The Skeletons in the Closet of Entrepreneurship

“You suddenly realize this space that you didn’t realize was there before, you realize that you’re different” — Dakota Younger
Dakota recounts his early feelings of becoming an entrepreneur. He shares that most people don’t share his passion for entrepreneurship. “Most of my family and friends don’t understand why I take the risks that I do. They can’t understand why I would work long hours, and take what seems to be a constant punishment.”
Dakota is not alone in his feelings. In fact, 500 startups begin their new batches with a warming, as is true in Dakotas case. There warning goes as follows. When something doesn’t go as planned, not if, but when something goes wrong, be smart, and talk to us.
It’s easy to believe that everyone around you is having success after success. After all, how many stories get published about failing and coming up short. It’s important that these success stories are only half of the larger picture. Dakota share’s his experience as a founder:
“Most days are filled with complete failure and sometimes if I’m doing it right with success. So if you’re feeling the same thing, don’t feel like you’re doing it wrong. Don’t feel like you’re stupid, don’t feel like there’s not a way to get to where you want to be.”
There’s this glamorization about entrepreneurship that you will become the next big thing. Your family and friends will cheer you on, funding won’t be a problem, and you’ll be on every publication. For many entrepreneurs, this is far from reality. For many, they’re in the early stages of the 10-year overnight success, and it’s not pretty.
First off, it’s not going to happen overnight. Remember those failures I brought up earlier; those are real. It takes time to fail, and it takes time to learn from those failures. The most you can do is to fail quickly, to fail often, and to keep going. Bear in mind failure is only part of the puzzle.
Doubt is going to become your new best friend. Your friends, family, and even your spouse are going to have their doubts. Why shouldn’t they, building a business is no easy task. Take a look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and you’ll see that about 50% of companies do not make it past five years. The numbers don’t stop there, take a look at the “PitchBook Venture Monitor” report. You’ll see that many startups don’t receive funding and the numbers are on the decline.
Starting a business is far from the media portrayal of entrepreneurship. It’s a painful, scary, and lonely process, though to get away from the gloom I offer you this. When I asked Dakota how he kept going, regardless of the obstacles, he had this to say:
It changes every day. Whatever you can use to get yourself out of bed is what you go with. This failure is only permanent if I let it be. That’s where the grit comes. If I push this forward, and I fall forward one more time, I’m in a different place. No one else is going to come in and take care of it for me.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article, stay tuned for more. If you missed the first post you can click here and be directed to it. To listen to the part two discussion with Dakota, click here. As always, a huge thank you to Dakota, Bill, and the Boon team for making this happen.
Dakota and Bill are the founders of the internal referral platform Boon. Boon is well on it’s way to revolutionizing the recruitment process and I encourage you to view their content here.
