Before explaining everything, you should know that The secret to being a successful entrepreneuris that there is no secret.
If you had asked me when I was 20 years old if I thought I would ever be successful or rich, I would have given a bold “Of course!”
however, that would really be my trademark overconfident response to hide what I really felt: that I was going to continue to fail and be broke for the rest of my life.
Fortunately, things went the other way. I was able to start one of the fastest growing companies in the United States with a credit card, start everything without investors, and finally sell the business to the giant Salesforce; five years later.
At first glance, it’s the story of entrepreneurial dreams and the best outcome I could ever have hoped for. Behind the scenes, it was not as fun as it seems.
For now, I want to focus on the most common and ridiculous question I get, and some profound implications that come with it:
What is the secret to being an entrepreneur?
As I mentioned before, this is the simple answer. there is no secret. There is no shortcut.
Every person in the world knows the ingredients for business success: an obscene amount of hard work; relentless perseverance; excessively high risk tolerance; an entrepreneurial brain; unlimited trust; good deal of good luck and more than a hint of madness.
I know this is not what you want to hear. I also wish there was a shortcut. And while there is plenty of material in the media today to give this false hope, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t matter.
Things like: What 3 things does Elon Musk do before brushing his teeth? Or “the brilliant reason behind Zuckerberg’s depression.”
That’s quite an “oasis” to try to make successful people look like superheroes who know something the rest of us don’t.
But in reality the reality of the situation is desensitized: they are “phenomena of nature” that combined the best elements: “an entrepreneurially predisposed brain knows a perfect market opportunity in a place in life where you can consume everything you you do; impeccably wrapped within good fortune.”
What is the reality of entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneur, here’s the harsh reality: 80% of what it takes to win the entrepreneurial lottery is deeply embedded in one’s mind and cannot be taught or learned.
The remaining 20% comes from starting, trying, failing, and pitching your ideas until you have a chance to do better next time. And even then, it takes hundreds of hard times before you see true success.
Smart people like Shikhar Ghosh, a professor at Harvard Business School, have conducted studies to identify the exact reasons why 96% of businesses fail within 10 years. Many of the main reasons are simply, “non-entrepreneurs” trying to be entrepreneurs. The rest is lack of experience.
the theme of “what makes an entrepreneur”, is highly debated. Some believe it is nature. Others simply believe that it is dedication.
You can track the mindset of successful entrepreneurs in their early years. We were the ones who cashed in on lemonade stands at 5, sold burned CDs at 15, and had an impressive list of fails at 25.
This is not unlike “superhero” professions such as musicians and actors when the 0.01% are seen to be successful at a very high level. There’s a reason why when you watch every rock star documentary in history, you get the inevitable shot of them playing the piano before they could walk or drop out of school to pursue music. They had no other way.
Not everything is so obvious on the entrepreneurial path.
However, stories of people like Leonard Cohen, who didn’t become a singer until he was 50 years old, are constantly being sold. But the reality is that Cohen studied music as a child, learned the guitar at the same time, and had deeply musically inclined parents. He was a musician. He just didn’t find public success until he was older.
Entrepreneurship looks completely different today. While “unicorns” like Elon Musk, Evan Spiegel and Mark Zuckerberg are the rock stars these days; what they are capable of doing is strangely “accessible” in our society.
If you were to ask a 34-year-old forensic accountant if he could win an Academy Award for best actor, he’d probably give you a strange look and answer a blunt: “No… I’m not an actor.”
Yet it seems like half the population has the next “billion dollar tech idea” and they are all entrepreneurs.
Can you imagine how crazy it would sound if your friend suddenly started saying that he is going to be the next Al Pacino?
Conclusion of the secret to being an entrepreneur.
In closing, here are some tips: don’t even try it. You are not an entrepreneur and you will not be. You will not want this life. You will fail over and over again. You will sacrifice things that you should not sacrifice.
The natural consumption of the lifestyle will degrade you to a human shell and you will crave any sense of normalcy.
Despite what we see on TV; They are not private planes or glamour. It’s anguish, remorse, and the endless feeling of free fall. You’d have to be crazy to want that.
…Still interested in being an entrepreneur? So maybe you are the real entrepreneur.
Stop playing house. Stop trying to imitate Bill Gates’ breakfast habits and get to work.
That fire in your eyes is the key. Your ability to take advantage of that crazy brain of yours with a smile on your face already puts you at 0.01%. Go get it.
You already know the secret to being an entrepreneur: There is no secret.
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business, you can read our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
