Entrepreneurship is all the rage. It’s everywhere.
In TV and movies (Shark Tank, Silcon Valley, The Social Network), in books (The Four Hour Workweek, The $100 Startup, Lean Startup), in podcasts (StartUp, The Smart Passive Income podcast), and of course in blogs (Techcrunch and countless others). Entrepreneurship has gone mainstream. There are at least 400 startup incubators and accelerator programs in existence.
Being an entrepreneur is glamorized, and for good reason. Startup companies are capable of transforming entire industries and of solving important global problems.
At a personal level, becoming an entrepreneur has the ability to create extreme wealth and personal freedom, along with a deep sense of purpose and meaning.
But all the amazingness that being an entrepreneur can deliver comes at a price. The simple truth is, not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. Most people would be better off in a supporting role, or in joining a startup that already has some traction.
Even people who have the kind of personality and skills that are compatible with entreprenurship may not want to put up with all the baggage that comes with it.
Before you jump into entrepreneurship with both feet, here are 5 important questions to ask yourself:
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Are you comfortable with uncertainty?
The only thing certain about building a business is uncertainty.
There are so many things you won’t have answers to. Should you choose this niche or that one? Is $40 the right price, or is $57.99? Should you hire Brandon or Katie? Should you look for outside financing, or are you better off bootstrapping? How much of your personal savings will you have to spend before you earn a salary?
Hundreds of questions. Thousands of potential answers. Zero certainty. To thrive as an entrepreneur, you have to master the art of making decisions quickly, based only on imperfect evidence.
- Are you willing to sacrifice your income for a considerable period of time without a guarantee that it will pay off later?
Results are not guaranteed as an entrepreneur.
You could invest years of your life and much of your life’s savings and forego income you would earn as an employee somewhere else, only to end up with a complete failure. All of that time and money and sacrifice might earn you nothing more than a learning experience.
- Do you have both the ability to see the big picture and the discipline to stay focused on the most critically important tasks in front of you, combined with the self awareness of when to switch between being CEO and worker bee?
You absolutely have to be able to act effectively in both roles. Strategy and action must be in balance or your business will never have a chance.
- Can you tolerate maximum levels of anxiety and stress while being on a daily emotional roller coaster that vascillates between elation and despair?
Being an entrepreneur will be the most emotionally difficult challenge of your life. The action between your ears will be as important and trying as the work you do in building the business.
- Will you remain religiously committed to building a successful business, despite endless roadblocks, setbacks, failures, dead ends and forced changes of direction?
Everything and everyone will seem to be telling you that you’re crazy for thinking you can build a successful business. Most of the time they’ll be right. Most businesses do fail, after all.
To succeed, you’ll have to ignore the setbacks and refuse to take “no” for an answer. You’ll have to finely tune your internal compass and trust it even when it seems stupid to do so.
Being an entrepreneur isn’t impossible, but it’s one of the greatest challenges most of us will ever face. Many will tell you that becoming an entrepreneur was the best decision of their entire lives. I’ll tell you that building a successful business is my life’s greatest accomplishment.
But if you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur, there’s no shame in looking for a better path. Some other direction will be the right balance of freedom, purpose, challenge, meaning and wealth potential for you.
Before you make a decision either way, please ask yourself the five questions above, and be as honest as you can be about your answers.
What questions would you add to this list? What questions do you think are essential to ask yourself before becoming an entrepreneur? Please share in the comments below.
And if you found this list helpful, would you share this post? We’re always grateful for your shares.
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Are you willing to devote your life to the success of others?
It’s no longer going to be about you, the star employee or expert. How much can you make stars out of your customers, your staff and your allies is far, far more important.
Absolutely!
Great article and great questions. I tend to shift the perspective a bit and say that in the current economy (and one might argue that for a long time) EVERYONE is an entrepreneur. The elements outlined are necessary for any kind of work success. So maybe the issue is not so much “do you want to jump into entrepreneurialism?” but rater “since you’re being pushed, how do you want to land?”
Looking at the questions:
1) Uncertainty is everywhere – job stability and security are things of the past
2) Results are not guaranteed – EVER – income can drop or go away at the drop of a hat
3) Relevance is everything – employers increasingly expect workers to do what is needed, not just wait to be told what their job is
4) Entrepreneurialism – whether working for someone else or working for your customers (and ultimately, who isn’t?) is an emotional roller coaster filled with incomplete, inaccurate, and contradictory signals. Hard to find any work situation where that is not true.
5) Back to relevance – It’s all about building and maintaining the relationship between the brand and the market. Whether you are managing an enterprise of one (as an employee or freelancer) or launching the next multinational, deciding on the mix of capabilities you will develop and market is a key factor for success.
I’m not arguing that starting and running a business is just like having a job. I am stating that the skills that we once thought were the (near) exclusive domain of the entrepreneur are now the cost of entry into any successful career. It is dangerous to think that one can avoid entrepreneurial challenges (the challenges of the modern workplace) by “getting a job”.
Great insight and response, Joe. I’m a very independent-minded person who would love to run my own thing, but I sometimes cower back when I see articles like this, even though I do appreciate it as reasonable word of caution.
I currently have a 9-5er, but I also know that job “security” is an illusion. What I have today could be gone by next week with the right set of circumstances, no matter how good a company I work for. So it’s really a question of which risks I want to deal with.
I think that’s a good way to look at it Jason. Which risks do you want to deal with? Which upside would you rather have? Which day-to-day suits you best?
Well said Joe, well said.
I could not agree more. In fact, every time I’m about to take the entrepreneurial leap (again), I get a new job offer to apply these skills as an employee.
Established companies are (literally) dying for these skills and attitudes, and they will pay handsomely for them.
Well said. I often hear companies complain that they can’t find the right employees any more (with frequent and vague references to the “work ethic of Gen Xers”). I’ve found that companies that are willing to engage enterprise (of many – formerly known as employer) to enterprise of one (fna employee) are more successful at engaging the skills they need.
Great contribution Joe – this is the kind of comment that makes me happy we have commenting on this blog :)
Your reply reminds me of Seth Godin’s post The Forever Recession (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/09/the-forever-recession.html).
I wouldn’t say everyone is an entrepreneur, but I agree that people who act entrepreneurially (in careers or in building businesses) will have the best time in the economy of now and of the future.
Interesting … now you have me thinking … maybe thats the point ;) … I tend to think of being an entrepreneur as a state – like being an employee and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism as capabilities. I’m not trying to split semantic hairs here, but I think the distinction is important.
Being an employee is being replaced by being an entrepreneur (often of an enterprise of one) – entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism are general terms for the talents needed thrive in this new state.
Great post Corbett!
There definitely is a balance between pursuing a calling, building a business & also achieving freedom, but as someone who’s first year full time entrepreneur……I would say that you’re……
“In business for yourself, but not by yourself.”
Places like Fizzle, other mastermind communities, etc. it’s never been easier to find the support & resources to build & scale a business faster than ever before. WE live in the golden days of entrepreneurship in my opinion. :)
That’s really great to hear Kyle, especially since we aim to make entrepreneurship a much smoother and enjoyable experience :) And I agree – it has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.
6. Can you work to near exhaustion day after day with no immediate payoff while most of the people in your life tell you to quit instead of urging you on?
Good one Donnie, sounds like this comes from experience :)
Steven Pressfield just wrote on that this week–Resistance in the form of Love. It was a very powerful post. He says Love should conquer all, but you need to keep your eyes open for the snake in garden urging you to do certain things.
Do you have a family to care for and support and if so have you worked out a plan to cover for you in your stressed out, unpaid, exhausted workaholic absence as you build your entrepreneurial dream?
The startup, like any demanding career, can consume so much of what you would be giving to the living breathing people in your life (your true “tribe”). If you already have babies or marriages, or sick family members, or older parents who rely on you, or serious commitments to your church or community… realize you’re likely to be required to take time, energy, attention and even financial contribution from those. It’s not just a tradeoff between focusing on your traditional employment or focusing on your business ownership. So to this: “being an entrepreneur will be the most emotionally difficult challenge of your life.” I would say…that would be a very blessed life. :-)
Are you also willing to set aside your ego? You may think that you’re the best at what you do and that’s something to have when becoming an entrepreneur but setting aside your ego & learning from even the janitor may be worthwhile.
When I started as a business consultant, I learnt this very important step with one of my first clients; I found out that the janitor was a consultant who had had enough of the questions that come with being an entrepreneur & had decided to take a semi-retired job as a janitor… Believe me, I learnt so much from our coffee breaks!
6. Are you willing to say “no” to many things if they won’t ultimately bring you the life you can say “yes” to?
I’ve only started a business recently, but here are a few things I’ve realized very quickly:
6. How is your self-awareness? Do you have the ability to get out of your own way and objectively see what you need to do? What kind of person are you? Do you work better making your own decisions and learning from feedback, or do you need a coach or resource like Fizzle? I’ve found I’ve been able to manage this process much easier with coaches, accountability and online communities like Fizzle.
7. Are you prepared to swallow your ego and keep an open mind? Are you willing to ask for help?
8. Are you prepared to invest lots of money, energy and time not only into your business, but into yourself? Your business is only as strong as your ability and knowledge to support it.
Love the authenticity.
• Are you ready to read about how everyone else has found success, and despite the plethora of information, having to go through it for yourself to figure it out!
I think some are made by trying & learning, and others are born ready. We can learn to tolerate risks by surviving exposure to them. But a certain amount of courage IS required to face fears with exposure therapy… Instead of “yes” to all five, for some you might answer, “I’m working on it/I’m willing to work on it.”
Some people may be born with innate abilities and interests that make it more likely they’ll succeed as entrepreneurs. But I know so many different kinds of entrepreneurs with different personality types, different approaches and different paths to success, that I don’t believe any single predisposition can doom your chances.
We all have to grow and adapt to be successful. The point of these five questions is more to open your eyes to things that could become serious stumbling blocks. Not insurmountable, but easier to deal with if you’re aware of the potential issues going into things.
Thanks, man – encouraging insight.
I would probably answer no to all 5, execpt maybe number 5… It takes a huge amount of patience to start anything. The only thing I know is that I would have regretted at some point if I didn’t give it a shot. I wasn’t prepared for all the lessons I am learning about myself. It is emotionally taxing, but as long as it doesn’t kill me, I’m sure it will make me stronger. And with a community like Fizzle, I’m even having a little fun :)
Man you nailed this one! That is so what it’s like and I wouldn’t change a thing
Another great article by Corbett. I found this article exciting and encouraging. Building my own business is something I have wanted to do for many, many years. In my opinion, the risk is worth the reward.
Great Post!
From what I can see.. we are in the throws of creative destruction that rivals the biggies of the past. Everyone has to figure out how to cope. So I would add to Joe’s comment that, we should expect that online businesses for the most part have a specific life span, like a TV show or trending topic. Money can help, but It’s your skills that are your real capital.
These are great tough-love questions. Ultimately #5 is the absolute decider…if you aren’t committed over the long term, you’ll probably give up when stuff inevitably gets challenging. If there was another question, perhaps: “Are you willing to trust your intuition and make gut decisions that you know are right (even if you don’t completely understand them at the time, or others don’t immediately understand or agree with you)?” Having spoken to lots of successful entrepreneurs, there seems to be a pattern of making winning decisions that weren’t necessarily logical, but are always instinctual. :)