Relax, there is no ‘right’ way to be an entrepreneur
Nowadays it is all too easy to read or hear about successful entrepreneurs and how they ‘made it’ or read a listicle from Business Insider/Inc/Entrepreneur etc. that explains the skills that ‘all’ entrepreneurs must have to succeed. Let’s be realistic, while there is some truth in these, they are not definitive requirements. Let me explain.
You hear stories about the person who became a billionaire at 22, 2 years after starting their business, working all the hours under the sun and having no friends. Consider this; the reason you hear this story is because it IS remarkable and sensational, it doesn’t mean that is how YOU have to do it and most likely won’t be how you will. For all the Snapchats, Googles and Facebooks there are also the Infors, the Global Switches and the Taniums who I am guessing you most likely haven’t heard of but are all valued at over $3bn and also haven’t been around for that long (2002, 1998, 2007 respectively in case you were wondering). But this is generally just because they are not in as popular or ‘sexy’ industries and don’t have the same dramatic stories behind their growth.
For sure, starting your own business will probably mean you will be working more hours, but then again it might not; it depends how hands-on your business is, how fast you want to grow, what sort of organisational structure you decide to put in place (when you have staff) and a myriad of other factors.
Articles that say you ‘have to’ be this or that are generally:
- Anecdotal — based on hearsay and entrepreneurial folklore (circles are generally quite tight and insular, perfectly ripe for story-telling)
- Focussed on a small minority of successful entrepreneurs — to be fair they are generally the more interesting experiences
- Ignore the fact that while the most common ‘skills’ or features of successful entrepreneurs are x and y, that those x’s and y’s only appear in maybe 20% (numbers for illustrative purposes only) of the successful entrepreneurs, but an article saying “here are the 1001 skills successful entrepreneurs have”, is less clickable than “7 skills to make you rich!”
So don’t think that just because you aren’t prepared to sell your family down the river in a heartbeat or work 120 hours a week that that you can’t still be a success. There is no right way to succeed, and no harm in carving your own path.
Now put down that listicle and start writing your own story.
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