have a real good idea what you’re doing. Of course, no one likes eating burnt toast, so you go hungry 9 out of 10 days and a couple of those you’re doing damage control on top of that. I’m not saying you’re literally going to starve, but it may metaphorically feel like it.
I’m very early into my entrepreneurial pursuits, but I make the mistake just about every month of thinking “this is the month, and things will start looking up”. It rarely happens as fast as you think it will or should, so you end up not getting to eat your toast for a lot longer than you planned. We’re about 6 months in and seeing good validation with a few early clients, but still probably 3–6 months from really affirming we’re on to something big. Oh, and as for the house burning down, the Monday after I officially left Eleven Fifty to work full-time on PropelUp, I found out my car needed a $1,500 repair.
The most common thing I hear from would-be entrepreneurs is they don’t know how they can afford to start a company and continue to support themselves, if single, and/or their family. If you can’t figure out how to do that, you should, at most, go work for a funded startup, not lead your own. That was more my situation when I helped Scott Jones launch Eleven Fifty since I had less than $200 to my name. The way I’ve done that so far, other than being single, is by carefully planning ahead when I was still a salaried part of the Eleven Fifty team. I put away 50% of what I made, which wasn’t a ton, into savings. After buying a house (I have roommates that pay me rent now!), I only had about $5k left when I started PropelUp. My current average monthly personal cash burn is at about $600/mo. That’s burn, as I’ve still been able to make a little bit of income through different ways, including driving for Uber.
I think the most important thing on your personal finances is to understand where you’re at, what you’re willing to risk (it’s, literally, the house for me), and have a realistic plan on how much runway you have (and plan for it to take a last twice as long as you initially think). As I’ve told numerous people, I think hard about every single dollar I spend and make sure I can justify it. I’m not on a ramen diet, and I still do the occasional “fun” thing that costs money. That being said, there are numerous times that I’ve declined going out to eat, get drinks, go to a concert, etc. with friends because I know I don’t have the money to afford it. That’s painful and even a bit embarrassing at times, but most of them get it, I think. If they don’t, then I don’t really care; I’ve got more important things to worry about.
So why the hell have I taken the route of being an entrepreneur?
I think part of me enjoys the suffering. The good days are like a highly addictive drug that I want more of. For me, the good days with PropelUp are when we help developers be more confident in their jobs and execute more efficiently. We started PropelUp because I hate when companies say things like “We’d love to hire an individual, and need to, but we can’t hire this one because they’re junior and we don’t have the internal capacity to ramp them up.” That typically results in the company also suffering because the role goes unfilled. We’re changing that dynamic with PropelUp by giving companies access to trainers and mentors that can provide the necessary lift.
If you aren’t willing to suffer, don’t be an entrepreneur. Just don’t. Go work for one, and you’ll still have fun. There are lots of skills that I think are widely accepted as being part of what makes a good entrepreneur (leadership, decisiveness, financial prowess, etc.) that are also needed, and of which, I don’t know how highly I would rate myself, currently. What I am willing to do is suffer, and suffer until we get it right and succeed in our mission.
If you want to find out more about why we started PropelUp, check out our site, www.propelup.io You should also check out the great things we’re doing at the Eleven Fifty Companies at www.elevenfifty.org and www.elevenfiftyconsulting.com.
