Peer pressure is becoming stressful day by day. Living in such a connected world -virtually connected- was first seen as a great thing. But when everything reaches the mainstream market, here’s where the dark side appears.
For the past few years, a hype of being an entrepreneur and changing the world started. Let me claim it happened with the 2011 revolution when most startups we know now started for the right reasons, not being hindered by any challenges or barriers until their idea saw the light (at least from my point of view).
When the hype started with everything was good. But it’s not gonna happen forever (forgive me for being a little pessimistic).
Now-2019- we are in the influencers decade, where everyone wants to become a celebrity and have those followers, who support our ideas- even if they are so wrong!
Let’s put it in bullet points to make it easier. If your perspective about entrepreneurship or/and startup scene is as below, please think again.
1- Be Your Own Boss
When you hear this for the first time, it seems obviously true. But actually you will -forever- work for someone; be it your manager, investors, users…etc.
So if you now are the orders-free person, you are totally wrong.
2- Flexibility
You think that working from 9 to 5 is not good, so you decided to make a startup where you will work on average 12:16 hours daily. So smart! 🙃🤦
3- Entrepreneurship is for Youngsters (People in their twenties)
I remember the first time I entered an incubator session, I saw most people in the room were in their 30s and others are in their 40s.
The question that popped up in my mind was “Isn’t entrepreneurship something for 20-something people (fresh graduates, students) like Mark Zuckerberg?
(In a new paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, it came out that the average age of a startup founder is about 41.9 years of age).
4- Silkroad for Easy/ Fast Money
Ummm, you for sure have to be super optimistic to think so. But make sure you really see the full picture. This is not something that can get you profitable money tomorrow. It takes time. It took Amazon more than 10 years to become profitable
5- Non-routine Job
Routine is seen these days as a bad thing. But, imagine you are learning the piano, you will need to repeat the same step for hundreds of times until you excel in it.
6- The First Startup is Going to be Your Unicorn
Unicorn in the world of startups is a 1$ billion valuation company. The percentage of becoming a unicorn according to CB insight is around 0.15:1.15 %. So your probabilities are rare. I don’t mean not to dream big, you have to.
But look to the sky and keep your feet on the ground to reach this point.
7- Brand Yourself as CEO
You will not be “Chief Executive Officer”. It’s going to be an abbreviation for “Chief EVERYTHING Officer.”
Each and every issue is gonna be yours.
8- Idea is King
Be sure that every idea you think of is in the mind of somebody else, and most probably someone in India is already doing it right now.
Entrepreneurship is not about ideas, it’s about execution.
9- Slow Learning Curve
Working in a startup will give you the exposure and the opportunity to learn and apply things you have never thought of (I’m talking big ideas!), or things that need years of experience (which you can apply today). On the other hand, MNC and big corporations will assign to a very specific role and you probably will not have the same chance to be creative and apply the ideas you dream about
10- Funding Will Make Your Startup Life Easier
Funding is truly important, but it’s not gonna solve all your problems. If you don’t have PMF, then funding is your gate to make bigger mistakes and problems. Not going to ease it. You can read more about PMF here.
All I wanna tell now, just take this blog into consideration, but, do whatever you believe in no matter what!
