Thoughts On

I’m not negative about entrepreneurship.  I am not naive to the downside of working for a large company.  I am definitely not naive to the potential upside of starting your own business.  I mostly hang out with entrepreneurs.  I closely follow the blogs of several entrepreneurs/investors.  I’ve read pretty much every well-known book about entrepreneurship and innovation.  I think about this stuff ALL THE TIME…

That being said…

Entrepreneurship is not the point

I am very skeptical about entrepreneurship for entrepreneurship’s sake.  Remember, you don’t want to start A business.  You want to start THE RIGHT business.  And figuring out THE RIGHT business is not trivial.  You can’t force it.  You can’t say “I have a month to evaluate these different business ideas and then I will choose the right one”.  I’ve never seen this work.  Either one month turns into three, or you end up trying to start a few businesses simultaneously to “see which one takes off” (answer = none of them).  Entrepreneurship is no fun if you never win.  Finding the right opportunity is critical.

You’re not invincible

You’ve had success in the past.  You’ve done things that other people told you were not possible.  You set records, got elected, got the girl.  You got accepted to good schools and got promoted quickly at work…  So, naturally you feel super confident, like you can do anything if you put your mind to it.  The problem is – you’re entering a whole new league… You’re not competing against your high school classmates or your big company coworkers anymore.  You’re now going head to head with some of the best, most focused organizations there are.   They have resources and connections and are smart.  You won’t win in entrepreneurship out of pure effort and enthusiasm.  You need to make sure you fight the right fight.

Roller coaster

You must (try to) be prepared for the emotional roller coaster.  Right now you are super energized.  You hated your job.  You KNOW that you need to do your own thing.  You have tons of ideas and options.  You’re excited about the future and can envision the millions of dollars you will soon have.  It’s nothing but possibilities all around you.  You’re even still getting paid by your previous employer.  Life is good…. you pay the bill, you take cabs, you go shopping or on a vacation when you feel like it…

But life is going to get a lot more painful and uncomfortable.  It’s going to really, really suck when you work on something for several months and invest whatever money you have into it and then nobody buys it, or it doesn’t work, or you find a competitor is launching a product that even you think is superior.  It’s going to hurt when your friends and family are asking you “what the hell are you doing?”  and all you can talk about is the possibilities – and then 6-months later that’s still all you can talk about.  It’s not fun when you look into your bank account and realize you can’t pay rent and need to call in a favor from a friend or family member.  It’s stressful to have to second guess yourself constantly.  The point is – this is not all glory (I know you think you know, but you don’t know till you’re there).  To succeed, you need to be positioned so that you can push through these tough times.  Have enough money saved, have a low enough cost of living, have the people you count on for emotional support on board.  If you can’t push through the tough times then you just won’t make it.

Cynical-optimistic-realism

The honeymoon doesn’t last forever, so it’s important to stay grounded.  I’ve developed a sort of cynical-optimistic-realism over the last few years… I always believe in myself and I always believe that there are big opportunities that others have missed.  But, I’ve learned that most seemingly big opportunities end up being flawed when you really look into them.  I don’t believe there is any “easy money” out there – at least not any that is legally/ethically sound.  Being realistic means recognizing the challenges you’re facing and the odds that are against you.  It means relying on LOTS of factual information and questioning all assumptions.

I am having the time of my life with Proper Cloth and can’t imagine doing anything else.  I want to encourage entrepreneurship in everyone because I think ultimately it is worth it.  Just know what you’re getting into and be smart about it.