What Is The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship
Dark Truths About Entrepreneurship
What No One Tells You About Starting Your Company
Nowadays everyone wants to do Business, everyone wants to start a Startup, everyone wants to be an Entrepreneur or a founder and that is strongly encouraged. But we all should know that the world which seems beautiful and exciting from away, we feel like we will raise funds, we will have a cool office, we will have a product, our name will be in newspaper and people will praise us. All of these are facts but along with it there are many bitter truths. In this article we will get to to know, the dark side of entrepreneurship which is visible only to a very few people. This article is not at all to discourage you instead to make everyone aware that the truth is not one-sided.
1. First Truth — Market Only Cares About Product
There are many among us who are from a good universities, they got good grades with a lot of hard work, they have a great job, they have great extra-curriculars, they have done a lot in life — but one of the truth of startups is that the market does not care about all this.
Market Does Not Care About You!
All they care about is that whether they like your product or not. If yes, then they will adore you and if no, then they will not even look at you.
And it is very difficult to digest this truth for many people because many among us progress in life because we have done a lot before too. And suddenly entrepreneurship and business show you a truth where whatever you have done in life, does not matter at all.
2. Second Truth — Every Action Of Founder Will Be Accountable
When you are a founder or a business owner then you are a celebrity for your team which sounds really cool but it is very difficult to live up to it. Since you are a celebrity, every word you say, every action you do, whatever you say, the way you say it, to whom you say it, when you say it, all of it will be heard, judged and discussed.
This means that the standard you set through your actions, that becomes the way of doing things for your team.
we are behaving just as we are, we were just joking around or I did not mean to say that but whatever you will say definitely be analyzed. The analysis will depend on your words and actions.
3. Third Truth — Investors Invest Only For Returns
You will raise funds, take money from investors and you will think that investors are with you in your success. They want your startup to be successful.
This is a lie. YES.
They want your startup to be successful but not because they love you or your startup but because they want to generate a return for their money.
Investors are not in the business of manking businesses, they are in the business of entering a business and then taking a exit from it.
This means that the money they have given you, they want to earn a return on that money and return is possible only when your business or your startup is successful but if God forbid if it is unsuccessful then at that point, the investors will try to take as much return as possible from your business. And this may mean that at some point they might take a decision which will not be right for you or your business.
4. Fourth Truth — Founders Are appreciated Only For Taking Unpopular But Right Decisions
A very important part of being an entrepreneur or a founder is to show success but success is visible in one condition only — if you take a decision which is very unpopular or a decision which many people would not be able to take and that decision works.
Because if you take a decision that many people can take then people would say you have not done anything out of the box, anybody could do this.
If you take a decision which many would not take and it goes wrong, then people would say — ‘Told you! You were being foolish. Who told you to take this decision?’
And if you take a decision that many can take and if that would go wrong then people would call you a failure, incapable.
So, it is only in the situation where you take a dramatically different decision and that is successful then you would be deemed successful. And that is a lot of pressure on you because you will have to take decisions which are not naturally obvious and you will have to make them work for you and your startup to be successful.
5. Fifth Truth — You Will Have To Change As A Person, As The Company Grow
In the beginning when you are making a team, then attitude is important then experience. A capability to learn, a passion to learn, excitement to do new things, all of these are very important in the early team but when you become big then suddenly this changes. Now experience is more important than attitude and it is very hard for you to know when to make this switch.
Because you feel till now attitude was important but suddenly now experience is more important because now the company has grown big, you need specialization, you need a process which only comes with experience and at that point of time if you still hire people who have an attitude who have the right mindset but may be not with the right experience and if they do not work out you will blame yourself. You will feel that you lack something, you will feel that you are doing something wrong, that is why you are the problem and not everything else.
6. Sixth Truth — You Will Think, Only You Are Failing
Each business, each founder, each entrepreneur is going through a tough time. No one has sorted out everything.
Each person is going through a difficlut situation but you cannot see that. You can only see How bad is your situation.
You think that you are not able to do it, you think that you lack something, you think that only you are not made for this, everyone else is doing it so easily in the right way with utlost dedication and things are working out for them nicely, only you are unable to do it, you are lacking.
But the fact is that each and every person is having a difficult time. They may have a different difficulty but they are having a difficult time but we can never see that end so we end up criticizing ourselves.
7. Seventh Truth — Your Emotional State Will Reflect On Your Team
Your emotional mental state will instantly reflect on your team. Whatever mood you are in, if you are stressed, if you are anxious, if you are sad or upset, then that will visible to the whole team instantly.
If you are happy, if you are excited, if you are genuinely growing then that will also be visible to your whole team. Whatever you are feeling will be visible to your team.
You will not be able to hide anything because whatever in on your mind, in your heart, your team will know it, they will see it and that will determine all their reactions.
8. Eighth Truth — Entrepreneurship Is Way More Difficult Than We Think
Entrepreneurship, running a business is very very difficult. The initial excitement for new product, a new brand, registering the company, hiring the initial people, all this is very exciting but after that slowly and gradually reality becomes visible.
All the tough things that you have to do become visible. Each and every day you struggle. You think — ‘ this is so difficult, it should not be that difficult’, but it will be and only we would know about it. Only founders can see it everyday.
9. Ninth Truth — There Is No Winning Moment
In sports when you are racing, suppose it is 100 meter race. You Started, You Ran and if you won at that point then it is winning moment, right? At that point all your hard work is wrapped in a moment, in a situation and you win at that point.
Your progress is your measure of success.
Unfortunately, such moments does not exist in business, there is no winning moment. After a long time, after many years when we look back then we realize how far we have come but each and every day, that little progress that we make that unfortunately never gives a feeling of a winning moment, feeling of progress.
Because we are so used to gratification, a thing which signifies our progress but here it is difficult everyd day.
10. Tenth Truth — There Might Come A Point Where You Have To Fire People
Every business goes through difficulties at some or the other point, and in those difficult times, you may have to lay off people, fire people and at that point you are aware that it is not their fault.
Because of the market or your decisions or failure in business, for any possible reason you have to take that decision where you were not able to save people’s job and at that point you feel like culprit.
You are the reason behind every problem. It has happened because of you. And that is most difficult feeling to deal with because nothing convinces you that whatever you are doing is right.
Everything finger-points at you and everyone feels that you are wrong starting with you yourself.
11. Eleventh Truth — Every Problem Is Your Problem
All the problems, all the problems, ‘toilet flush is not working, pens are finished, printer paper is jammed, salary did not come on time, somebody was given wrong payment, product was not released on time’, each and every problem is yours, every problem is yours.
You take everything personally because everyone is looking at you. They say that, in this company things works in a certain way and if they are not working then that means you are doing nothing and becomes very very hard to deal with this but it is important to deal with this.
12. Twelfth Truth — The World Will Always Judge Your Success
At every point, the world tells you if you are successful or not. If you raised funds, successful. If you made big bucks, successful. If you made a huge office, successful. If lot of people are very happy with you and giving you raving reviews on Glassdoor or any other platform, successful. And if all of this is not happening, not successful. If you are not in news, not successful. If you are unable to raise funds, not successful.
World will be branding your startup as success or failure. And at that point it becomes very difficult to be distant from all that and to see your startup the way it is.
Closing Thoughts —
It takes a lot of courage to stay focused on your aim, your goal, your reason along with all these bitter truths.
There is ony one thing that works and that is whenever you are sad, whenever you feel that you are in difficult situation, whenever you feel dejected that you will not be able to do anything further, you do not know what to do next, at that point of time, keep reminding yourself the reason for which you become founder, keep reminding yourself why you started up, keep reminding yourself that why you are in this business.
Because the reason, because of which you took the first step towards becoming a founder, starting a business, that reason will convince you why you must keep going on.
The whole world would be negating you, the whole world will be saying that ‘this is wrong, you are wrong, you would not be able to do it’. But if you will convince yourself while looking in the mirro that you still stick to the reason with which you started, then you will become the best supporter of yourself.
