The Realistic Entrepreneur

It is easy to have a dream, but far more difficult to take the long road to make it a reality as it is slow and requires discipline and patience - Andy Ayim

There is a growing divide between people who have dreams to become location independent entrepreneurs working on what they love and people that actually make this a reality. I am not saying don’t dream big, but I am questioning the vast gap between pipe dreams and those that dare to do.

Speaking to a local artist and friend Tam Joseph (who is roughly 70), I asked him if he could recall his attitude to work when he got his first job. Similar to any 19 year old today, he felt at 19 as if the world was his oyster and he had his whole life ahead of him. As a 19 year old I agree, that is a fair viewpoint. However the major difference he did note is that he was willing to do menial work in order to master his craft.

The Understudy

Unfortunately due to the environment a lot of young people in the Western World grow up in, our values have changed. There are stories in modern media and wider society that highlight the rich, famous and “successful” images of those in society who have made it in business. From Zuckerberg to Jay-Z, this generation is being set up to fail. Furthermore on social media where consumers spent most of their time now on smartphones, Influencers such as Beauty Vloggers are seen as an image of success to aspire towards. Part of the problem with just seeing the end product is that we don’t appreciate the journey, the grind…… exactly what it took to become a beacon of success.

Looking back at my move from Consulting to Product Management and creating a business along the way, do I wish I just went straight into business after university? No. Why? Because I value what I have learned as an understudy in my career to date. Transferable skills for business such as communication, negotiation and commercial knowledge. One of my greatest takeaways from academia and university in particular is that it reminded me of the inner-discipline I possessed to stay on track and complete something I valued, my degree. Personally I believe if graduates applied the same discipline and patience they did in the 3+ years of their degrees to their business ideas, many more would realise their entrepreneurial dreams. Instead too many experience failure and quit, or do not value the opportunity to learn from others for years before taking the long road less travelled alone.

The sweet spot in your career is when, what you learn on the job has direct overlap with what you are passionate about. For example, it is not taxing for me to attend a seminar after work, but rather it is rewarding because product management leverages the entrepreneurial spirit and equips me to become a better business owner and manager. Fortunately networking and becoming an active member of the community online in Slack groups but also physically at events such as Product Tank enables me to watch and play a part in peoples journey.

Regardless what you do for work, you can always join Facebook Groups, interact with people on Twitter and attend the occasional seminar or event to network and speak to people within the tribe you are passionate about whether that is selling goods online or hair & beauty. Your tribe exists, you just have to care enough to go out and find it. It is good to have mentors who have been where you want to go but it is golden to go along the journey with others who are on a similar journey to you too. It is during the difficult times that the comrade come through.

Simon Sinek’s interview on millennials in the workplace is a touch harsh in my opinion but thought provoking in terms of reflecting as a millennial and reflecting honestly on how much this applies to me.

Tapping into your WHY

Simon Sinek originally went viral with his book and “Start With Why” which has a related TED video. One thing he didn’t touch on but is important to note is the difference between your Purpose and your Calling. I believe Purpose is what you were born to, whereas your Calling is God reaching out for you to fulfill your God-given assignment (Purpose). Simon Sinek’s WHY describes your Calling. For me, growing up in North London (UK), I didn’t have much in the way of role models I aspired towards outside of my brother and parents. However through travelling and working in over 40 countries and exiting a startup I co-founded I realised a unique trait that defined my WHY. 

At times it felt like I was living in two parallel worlds with work on the one hand and my neighborhood in the other. Colleagues on one hand and my friends on the other. Founders of business’ on the one hand and drug dealers on the other, both demonstrating they posses the entrepreneurial spirit. The thing I realised is that these experiences provided me with a diversity of thought which meant I could not only operate but also perform and thrive in both environments building strong relationships in both. My WHY is to enable others to grow leveraging my diversity of thought. I am specifically gifted at helping individuals facing the artificial parallels of disliking their job, whilst day dreaming about making money from doing what they love. In a sentence I convert ‘wantrepreneurs’ into entrepreneurs and sometimes people find out they just need a purpose-aligned job!

It took me about 7 years to arrive at where I am today, a point of self-awareness and clarity. It was a hell of a long road to get here and there is a lot more road ahead of me. The journey to date for me has been difficult and I have faced failure and moments of confusion and doubt where I could have quit. However the persistence and patience comes from having a strong WHY you truly believe in and stick to when facing testing times. The artist, Tam Joseph is a 70 year old artist who continues to do what he loves day in and day out. He was willing to do the menial tasks to lean his trade and make sacrifices in the short term for the long term reward he now enjoys. Jay-Z didn’t get to where he got to overnight and neither did Mark Zuckerberg but the golden thread is the conviction they all had in their WHY. The hustle is not easy, it might mean missing Game of Thrones, it might mean missing that party, it might mean doing that menial job, it might even mean doing what you love without receiving any money for years.

Hustle & Grind

I would rather work with someone who has hustle and no strategy than a strategist that doesn’t know how to hustle. Hustle is something I can’t teach but it is a critical requirement for anyone I teach strategy too, as the hustle is what enables you to execute on your ideas.

So many love to quote these words on their Instagram or Snapchat but “hustle and grind” is a habit, not an act. If today, I had an awesome idea I wanted to pursue I would ask myself the following three questions first:

1: Am I passionate about the idea and well skilled to bring it to life (as passion will provide determination to go through the hard times and not quit)?

2: Am I willing to build the brand whilst working a 9–5 and deliver value to others for the next 3 years without receiving any money?

3: Do I really love this idea or do I just need a new job?

These are hard truths, especially that final question but these questions should reveal to you whether it is worth investing any more time on the ideas you are flirting with.

Is it realistic for you to pursue entrepreneurship? I think the more elementary question to ask is “what is the problem I am trying to solve?” If it is the fact you dislike work, there are several solutions to this problem such as getting a new job. You can’t just jump to entrepreneurship as the realistic solution.

Only you can define what success is for you, but don’t restrict it to “The Million Dollar Idea”. Money is a tool to accomplish a means, it cannot be the ultimate goal. If you judge your success by money I think you will never be truly happy. No doubt money is important and we all need to make a living, there’s just better and deeper things in life like God, family, and friends that make life richer and more meaningful. As Gary Vee mentioned The richest 1% in America earn like $380,000. Be honest, even with $150,000 a year you don’ think you could live your ‘ideal lifestyle’? you telling me you wouldn’t be happy? 

For me personally, the true reward is having the opportunity to share my gifts with those who can benefit and grow from them. It is funny how when you don’t worry about the money, it comes eventually anyway!

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