Don’t Walk into Entrepreneurship Trap with Your Eyes Closed
Now, I am truly triggered. Should do do a thread on this building someone’s dream versus building your own dream thing? Yes? No?
Okay, now I have data. And time. I should address this notion of dream building by only being an entrepreneur by 10am today.
Chris Guillebeau defined purposeful work as the work that gives you joy, puts money in your pocket and provides you an access to flow.
It doesn’t matter where you get these three things. On your own or with an employer, once you have them, you have purpose.
The mistake we often make is that we equate money with work. Joy and happiness be damned. If the money is there we are good.
Another mistake we also make is that we have romanticized the idea of “being my own boss”. It gets worse when “entrepreneurs” look down on employees
This looking down was insidious and finally came to the fore when the middle class was finally wiped out in Nigeria.
Now we have a very large gap between the rich and the poor. With the rich owning businesses and the poor being receptionists and gatemen.
The latter and the former are easy to identify because the receptionists and gatemen are ubiquitous while the business owner are also seen everywhere (on TV).
We do not see the power houses of the business owners, the middle and top management employees who are mostly well paid.
They are only well paid because they are good at what they do. We don’t see them at the gates and on TV. They don’t exist in our consciousness.
So when notions such as “your salary is a bribe to keep you from achieving your dreams” are flown, we immediately see the receptionists and the business owner.
We don’t see the powerhouses who are well paid and can afford what most business owners can.
When people talk about entrepreneurship, what comes to your mind are people like Otedola and Adenuga.
Nobody thinks about the shop owner at Alaba Market or the hustler carrying his laptop up and down looking for contract.
Do you know the difference between the two? Dangote, Otedola, and Adenuga have rich backgrounds.
90% of new ventures die within one year. The chances of success are higher at the second try and the third try often hit gold.
Now ask yourself if you can survive 5 years crashing companies before hitting gold.
Paddy Adenuga probably blew no less than a million dollars in his Lion in the North Sea adventure. He’s probably going to be successful in the next venture.
Do you have that luxury?
Tony Elumelu started off his career as an employee. Folorunsho Alakija also started as an employee. There is nothing wrong with being an employee.
You can pursue your dreams while being an employee. You can crash and burn experimental side hustles while being an employee.
During my MBA, I specialized in Entrepreneurship. One of our professors gave us an excel sheet to calculate our net present value as an employee in a mid-sized organization and also as an entrepreneur.
When we were done, 75% of my classmates went to dust their CV.
We all learned that building options is actually more valuable than hitting the streets because “building my dream”.
I will implore you to ask around about how much bankers who are senior managers and above earn
These people earn money that many of these entrepreneurs you are romanticizing can only raise when they struggle to enter Y Combinator.
Imagine the buffer these people have if they also decide to pursue their dreams. Their chances of success is far higher than yours
Its better to be pragmatic than build castles in the air.
There is nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur and there is also nothing wrong with being an employee. But an employee is more likely to succeed when they decide to pursue their dreams than you who has nothing
A word is enough for the wise. Live your life in your own terms. Don’t be carried away by all these “salary is a bribe” nonsense.
Above all, aspire to have purposeful work — one that will give you joy, provide money to pay your bills and create flow at the same time.
Selah.
Posted February 16, 2018