Entrepreneurship Ain’t for P*ssies: The Ugly Reality You’re Not Ready For
Throwing the Middle Finger to Conventional Business and Forging Your Own Damn Destiny
This post originally appeared in the Visionary Solopreneur Substack newsletter.
Imagine this: You’re sitting in a coffee shop, sipping your frappuccino and eavesdropping on two people talking about starting a business.
One person is raving about building a massive company, while the other seems hesitant, suggesting they stay small and nimble.
You can’t help but listen in.
But here’s the thing: what nobody has ever told them is that the path to building a traditional business or startup can be a complete nightmare.
It’s a road full of stress, burnout, and betrayal. A journey that will leave them feeling empty and broken.
The truth is, starting a business the traditional way demands everything from you. Your time, your money, your sanity.
And even if you do all the right things, there’s no guarantee of success. It’s always been said that 90% of startups fail within the first five years!
Read on as I’ll share with you why traditional entrepreneurship is a trap and a way to destroy everything you hold dear.
So, lean in closer, and let’s dive in.
Let us first unmask the gritty, soul-sucking reality of traditional business models no one wants to admit
You might have seen the movies The Social Network and Pirates of Silicon Valley.
If you haven’t, you are missing a lot. These are two great movies to watch if you are an aspiring entrepreneur.
Both movies tell the story of the beginnings of three great companies — Facebook (in The Social Network), Apple, and Microsoft (in Pirates of Silicon Valley).
For sure there are great traits you can emulate from the protagonists of each movie. But I cited these films for one reason — why this way of becoming an entrepreneur isn’t something you might want.
In The Social Network, we see how Mark’s success is linked to broken friendships and betrayals of trust (he allegedly stole the idea for Facebook from the Winklevoss twins).
All throughout the movie, we see Mark sitting down across a lawyer in a deposition for stealing the idea for his fledgling empire.
One of his best friends — Eduardo, is a witness against him in the deposition because he, Mark, betrayed Eduardo for his new BFF, Napster founder Sean. Eduardo was cut off from the company because Sean thought he was a liability for Mark.
In Pirates of Silicon Valley, we see another kind of shitty entrepreneurship drama unfold.
Steve, the outspoken founder of Apple, and Bill, the geeky kid who founded Microsoft were in an intense pissing contest.
The former stole some innovative ideas from a corporate giant called Xerox. While the latter, Bill, stole Steve’s idea for a great user interface and applied it to Microsoft — Windows was born.
This idea-thievery happened while Steve was showing off and gloating to Bill about how his next generation’s computer would eat the world.
Steve, with his obsession to build the Lisa, wrecks the lives of his employees — making them work days straight and treating them like his bitches.
In real life, the companies depicted in the films all became behemoths of the business world. The founders (yes even Eduardo, Marks’ betrayed friend) became ultra-rich. Mark, Bill, and Steve became tech industry titans.
But as we see, the path they took to get there, whether the movie embellished some facts or not, wasn’t really something to be excited about.
Look, I get it. We’ve all been sold the dream of becoming the next Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
But let’s be honest, starting a traditional business or a startup can be a royal pain in the ass.
Subscribers will get exclusive access to e-books, video courses, and other awesome solopreneurship and affiliate marketing content I will put out. So click on the button now.
You need a shit-ton of initial capital.
They’re lying to you when they say you don’t need money to start a business.
We’re talking tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, let alone millions!
That’s enough to make your wallet cry.
If your idea is really earth-shaking and you need more shit-ton capital? Guess what? You need those damn VCs and other investors to put their hands in your pants so they’ll give you the money.
It’s also stressful as hell.
According to a Gallup poll, entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report feeling stressed than other workers.
Burnout is the new workout for entrepreneurs.
Imagine waking up every morning, feeling like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and you haven’t even had your first cup of coffee yet.
Remember the VCs/investors I mentioned before?
They become your new bosses.
Forget being in business for yourself. You are now in business for them.
You have to please them like a flirty concubine opening your legs wide for them to satisfy their urges for returns on their investments.
Do you fail to do what they want? Out you go. “Pack your shit and let us run the show” is what you’ll hear from them.
You, the founder of the business, get thrown under the bus like you’re an overused harlot who has outlived their purpose.
No f*cking thanks.
And let’s not forget about managing employees.
It’s like herding cats — sometimes they’re all on the same page, but other times they’re scratching up the couch and shitting on your carpet.
You’re constantly dealing with payroll, benefits, and the occasional office drama.
Remember that time your coworker had an affair with the boss? Yeah, dramas like that.
Oh, and did I mention that traditional businesses and startups need your full attention 24/7?
That’s right, kiss your weekends, vacations, and social life goodbye.
Your friends will start referring to you as “The Ghost” because they never see you anymore.
This is one of the reasons why I needed to leave a full-time job. Generally, you cannot have a job and build a successful business.
You will need full commitment or none at all. Doing it part-time isn’t gonna cut it.
The naysayers and hustle-culture evangelists will want to punch me in the face for saying all of this.
They want you to think this is the only way to succeed — hard work, neglecting your relationships and other commitments, and selling your soul to the devil.
Let me tell you why most go through all this trouble when becoming an entrepreneur.
Let us be on the same page about what a business is.
From your vantage point, a business is simply an activity where you offer products, services, or solutions to a target customer/market and you make money from selling such products, services, and solutions.
What makes a business different, usually, from a job or freelance work is a business lets you “scale”. Meaning, you can sell to thousands, or even millions, of customers and clients without additional physical effort from your side.
You will usually hear this “scale” buzzword in startup circles and now, even in the internet marketing world.
A simple way to think of scale is this
Traditionally, it’s hard to achieve scale running the business by yourself.
That’s why you need employees as well as infrastructure (physical and virtual [as in the case of a software business]).
To fund the hiring of employees and building of infrastructure you will need money.
It’s not normal for a startup business to be generating enough sales to fund such so that’s why we always hear about investors and venture capital.
This is truer for those businesses that grow so quickly (i.e., demand for the products increases exponentially in a short amount of time faster than the business can produce the products or render the services).
Before the revenue starts growing the business has to first hire more people and build more infrastructure.
Where to find the money for this if the business hasn’t generated enough or if you, the entrepreneur, don’t have deep pockets?
Those damn investors!
And even if you succeed at this, you end up being a slave to the monster you create (go back to the previous section to imagine again and again and again the horror).
Isn’t there a better way?
Truth bomb — traditional entrepreneurship is a sucker’s game.
It’s a game that leaves you stressed, burnt out, and beholden to investors and their whims.
It’s a game that demands your full attention, leaving no room for anything else in your life.
It’s a game that rewards betrayal, backstabbing, and winning pissing contests. It’s a game that sucks your soul dry and leaves you feeling empty inside.
So, if you’re tired of the traditional entrepreneurship bullsh*t and ready to take charge of your life, it’s time to throw the middle finger to it and forge your own damn destiny.
It’s time to say goodbye to the old ways and embrace a new path forward.
In the next post, we’ll dive deep into the world of solopreneurship and show you how to throw off the shackles of traditional business models.
If you want to be a true entrepreneur, it’s time to break the rules and forge your own ones.
Stay tuned and get ready to unleash your inner badass.
Subscribers will get exclusive access to e-books, video courses, and other awesome solopreneurship and affiliate marketing content I will put out. So click the button now
Now that you’ve heard our take on the topic, we want to hear from you!
What are your thoughts on traditional entrepreneurship?
Let us know in the comments!
If you found this post helpful or thought-provoking, please hit the heart and share this with your friends and colleagues.
You don’t know who may benefit from the thoughts and views presented here and in the comments.
Two Comma Dojo subscribers get exclusive access to e-books, video courses, and other awesome solopreneurship content. So signup now and don’t miss these goodies
