With near-overnight successes like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and Groupon dominating the headlines of the day, it’s time someone injected a bit of reality into the mix.
Everyone has heard made up numbers like “90% of new businesses fail,” but few people have recorded specific examples of why getting a real business going (without VC money) is a monumental challenge.
Here are 21 real world examples I came up with after reflecting on my entrepreneurial career to date:
- All nighters. I’ve gotten better at this recently thanks to an app my team and I recently developed, but once in a while I stay up and work for 24 hours or more straight. Sometimes it’s by choice, other times it’s out of necessity or worry.
- Killer stress. If I don’t have to stay up to work, many nights in the past I’ve had trouble falling asleep. It’s usually because I’m planning in my head what has to get done the next day; other times because I was fretting about the company’s cashflow. Most entrepreneurs have similar experience but won’t admit this because they worry they’ll look vulnerable or un-confident in the business’s future.
- Bankruptcy. I’ve gotten close to bankruptcy in the past due to poor investment choices. Maybe it’s a big deal to admit this, I’m not sure. The truth is, it was an extremely rewarding and humbling experience. It was scary but it taught me how to hustle.
- Unlimited patience. Clients will get mad at you, team members will make mistakes, and you’ll mess up too. For instance, in the past a designer on PetoVera‘s team was very late with a project. I could have gotten angry or removed him, but instead I asked questions and realized that (a) he was doing an amazing job of designing the site, which took time, and (b) I should have blamed myself for not planning the project as well as I could have.
- Living “poor.” After college all of my friends went and got jobs. Pretty much everyone I knew though was and still is making more money than me. Meanwhile, since I don’t get a “regular salary” I’m still counting the cost of that 5 dollar footlong (plus tax)
- Constant Fear of failure. If you fail, all that hard work may seem like it amounted to nothing and you will fail publicly. The “haters” will have won and all those big ideas that you espoused will have been for naught. That fear is always present.
- Pulling a “Facebook” doesn’t happen. Most of the time. Study those big success stories regardless.
- People will hate on you. Once in while I get some dumb anonymous blog comment or some one tells me some pointless gossip about what someone else said about my company or me. It’s an unfortunate fact.
- Most of your victories go unknown. For example, employees won’t thank you for systematizing your business and improving profits or efficiency. The only reward come in the long run, from happy customers.
- It’s always your fault. When something goes wrong assume it’s you because it usually is (even if it isn’t).
- Your family won’t support you. I have a sign with a quote on it hanging in my room from one of my parents. It says something like “You seem lazy, you don’t seem very ambitious, you’re throwing your life away.” I use it for motivation.
- You have to earn most of what you get. If I don’t wake up one day to make sales calls or go out networking, that is going to have a direct effect on PetoVera’s bottom line. On the upside, to quote Kevin McGovern, “The harder you work the luckier you get.”
- Girlfriends / Boyfriends are tough to maintain. This is especially true when your business isn’t yet “established.”
But even after reviewing all those examples, I still love what I do.
So, to be fair, here are 3 great examples of why entrepreneurship rocks:
- You can work from anywhere (or at least you have the option to travel much more than the average person)
- You get all the upside.
- You build something big from scratch.
Can you provide any more examples, good or bad?
Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcorrius/3372797504/sizes/o/in/photostream/
I like the sound of getting all the upside. Right now people other than me get the upside when I work hard at my job.
I like the sound of it too
Perhaps you should take the entrepreneurial leap
I love the working from anywhere aspect as well. I am writing this from Starbucks!
Non-entrepreneurs will never understand the many stresses of owning their own business, or trying to wear 12 different hats at once. I love the challenge though.
I could never go back to 9-5 and punching a timeclock.
Agreed. Love the Starbucks example
There is no better life than that of being an entreprener. When your young its about travel and money. as you age or become wise at an early age. The truly successful get it. It is not what you take with you when you leave this world it’s what you leave behind. Design your companies so they will make the world a little better place. Use your candle to light someone elses…. don’t worry your light will not go out.
I like that, well said Phil.
Phil Randazzo Well Boys it’s like this. You never know how much success costs untill you have paid enough. The price of success is non-negotiable. It’s not like buying a car where you can haggle and then decide to buy or not to buy. The “Cost of Success” will be apparent when you arrive. Having said that It’s all about the journey it’s not about the destination. For me there is no greater joy than building a business. It is who I am. It is all about the life style controlling your own destiny.
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I followed you here from Sebastian Marshall’s blog.
I needed to read this list just to know I’m not alone in pulling the all-nighters, stressing about cashflow, being unable to sleep because of the crap running through my head.
And for validating the fact that no matter how stressful being an entrepreneur is, I never want to go work for someone else ever again.
Thanks for coming over to take a look, Elizabeth
I also find it comforting hearing about the struggles (as well as the triumphs) of others.
Matt. I hope all is well man. The greatest lesson that I’ve learned is that in the entrepreneurial realm you actually own your time. Where as in Corporate whether your paid 60k or 100k, your worth is just that 60k or 100k. Therefore, if your aim was to make 1 million dollars, it isn’t possible because you sold yourself for that 60 or 100k. As an entrepreneur, you determine how much you make, what your life will mean, and what success will look like for you. It is definitely hard, hard, hard work, but it is also the most rewarding feeling in the world when things work. And trust things will work if you don’t short change the amount of thinking, planning, and executing it takes to succeed on any project.
Thanks Mike I agree. Hard work in business is like diet and exercise — there are no short cuts to success, but success is what you define it to be.
I had a company and the employees that go with it. The stress of making sure that each month I had enough dough in the coffer to pay them. Drifting away from what I wanted to do to become a manager of these people. Needy ones at that…Being a single entity I have gotten back to what I love to do, design. The agility allows the travel you speak about, I work all over Asia and have a house in Bali at present. I went for a meeting yesterday in Singapore and they asked me if I had a folio. I realised that for the past 5 years I have gone from job to job on peoples word and that I hadn’t needed one. Anyway, great article.
Hey Ano, thanks for sharing that. That’s really interesting. I’m glad to hear that you’re doing what you want again, and only that. The rest of the PetoVera team and I recently experienced similar stress when it came to making payroll every month. It’s quite a challenge when work is project based, and building recurring revenue happens over time, slowly. As in any business, you have to align cash going out with cash coming in. It’s unfortunate when that issue pops-up because it can distract a company from doing really great work, and instead the focus becomes purely $