Entrepreneurship: the Solitary Long Road
Entrepreneurship is a lonely road... how many times have we heard and spoke those words, at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey I did hear them a lot and at some point repeated them, several years down the road and I can tell that I do not repeat them, I live them on a daily basis, entrepreneurship is lonely, vast, grueling, and painful. Some of the outcomes are just laced with pain and it becomes the graveyard where many dreams come to die, conventional life loses its meaning and that diffused vastness engulfs your reality becomes your life, confusing! Yes indeed! So, before jumping into entrepreneurship there are many things to consider, specially the glamourous founder life that raises millions on seed or pre-seed money, the fast glitzy tech life where bustling polished offices are constantly alight with new ideas and innovative technologies that will change the world... reality check, none of the above, reality paints a much different picture, for one the blazing fast young entrepreneur, that is by far one of the biggest misconceptions, the older you get, the more experience you garnish, the more your chances at success heighten as per an MIT, Northwestern, Wharton and the U.S. Census Bureau's study... yes in the tech sector, the older you get, 45 year old mean, the more your chances of success increase, second, money and more under current economic condition is little and far in-between, hence you will end-up bootstrapping, even your life, that if you have a partner, will suffer and for some it will mean a painful demise on the most difficult moments, precisely when you need the companionship and understanding the most, ouch!
What it means for non-entrepreneur partners... pain, not because they do not care, but they struggle to understand why, why we chose what we chose, why we spend what they see as an unreasonable amount of time on a "dream", why we spend not only hours, but days and weeks, and copious sums of money and no return on investment in sight, some will hang in tight holding on to the promise of a magnificent payday only to get disenchanted on the amount of time that it is taking, if it takes-off at all. Most of the time, we entrepreneurs, will suffer anxiety, exhaustion, sometimes despair and others... sadness, we will be cranky and irritable, happy moments will come far apart so we treasure and cherish them. It is tough for a person that is not an entrepreneur to fully understand and if they do their patience runs thin real quick, having a salary is much easier, that gives them freedom to do what they want whenever they want, why take such a risk of becoming an entrepreneur, so rightfully, they take their leave...
领英推荐
We have built a culture of hustling, with gritty determination, and we are not easily deterred from our goals, we become resourceful and dedicated, and this very special mindset builds resilient personas. In my experience, entrepreneurs understand better entrepreneurs, though there are different kinds of entrepreneurs, those that go ahead and offer services, open a retail store, or a restaurant, and the ones that want to break the mold and propose a new way of doing things, take the big risks and a giant leaps of faith, the afore keeps the economy going, and the latter propels innovation and creates economies, the one without the other are useless, we intrinsically need each other, because disregarding our line of business we take enormous risks that others just do not take. That is how we understand other entrepreneurs, through empathy and compassion, our personal survival depends on that understanding and mutual support since for one we are alone on this long and winding road, we sacrifice our immediate comfort and put ourselves at risk on the promise of a better tomorrow not only for ourselves, but for our society, every night we go to sleep with the hope and promise of a better tomorrow, a tomorrow that will finally bring those results that we have worked so hard to make happen, at the expense of our own lives, comfort and sometimes our relationships, that prompts the question "was it worth it?", well for one I do not have an answer to that one since each life is different and filled with different challenges and outcomes are as varied and unpredictable as life itself.
So, if you are an entrepreneur and your heart gets inflamed every time that you work on your project despite all the challenges, threats and complications, then keep at it, just be mindful that at one point you'll be alone, though there are other fellow entrepreneurs out there that have trodden the same path and recognise the pains, lean on them. Be mindful of your relationships, some are sincere others not so much, cultivate a network or likeminded people but do not expect that they'll fully understand you, and most important, express how you feel, you'll be surprised how much fellow entrepreneurs will empathise and support you, do not bottle emotions up that can be a slippery slope.
Good luck and stay strong!