Why most people should not be entrepreneurs

“Running a start-up is like chewing glass and staring into the abyss. After a while, you stop staring, but the glass chewing never ends.” – Elon Musk

I’m giving a talk at WLU Business School this afternoon, which is bringing back an early memory of mine:

I’m 5 years old, walking up the stairs of my Dad’s real estate office when he stops, turns to look at me, and says:

“I learned early on that I couldn’t work for anybody else, so I had no choice but to start working for myself.”

I still can’t tell if it’s nature or nurture:

If I inherited whatever psychological deformity left him unable to work a “real” job, or if his words left a permanent imprint on my mind that molded the course of my life.

(or, likely, both)

But here we are, almost three decades later, and I’ve still never had a real job.

I’ve (badly) refereed a handful of basketball games, and worked a few summers at a youth basketball camp (mostly for free access to the gym), but let’s be honest:

Those don’t really count.

Thankfully, somewhere around 2010 I stumbled backwards into the online business world and lucked into stable self-employment that has sustained me for over 13 years.

But the amusing conclusion I’ve come to after spending most of my life thinking entrepreneurship was my only option is that… (wait for it)…

…Most people should not be entrepreneurs.

Now, please understand:

I’m not saying most people “can’t” be entrepreneurs — many can, and have the skills and capacity to do it.

But I am saying that if they knew the honest, blood-and-guts reality of building a business, they wouldn’t want to do it in the first place.

Entrepreneurship sounds romantic, at first:

Full of freedom and creativity and money falling from the sky like rain.

And while it can be all of those things, those things don’t make up the full picture.

In the full picture, freedom comes with chains that bind you to your business, 24 hours per day, never letting you fully escape it.

Creativity comes with total responsibility for your destiny, and crushing pressure to make what you’re creating yield a sustainable income (or you and your family don’t eat).

And speaking of income, it’s all on you:

Nobody is coming to bail you out with a paycheque at the end of the month, and every loss comes straight out of your pocket.

So real-world entrepreneurship looks a lot more like slaying dragons than laying on a beach with your laptop.

And for some, that’s exhilarating:

Sharpen my sword and sound the battlecry, you can take my head but you’ll never take my freedom.

But if you want my honest advice, I’ll say this:

Only choose entrepreneurship if you can’t not do it.

If doing anything else is unthinkable to you, if you’d give a limb before you’d give your time to a boss, or if an idea is burning you from within and your only release is to bring it out of your mind and into the world…

…Then welcome to the hard path, and let the battle begin.

Just don’t choose entrepreneurship because it sounds like a cool way to make a lot of money while doing very little.

Because even if it works, it won’t be very satisfying.

Instead, choose the thing you can’t not do:

Whether it’s a job that inspires you, or a craft or a trade or an art form that consumes you.

And if you don’t know what your thing is, yet, don’t stop.

Keep looking.

And never, ever settle until you’ve found it.

If you’d like help, our 9th Law talk provides a complete four-step roadmap for finding that thing.

And whether it’s entrepreneurship, or something entirely different, we’ll be here to guide you along the way.

– T

P.S. I’d love to know:

Do you have any personal interest in entrepreneurship and building a modern business?

If you could hit reply and let me know I’d really appreciate it.

I’m considering how much / how little I want to integrate business advice into my teaching, so your feedback is super helpful.

(please note that I can’t always reply personally, but I read every message and you’ll always get a response from Simon if I can’t reply myself)

Taylor Allan Avatar