I was past 40 before it occurred to me that I could really be an entrepreneur.
Even the word always seemed to carry so much stress.
Mortgaging your house to make payroll. (And then having the company die anyway.) Dumping an unfair workload onto your spouse. Broken promises to your kids.
And all this to feed an adrenaline addiction that, frankly, I don’t have. I don’t bungie jump, I don’t snowboard, and I didn’t think I had any desire to become an entrepreneur.
That was then, this is now
Looking back, I realize that it wasn’t having my own shop that scared me. It was all of the baggage I carried about the idea of an “entrepreneur.”
(Jason Fried of 37 Signals argues that we shouldn’t even use the word entrepreneur, that we should just call people “starters” instead. His book, Rework, is terrific, by the way.)
For most of my career, I let other people make the decisions because I figured they must know better than me. Maybe they had an MBA, or they earned a ton of dough, or they’d gone through that whole mortgaging the house to make payroll thing.
When I started blogging, I started to meet a different kind of entrepreneur.
Did they have stress?
Oh yeah, my new entrepreneurial friends had plenty of stress. Some days (or weeks) were anxious and crazy busy and they didn’t know where to go next.
A satisfying life isn’t one long soak in the tub. Challenge and growth are stressful, no two ways about it.
But they also had a lot of freedom. A lot more freedom than the more traditional entrepreneurs I knew.
They weren’t slaves to their business. They could ramp up or down, depending on their goals. Maybe because they were online, they were quicker to get help when they needed it — sometimes a coach, sometimes a VA, sometimes automation.
And they took breaks when they needed to. They put their relationships first. For the most part, they maintained their most important machine.
Now I don’t want to get into “Four-Hour Workweek” fantasy land. (In his book of that name, Tim Ferriss at one point spells out his office hours. Guess what — they add up to well more than four hours a day, never mind a week. The book is good, but don’t take the title literally.)
But entrepreneurship has changed. New tools, new ways to access markets, and new economic patterns have given us a lot more varied ways of making a living, even if we’re doing something traditional.
And education about how to make your business work is so much better (cheaper, easier to find, more comprehensive) than it was when I first started poking around on the SBA website trying to figure out how I could get started as a freelance copywriter.
We don’t have to choose any more between complicated/limited information (“First, sign a lease for $5000 a month”) and the sleazy-breezy “hey, get rich sitting at home in your underwear!” stuff.
My take on what holds businesses back
Looking back on what kept me in a day job for so long, I found what I call five lies of entrepreneurship. (OK, you could say “myths,” but let’s face it, “lies” is a better headline.)
These are five ideas that might once have been true, or they might have always been baloney. It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that if any of these is holding you back today, they can all be reframed or just plain old ignored.
If you run a business today, these lies can still trip you up. They can keep you from expanding, from growing, from really enjoying your business, and from building a business that supports your life instead of eating it alive.
Here are the five lies I zeroed in on:
- That entrepreneurs are some kind of special breed of human being … that they’re “different” from you or me.
- That a business has to eat your life.
- That entrepreneurs have to be crazy risk-takers.
- That there’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way.
- That having your own business is all or nothing.
2016 Update
Now, once upon a time I had a nifty sequence to send you, that funneled into a product that doesn’t exist today. Things change. 🙂
But this strikes me as a good theme for a podcast or set of podcasts — so stay tuned and keep an eye on PinkHairedMarketer.FM. When I’ve got it figured out, I’ll update this post as well. 🙂
The biggest lie that hurt me was that “it’s easy”. All you had to do is write about your cat and people would throw money at you.
It has to be run as a business with the eye on the goal of making money, not having fun or doing your own therapy session.
Sonia,
You always keep me coming back. Every since I first heard you on Jon Morrow’s introduction to Guest Blogging I’ve been trying to read as much as I could here and at copyblogger.
I’m not sure if I fall into a different situation, but there are three things that hold me back from going out on my own.
1. I work for my dad. I had some offers when I finished school to work other places, but my dad called me up a month before graduation and asked me to come help him. He needed me. That’s a hard thing to leave.
2. I’m afraid of killing my marriage. I’m 3 months and 16 days into it…and I’m afraid of what would become of me if I struck out on my own.
3. I constantly finding myself thinking I’m not good enough to do my own thing. I don’t have what it takes.
Thanks for sharing your invaluable insights…I hope they move me from fear to courage.
Great article Sonia – I’ve forwarded on to my personal Facebook page (something I never normally do with business focused stuff). My friends complain about working 9-5 demanding jobs, yet refuse to do anything about it themselves.
They say that they are not like me so can’t do their own online business. I hope they read this because you dis-spell that myth/lie!
I think not believing you can have your own successful online business holds a lot of people back – it really shouldn’t.
Determination to have a better / freer life is the only thing that separates me from my friends.
I am clinging on to the 4hr work week idea though! ;o)
I would say the biggest lie for me is your first one, that they are different and my second biggest one is that I would need a ton of money to have a chance at my business being successful.
I was never concerned with the money one, but the successful “starters” being different or more special is the one that I had the most trouble overcoming.
These are all really good (and very valid things that we have to deal with). Keep ’em coming! 🙂
For me the biggest one is that I have to do it all myself, when in reality there are some things that I’m just not good at, or really don’t enjoy doing. And you know what? I don’t have to do them! Putting that myth aside has become my smartest move lately.
It takes a village to build a business. 🙂
I just want to add that for anyone thinking of the entrepreneurship route – that it really does take planning, dedication and self discipline. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a bridge to sell you!
Sherice – great points! And if I may add patience.
Sonia – Thank you for for the great inspiration (I’m over 40 too!)
Thersa
One of the biggest lie being taught by new Entrepreneurship programs in universities is good presentation skill. Sitting in those classes seems like we can climb to success in business through powerpoint slides.
Hey Sonia
Great to see you at SOBCon Colorado.
I think that some of the biggest business myths are that you get to do more of what you love (a lot more admin), that you get to be your own boss (you have to answer to customers, and perhaps a whole slew of others) , that it’s easy (self-explanatory) and that just because you are good at doing something means that you will be good at running a business doing that same something…when you run a business, your job is to run a business.
The reality is that most entrepreneurs create jobs for themselves instead of bona fide businesses. Understanding that entrepreneurship doesn’t fit all and that not all business are created equal (or fit everyone’s personal circumstances, goals and objectives) and stacking the odds in your favor before you take the leap are critical first steps towards success.
Nice comments from everyone and so true.
I’ve run my own business for over 20 years [which make me about 100 in entrepreneur years!] and there are a pile of myths that can hold people back … and some reality that can drive them forward:
1. Myth – you need heaps of money and a big office to start. Nope – not if it’s online or consulting
2. Reality – As long as I have a computer; a vaguely functioning brain & a broadband connection … I’m in business
3. Myth – You have to work like a trojan and never get to see your family or friends and die lonely but rich. Nope – I start with decent pricing and a reasonable income goal … and … stop to be with people I love.
4. Reality – I have what many people yearn for – autonomy, independence, choice, creativity & fun.
5. Reality – shit happens … people take forever to pay. So I’ve developed and am developing new income streams … and have developed a gourmet taste for baked beans and champagne … swings and roundabouts.
If you do what you love … build support and a range of internal and external resources … have some kind of sense of a plan … and a bucket load of resilience & persistence … then take the leap.
Love it! Agree absolutely.
Sonia,
“That entrepreneurs are some kind of special breed of human being … that they’re “different” from you or me.”
Actually, that isn’t a lie. There were studies, that revealed that only 5% of population have what it takes to be a “starter” :)) actually to be “an entrepreneur”.
Being entrepreneur is exhaustive and not everyone has the strengths and abilities to get through it. There are a lot of things that I just can’t imagine some of my friends and relatives doing – they like to be told what to do, they don’t know how to drive forward in the direction they want. (Many of them don’t even have any direction)
You’re just lucky to be in that 5% 🙂
The “lie” that got in my way is that being in business takes up-front cash and on-going venture capital.
That may be true for certain forms of business–B&M retail, for example, or software development on a large scale. But it is completely possible to start a business with an investment that will fit on many people’s credit card.
Someone else told me a similar “lie”–I can’t hire anyone; I don’t have $40,000! I said, “You don’t need $40K up front; you need a reasonable expectation of $3,500 / month free cash flow”–a very different proposition, and a much easier problem to solve.
In my own experience, whether choosing partnerships or potential investments I look for:
– Passion
– Knowledge / Skill
– Work Ethic / Discipline
– Self-promotion / Networking
‘Entrepreneur’ has been thrown around rather loosely in recent years. You have folks that are trying to sing in their basement calling themselves entrepreneurs.
I really appreciate this article because I am one of those crazy-busy folks who is involved in several business ventures as well as a writer and servant in my community. One of the ‘lies’ that is mentioned that hits home is: “there’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way”. I spent WAY too many years trying to follow how-to books and motivational speakers and other such garbage. Success (especially as a writer) came when I DECIDED to do what I loved simply BECAUSE I loved it. When I let that become my engine then I was motivated to go get the skills that I needed.
Thanks for the article:
Michael Bowers
The CHARACTER-QUEST Project
http://characterq.wordpress.com/
YAY SONIA!
So happy to be connecting with you on remarcom! I would say that a really BIG lie that we can fall victim to is that we need to have it “all together” before we start a business.
First, that is simply not true – most of the time it ends up being an excuse we hide behind out of fear.
Second, no matter how “together” you think you have it, there are factors that you cannot control, things you may not expect, and lessons you learn that may shape your course.
A plan is good, you need one, but “having it all together” is a fallacy. In many ways, if you’re going to pursue entrepreneurship you have to “just do it.” Doing is more essential to your success in the long run – at least it is in my experience.
If we needed to have it all together, trust me, I never would have gotten started. 🙂
Oh! And I can’t believe you’re past 40…you don’t look a day over 25! It’s gotta be the pink hair. 😉
@Sherice & Carol, I think maybe that’s the biggest disservice the “business in a box” people do — instead of helping people develop the strengths to run real businesses, they reinforce the limited thinking of “I can’t.”
@Marlee, that’s one of my favorites. If I’d waited to have it all together, believe me, I’d still be waiting. 😉 (And I can definitely recommend good sunscreen & pink hair for maintaining a youthful appearance!)
Great article!
That success as an entrepreneur is all measured financially! Health, healthy relationships, sturdy kids, time to live your whole life all are some of my most important profits from having my own business
One big lie: That you need to be young. Which equates to full of extraordinary energy.
I’m (ahem) way past young — many of my college pals have retired — but I have a lot of psychic energy and I get a huge kick out of both passing along what I know about good writing and learning things I don’t about blogging. So with the help of the boys at Income Blogging Guide I started a new blog using WP.org and Headway and I’m having great fun trying to build its readership. You’re an inspiration – even though you are still really young. 😉
Hey, Sonia!
I’m not yet sure what lies will reveal themselves to me because I haven’t yet taken that leap of faith.
I think the greatest lie I tell myself is that I’m simply “not good enough” for anyone to be interested in anything I might have to say.
As I’ve walked thru my life, I’ve often been a person others have sought out for confirmation that their own feelings and ideas are valid, or for unloading to a compassionate ear, or because I think creatively and may come up with alternatives they’ve not thought of on their own. Why it is I believe I’ll not be that same kind of person online continues to elude me. Maybe it’s the fear that I’ll come across differently with the written word. Maybe it’s simply low self-esteem.
That clashes with my knowing what my calling is, being good at the admin work, and getting good feedback from people I’ve talked with about my plans.
So, I think for me, the most damaging lie is that every blog post needs to be so meaningful it will change peoples’ lives. After all (as we hear daily), “content is King.”
Annie
I can’t wait to see what new goodie you will be sending our way, Sonia. Yum!
How about the anti-entrepreneurship lie that says it is better to play it safe, pay one’s dues, work for 30 years at the same place, and then draw your pension?
So many spoken and unspoken lies in one simple sentence — let’s count ’em.
1. The lie that playing it safe is a satisfying long-term life plan.
2. The unspoken but assumed lie that you will receive fair compensation for your skills and talents working for someone else — the lie gets even bigger if you’re a woman.
3. The lie that you’ll still be alive to collect your pension after 30 years of doing work you hate and/or for a business you hate and/or with people you hate.
4. The lie that, even if you survive your 30 years of servitude in the name of financial security, there will still be a pension there with which you’ll be rewarded. (Just ask the Enron pensioners about that particular lie.)
Those lies didn’t hold me back from working for lots of different entrepreneurs and starting 2 businesses myself. But it did keep the people-pleasing part of me (yes, I hate to admit that I have such a part — but I do) very uncomfortable, especially with the members of my family who were big believers in the lie.
One of the things I have always associated with entrepreneurs is that they have multiple business interests, lately I see the tag attached to just about every business man, woman or child. Well, maybe not the child 😉
Then we have the variants like ‘blogpreneur’ and ‘mumpreneur’ which are just crazy!
Back to the lies… how the computer is going to make our offices paperless. I’d like that one to be true.
@Carol Hess – good list 🙂
People who have never run a business do like to tout the lies as the gospel and when you hit a rocky patch they suggest that because you have been following (up until then effective) different strategies, you are somehow doing it all wrong.
@ Sarah Arrow. I want the paperless office lie to be true too. Found myself at the dump this morning eyeing a filing cabinet someone had thrown away. Not a good sign.
Glad you liked my list. Me too. 🙂
Going to go check out your blog now. I sense a kindred soul.
🙂 That blog is a multi author one, we write lots of crazy stuff :). I love your colors cheme on your site btw, but am conscious of hijacking Sonia’s great post.
I wonder when I hit the big time, will I continue to perpetuate the myths or will I tell the truth?
Hello
Here’s one more for the lies @entrepreneurship summary and that is hard work would be enough to build a successful business. I am working hard but clearly not working smart. Still chasing …
All of them resonate with me to one degree or another, but the one that really hit home as one I’ve been afraid of for a long time is the one about the “business eating your life”.
I’ve noticed that my biz acquaintanceships/friendships do tend to be more fulfilling sometimes than other friendships, but I think that that has a lot more to do with hanging out with people who Get It than anything else.
One of the biggest lie in entrepreneurship is when they say you can start with a small capital, cause I’ve tried it once and found out that you usually spend large amount of money if your just starting up.
Great list, Sonia. And the lie that makes me crazy is that you can get rich quick. That’s not my experience, nor is it what I think most starters (love that word) want these days. It takes time, practice, and mistakes to succeed. The good news is that you absolutely can succeed
Oops! That got away from me, Sonia. As I was saying, you can succeed provided you are willing to learn the basics of managing and marketing a business and have the focus and resilience to follow through.
Yeah — I know a lot of people who have become successful very quickly — after they built a solid foundation. And that part often takes awhile. 🙂
Stubbornness, plain and simple, is, I think, one of the most useful traits a person can have. Just pigheaded stubbornness can be a great gift!
S-
Our clan has a lot of contact with pseudo-prenuers.
These are folks want a business, but want me to do the thinking, planning and bear the risk. They fork over their (too dear) $600 for a site, and then not have to work their asses off to make something happen.
Worse, they have what Truant calls “bullshit arbitrage” thinking and believe that they invented blogging for dollars. They think two half-assed and limp blog posts will make them have a business. And they give up well short of anything congruent.
This post got me thinking about them, how they don’t understand what honestly having a business is like…it’s about service to otherfolks first and for most. I sell hard because I don’t want my customers in the clutches of one of the mediocre opportunists out there. I do it to benefit them, because my service has the best price-value quotient.
Do I benefit? Hell yeah. but that’s not the point. The myth about being an entreprenuer is mostly about how deeply you must learn to care about others.
It didn’t come naturally for me, but when it came, the broke-ass-ness left.
I think the one thing that is holding me back right now is the fact that I am only 23 and people will probably not listen to me when I teach them about entrepreneurship (which is also what I do now along with other stuff).
I think the best thing to do is to start up immediately after graduation and to not give to yourself an escape route.
The lie that got me was that you can be a “stay at home mom” and run a successful business with kids under foot. That’s the same as saying you can bring your kid with you to a 9-5 everyday and be productive, it’s not realistic. All it did was frustrate me and frustrate my daughter. She’s happy in pre-K and I’m able to get my work done.
Trough my own journey in Entrepreneurship I have learned one very thing:
You have to make your own rules.
Of course there is plenty to learn (and plenty stuff to modify and implement), but to say it with Jim Rohn:
Be a student – not a follower.
It is always important to take ideas and think them trough by yourself.
And if there is something holding you back – or something that keeps you small (instead of growing as a person) get rid of it.
Thanks for reminding again! 🙂
Greetings,
André
Great post! And I agree, the work-life balance is a huge reason why I chose entrepreneurship. Though I work hard, I am open to more decisions of where I want to go and when. I can (also) make as much as I want.
Great post, a nice end of day refresher.
I have to be honest, i want to agree with point #2 but at this point, after almost 2 years of running my own shop, my company completely runs my life.
It’s not only a 5 to 9 versus a 9 to 5 but if I dont make headway on projects on the weekends I’m left with a Monday morning feeling of regret for not getting my sh!t done.
In regards to your first point, which i actually completely agree with, i must say to some extent it really does take tremendous self-discipline to make a business work day in and day out. So many days i would LOVE to just hit the beach or the slopes, and end up putting in a 12-14 hour day in the office instead.
I do have a firm belief that things will get easier as I continue to make mistakes and learn from them.
Sonia,
I’ve appreciated your writing for a while now, but just came across this post and love it. Recently I started my own blog, The Liberated Life Project, and got a comment from someone who was expressing exactly these same fears about the possibility of starting her own business. I sent her right to this post.
One of the myths you note — “That entrepreneurs are some kind of special breed of human being … that they’re “different” from you or me.” — is an interesting one. I do think that to be a successful entrepreneur (or even to be one in the first place), one has to cultivate qualities that really are out of the mainstream for most people. Most of us are conditioned to be passive and let things happen to us, especially when it comes to the world of employment.
But I believe that everyone who is really committed to this path can develop more creativity and initiative, and other qualities it takes to succeed in self-employment. It just takes waking up to the possibility that we can do so much more than we think we are capable of, and then having access to the resources to help us learn how to do that.
Hi, Sonia. I have to totally agree with you about the “Right Way” and “Wrong Way” to do business online bit.
As an aspiring internet marketer, I kept looking, just like the folks in the forum, for the best way to get traffic. The fastest way to make money.
Honestly, I still do. It’s human nature to want thinks quicker with less effort.
But lately, after skinning my knees in the entrepreneur road, for a very long time, I’m looking for the way that works for me. The ways that I like. How can I do it better than I did before. That sort of thing.
I find more satisfaction in that. I’m notorious for creating and tearing everything down even if it seems to be going well because I didn’t think it was good enough or “right” enough.
So that’s one of the things I have to fight. You don’t have to make it perfect at first. Just do what works then fine tune it until it becomes perfect.
What’s the myth or lie about entrepreneurship that’s kept you from going as far as you could with your business?
Probably the notion that your venture should show signs of success within 6 months or you should quit.
I loved this post. I could not more agree about those five lies. However, many people live them as a reality for them. So, for whom this lies are true and for whom are not? This is a matter of perception. A lie accepted by a population becomes a truth. At some point some of these lies are true for some people. In my opinion, the lie for your question : “What’s the myth or lie about entrepreneurship that’s kept you from going as far as you could with your business?”:
This is the answer, That there’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way.
This is such a great article! Thanks for exposing all of these “lies” – so that we can avoid believing them 🙂
I love this. Love love LOVE. The word “entrepreneur” has always been scary for me and I still hesitate to use it. In my mind an entrepreneur is someone who has a CRAZY successful bajillion dollar idea that turns into a Google. An entrepreneur is someone who shows up on the cover of the magazine of the same name. OR and entrepreneur is someone with too MANY ideas. Someone who’s constantly got balls in the air and never settles on one thing. These are the stereotypes that always prevented me from seeing myself as a business owner, regardless of the fact that I was. Am.
The lie that I’m realizing now is that you don’t need to be the stereotype. That we can be entrepreneurs and have small, but successful businesses without constantly failing. That’s the whole point of being an entrepreneur!! Our business can be whatever we want it to be!
Did I mention that I loved this? Thanks for writing – this stuff needed to be said 🙂
Great post, Sonia.
First off, I do agree with you on all the 5 lies you mentioned above I have to confess that, we, at a Garious, alongside other businesses took them for granted and never questioned them.
It wasn’t until we jumped in the field that we started have second thoughts. The rules of the game have changed. Web 2.0 and the social media boom have created unprecedented opportunities for small business to shine online.
Now adding a social share button equals easy viral marketing, a compelling Facebook page means corporate branding and the list goes on.
However, the endless social media choices out there created social addiction and social stress. (As if we didn’t have enough addictions and stresses to deal with already!!)
We faced these issues and realized that social media was taking its toll on our time and resources without INSTANT and/or TANGIBLE results!But since “necessity is the mother of invention”, we created Garious – a recipe for drop dead simple social media.
And based on the rave reviews we’ve been getting so far, I can safely say that we managed to eliminate the “hard” lie from social media marketing.
My personal prediction is that many more products will be developed to further simplify complicated business processes online.
So, my advise to any hesitant entrepreneur wannabe, to toss all the lies in the nearest waste basket and leverage the web 2.0 revolution. To our success!
I once thought that entrepreneurship is a complicated road, but actually it’s only our perception of it. Entrepreneurship goads us to discover our true capabilities, as well as enhance our learning. 🙂
When I quit my day job six years ago and started my own copywriting business, it didn’t even occur to me that I was an entrepreneur. I considered myself a freelancer and small business owner. These terms do have risk and can eat your life away, but are less intimidating than word entrepreneur. Now that I’m at the point of wanting to embrace the spirit of my internal entrepreneur by expanding my service offerings, I am experiencing anxiety related to the five lies you outline. It’s interesting how a simple label can affect your perception. Sonia, thank you for this very thoughtful pos.
I love all the points everyone makes. I think having to do everything (finances, marketing, and the actual work) in the beginning when you can’t afford to outsource at all is the biggest challenge. No one tells you that you’re going to wear so many hats. I’ve been self employed on and off for 13 years, so I was fully aware of the challenges.
The best part of it – the flexibility! Being able to attend every special event for your kids makes all the hard work worth it.
Hi Sonia,
The biggest lie for me is that business will eat my life! I know that is what is holding me back. The past two months I have been blogging and I am sleeping less and working more. There’s also more stress but you know what, I enjoy blogging! I am also learning to balance it all by stepping away from the computer and blogging altogether. I am slowly learning that I can have a business and life too!
Signing up for your course and can’t wait to hear your pitch.
Sonia,
This blog post was truly outstanding! Even though I’ve been one of those entrepreneurs all my life, your 5 lies dispel the myths. They made me reflect on my success and this is what I discovered.
I know I’m not a special breed, just special. My businesses were conceived and launched thoughtfully and with passion. But they never consumed me.
Some might call me a risk-taker but I know that I am nothing more than a thoughtful student of trends. I’ve been successful because I don’t get caught up in dreams. I’m pragmatic and have done my home work.
You are so right about #4. The right way is the way each of us brings about the desired outcome. There are models to follow but the best businesses I know are “Purple Cow”, as Seth Godin would say.