(Originally Posted on August 5th 2023)
“Start your own business!” “Be your own boss!” “Don’t make money for other corporations but instead make it for yourself!”. These are some of the reasons why I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. Why would I want to work 9-5, stuck in traffic for the morning and evening hours, exhausted from the day and the hassles of working under a potential slave driver? I attended so many entrepreneur conventions while growing up and almost every speaker would tell the exact same story, No time for themselves, stress from the job, having to meet a quota for the month to stay employed, the difficulties of climbing the corporate ladder. At some point, there was a breaking limit and they found out about being an ‘Entrepreneur’ and suddenly all their worries lifted away and thus their business began.
It sounded to me like these speakers were talking about the horrible experiences they faced so others wouldn’t have to deal with it. Like I should just skip straight to the ‘Entrepreneur’ stage. So I did! Well, it’s not like random strangers were going to give me money if I didn’t provide a service so I had to figure out what to do. Thus my start as an entrepreneur was trying to find my craft.
One thing that working a normal job gives is ‘business experience’ and the demeanor that customers expect from a business. Not many want to deal with an ‘Odd-one-out’ type of person when they are there just to get a job done. There are many facets that can only be learned from working in that field. I just thought I could pop in, say I could do a thing, and get paid for my work. Even if I could do whatever the job was, I didn’t realize another important portion that all businesses require, Knowing people and having connections.
The speakers made it sound like they just punched in a clock and sat at a desk filling out numbers until over the years they turned into a husk. Sometimes they mention the experience a job offers such as forming connections, learning business operations, and, communicating on a business level, along with a better chance of successful opportunity that comes from having finances, an understanding of business professionals, and expectations.
The speakers probably didn’t highlight these aspects because to them, who had worked in a business field for several years, this was all common knowledge… To them! But to a young attendee (such as myself) their tales of ‘Working for themselves’ sounded amazing and with enough tenacity, I could accomplish creating a business and being successful like them.
Well starting from scratch with basically no starting capital, no ‘real’ knowledge of how businesses should operate, no idea what clientele expect, how to communicate properly, and no real ‘foundation’ of any kind to build off of, is extremely difficult.
I had no ‘real’ connections so my venture into ‘Network Marketing’ was tough. Strangers viewed me as just a salesman only interested in their funds and not caring for them.
My ventures into Amazon/Ebay retail arbitrage didn’t go too far as I had no extra finances to pay for a large stock of items besides what I had to pay my bills.
and many other failed attempts to be an entrepreneur.
I had a relative idea of how I was doing due to attending all the entrepreneur conferences and some conversations with the few I did know but beyond that, I was lost. It was difficult for me to continue trying to achieve the ‘entrepreneur dream’ when every failed attempt was so catastrophic to my spirit.
I kept trying though and opportunities did arise that allowed an iota of success but they seemed to have staying power. With failure comes experience and understanding of what I was missing to achieve my goal and realization of why the attempt didn’t work. The truth is a hard thing to get hit by but it reveals the steps that could’ve made my journey easier.
The speakers always portrayed their jobs as a ‘dead-end work environment’ that drained their souls until they decided they were finished with it all. The ‘common’ mindset is to join a company, reach the highest position possible within the company, and then retire. That mindset is just how many of us were raised, myself included, but these speakers broke the cycle and were better off for doing it.
I think the mindset for a young entrepreneur needs to be ‘Work for the business using all the assets (Experience, connections, finances earned, operations) Learned and funnel them into your business’. “Oh, just have a job then.” Well yes, but actually no. Unlike the many entrepreneurial speakers that quit their job before coming up with the idea of being an entrepreneur, I think KNOWING that the end goal of working at a job is to eventually leave and create a personal business as an entrepreneur with all the knowledge gained from working at a ‘real’ job. All the speakers said “Oh, it was a revelation when I realized I could start my own business and become an entrepreneur.” but they would sometimes understate or not mention how important it is to have a general knowledge of the aspects of a business.
Failure is always a hard fall and if there are ways to soften the fall then why not apply as much cushion as possible? Being an entrepreneur leads to many failures but the experience gained from those failures means the next attempt has a greater chance to succeed.
Helpful Advice:
Don’t quit! Every attempt made is a step in the right direction.
Strive forward knowing that the end goal is being an entrepreneur
Always be creating your business.