Why entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone:
Okay, now to the meat of today’s email:
If you had talked to 28 year old Nick Huber, he would have told you to start a business.
Everyone should do it! It is the only way to be happy. Working for somebody else is terrible!
What I know now is that 28 year old Nick Huber didn’t know what he was talking about.
Entrepreneurship culture has created an entire group of people who are unemployable. They don’t want a job. They will not be happy working for somebody else.
But most of them don’t have what it takes to build their own businesses.
One of my greatest fears is that I talk too many folks into going down this road and starting companies they can’t handle.
Then, they end up 40 years old, divorced, and drinking too much with a failed career, no freedom, no wealth, and no hope.
Thanks a lot, Nick.
The truth is that business ownership is brutal, stressful, and requires a unique skill set that most people simply do not have and can’t cultivate.
Here is the cold hard truth: most people are better off getting a job than becoming an entrepreneur.
When was the last time you read that in a newsletter about entrepreneurship?
IMO, for most folks, the best quality of life can be achieved by going to work for a good boss at a good company and earning good money with minimal stress.
That’s because most people don’t thrive in chaotic environments. Most people hate sales. Most people are risk averse when it comes to finance. Most people can’t handle life’s uncertainty let alone an organization with 50+ individuals where every problem ends with YOU.
That said, if you are an entrepreneur, and you have a proven ability to make money, hire, delegate, and manage a team, there is absolutely nothing better that you can do.
So for the folks with the right mindset and skillset, entrepreneurship is the PERFECT career. And the upside potential is enormous if you can get it right.
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Good decisions are what separate the successful entrepreneurs from the folks who go broke and get jobs.
As an entrepreneur you have to make 50+ decisions every week.
Some are larger than others but they all impact the amount of money that goes into your bank account at the end of the month and in the future.
Decisions on who to hire and fire. Decisions on how to respond to an upset employee or customer. Decisions on how to position your product or service.
Decisions on how to do your marketing and sales, how to structure your organization, or how to communicate important changes in your strategy to your customers and team.
The list of decisions goes on and on.
And the hardest part is that these decisions always need to get made.
Often times, the folks on your team can’t wait for you to “gather more data” or “get more advice” before you make the call.
They can’t wait for you to sleep on it or decide next week.
If you have built a real business with employees, you will have grown adults with rent to pay and families to feed looking at YOU to solve their problems so the entire ship can keep moving forward.
What I’ve found is that the folks who can learn to make these cool, calm, and logical decisions under stress are the ones who are fit to be entrepreneurs.
If you feel like this isn’t you, you are much better off getting a job.
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A few tweets from this week:
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