How Hashtag Entrepreneurs Influence Our Perception (The Wrong Way)

Entrepreneurship is hard. “It’s like eating glass and staring into the abyss”. This is the comment that Elon Musk made during his speech at Draper University, while describing the true nature of entrepreneurship.

His other comment was “Don’t do it” — a pretty devastating point of view, for those who were looking for a pat on a shoulder and a friendly wink instead, encouraging to embark on the proverbial entrepreneurial path.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Elon Musk is right. Launching and scaling a startup is no walk in a park. In fact, it feels more like a scene from a war movie, where a squad of soldiers, covered in dirt and blood, are charging through the minefield, under heavy enemy fire, with captain making all things possible to keep his men alive. One wrong move, and the entire operation might go south.

Indeed, founders must overcome quite a few challenges, if they hope to keep their dream alive: from putting together a team, to getting to the product/market fit, to raising capital. But there is a group of people who are trying to make a living by promoting a different sort of reality.