Most of us have dreamed of being your own boss, working and earning to our full potential and not being tied down to anything. But there is only a single way to do this, to take the first step. You need courage and the mindset of an entrepreneur, to test the waters in the ocean of startups.
Entrepreneurship is not for you if any of these are true
- Career growth means a new more exciting title and 10 % growth in salary.
- Life settlement means owning a house, a beautiful wife and two kids.
- Startups are the topic of conversation at every party or weekend get together but nothing is materialized during the week.
- You know how to make a quick buck by fooling people, and you think the same tactic can be applied to a startup.
- According to you the value of one month of your life is not more than one month of your salary.
Even if you take a two week holiday without the approval of your boss, entrepreneurship consider this as one of your strong point, as it is about confronting brutal realities of life where you have to take the risk on a daily basis.
- You seek an expert’s help to move forward in an unfamiliar work situation and are afraid of challenges.
- Just because it says there are 90 % chances of failure, you don’t try new things.
- You dream of being Steve Jobs, but compromise on your ideologies.
- You know everything and are afraid of learning from your juniors and peers, but learn things from CEOs because that’s the point of being a startup.
Entrepreneurship is for brave hearts
- You won’t raise money overnight
- You will lose members on your team
- You have to be mentally strong
- Your potential investors will leave your project.
- Going near cashless becomes routine.
The following show the dark side of entrepreneurship:
You will be unhappy
Entrepreneur are individual who want to ride the next big wave, looking to new ventures, making moves that will come into play months later. This is good for you only if things go according to your plan, the chances that it won’t go according to plan are high and it’s then that unhappiness kicks in. Unhappiness with the result, with the way it’s gone and most important of all, unhappiness in you and your ability.
Relationships will suffer
When riding the next big wave in the market, you need solid focus and the whole board to yourself, because you cannot create room or the mental capacity to look after others on this journey. You will be working till early in the morning, you will get cranky when things don’t go to plan and you will feel like you have a constant itch, which won’t go away.
You will think doing couple things a waste of your time and overall, it’s not fair to make somebody else unhappy whilst you chase your goals.
Insecurity and Self-worth issues
You doubt all the decisions you make, and you won’t find anyone to help you out. This is a side effect of becoming your own boss. You doubt yourself, after continuous failures, you start feeling like you aren’t worthy of anything. Persistence and perseverance are keys to tackling such a situation.
Poor Dietary Situation
You will be working 15-18 hours a day and you won’t have time to sleep completely, exercise or even cook food. You will be surviving on microwave meals or packets of super noodles.
But, we need to take time out of our daily busy situation, since you can get an Eureka moment even when doing seemingly menial tasks.
Have to be Mentally Strong
We have seen enough evidence of people spending and putting on line every penny they owned on a certain idea and making it work, just like any turnaround success stories. But, that’s not how it ends every time, and when that happens you have to be mentally prepared. It is soul destroying to put all of your time, resources and energy into something that doesn’t work on how you imagined it. This is where surrounding you with mentors and people who have experienced this is vitally important.
Sleep Disorder
When you’re pulling 15-18 hours work days in order to deliver a product in time, sleep will take a back seat. There is so much chaos, from customers and employees to family, which you often mess up your sleep schedule. Your own bad sleep patterns began to affect your productivity, so wake up at the same time every day irrespective of when you sleep and you will be able to maintain a routine.
Raising Capital will be hard
Even if you prepare a business plan and chase funding without even having registered an actual company, raising money takes time, preparation, a solid business model and a great time behind the business. Start with what you have, do what you can and then go to raise investment. Investors will respect you if you have a terrible diet and an overdrawn account because you are more passionate about your business and the success of it.
