So after I banged my head and got a bump yesterday, I decided not to show my swollen forehead at the office today! Staying at home gave me time to think about so many things, personal and business and I decided to pen a few lines on startup entrepreneurship, my experience, lessons learnt so far etc. so here goes:
“Entrepreneur” has become the new “Big Bae” Title in town. Everyone wants to have an in on it. It doesn’t matter whether they are cut out for it or not. Entrepreneurial journey is interesting, scary, killing and rewarding at the same time. But the end of that journey has never been guaranteed to anyone, regardless of how many principles you follow. I think one of the major reasons for that is that many would-be entrepreneurs limit their learning to *characteristics and attitudes of entrepreneurs, while airbrushing the challenges and the realities of being an entrepreneur. (An education that does not capture hard unfavourable truths about a subject is incomplete and unbalanced)
Through experience and of course further research to validate my experiences, I have discovered that entrepreneurship is a life-time journey which when embarked upon challenges what you know and have learnt. But it is also a journey on which you discover and unleash the strength and wisdom you never thought you had. So here are a dozen hard truths about start-up entrepreneurial journey:
- You will constantly doubt if it is working for you or not. Whether you should go pick up a paid job while you run your business as a side deal.
- Entrepreneurship will threaten your relationship and you won’t even notice how and when the threat began
- Forget about apt interpretation of your calculations! Entrepreneurship will cost twice as much as you think it would and take twice longer than you anticipated
- There is no guarantee for anything, no matter how sound your idea is or how great your team is
- When your business is operating at loss ( which it would at certain times) your stomach will twist, turn and ache
- Your persona will be challenged! You will learn to be a chameleon. For example, a naturally timid person will change if he wants to meet payroll, a not-detail-oriented person will transform after being faced with a lawsuit, and an “I don’t like conflict” person will quickly *morph when his best human asset deflects to his competition
- You will worry that someone is executing your idea better than you are
- Your stress will increase, your sleep will reduce
- Work-life balance will be elusive for a while
- If you fail, your name is in it11. It is lonely if you fail12. It is lonely if you succeed because people won’t believe you when you say you have problems.
Conclusion
I discovered that the above-mentioned truths take root deep down in a generally acceptable saying that ” if you want to get something done, do it yourself” (dealt with in next post #watchout)
Before you jump into entrepreneurship and if you are already in it, it is not too late to arm yourself with the knowledge of the realities of the interestingly dynamic journey. Have a deep, unwavering conviction that you can do it. That you can ride the storms out no matter what.
Good news!
You can get the help you need to weather the storms on the journey, at every point, only if you know where to look! You can start here
Ayam Mofoyeke Omole
CEO/Principal Consultant
Redberyl Managenent Consulting Ltd
Wanna have a one-on-one chat with me about your business?
E-mail me at foye.omole@theredberylgroup.com or send me a WhatsApp message on +2348060681541