by Paul Towers, founder & CEO of Task Pigeon
Being an Entrepreneur is tough! It’s nothing like the glamourous nights you see in movies and on television screens.
Deciding to be an Entrepreneur means long hours, low pay and a small chance of success. But some of us wouldn’t have it any other way.
With the explosion in startups across the globe and a desire by more and more people to work for themselves it seems like everyone wants to be an Entrepreneur or Startup Founder these days.
Right now, though the economy is strong, there are more jobs and its “relatively” easy to raise money if you can get a run or two on the board. As a result, being an entrepreneur is probably as low risk as it can get right now.
But just because the economy is strong now doesn’t mean it always will be. And just because you have managed to secure a client or two doesn’t mean they are going to stick around.
See being an Entrepreneur is like being on a rollercoaster. There are lots of up’s and down’s. It can be scary at times and it’s hard to know what’s about to happen next even if you did study a map before taking your seat.
That’s why Entrepreneurs truly have to love what they do or else they face the prospect of failure. If you don’t love what you do as an Entrepreneur it will be too easy to quit. If you face a situation where you can’t make payroll, lost a big client, couldn’t raise that next round of funding or got blindsided by a competitor and don’t really want to be an Entrepreneur then you will have no hesitation in throwing in the towel.
Entrepreneurs that succeed however love their company as if it were their child. They live and breathe their company every minute of every day. They get out of bed and love to go to work. Even if they know they have 100 fires to put out and tough decisions to make.
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Also by Paul Towers:
https://youngupstarts0.wpengine.com/2017/09/05/how-investors-can-bring-more-than-just-money-to-the-table/
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As a founder of a Task Management startup and Mentor to Student Entrepreneurs at the University of Sydney I have a lot of insight into the local startup ecosystem and the minds of many founders. Unfortunately, it is usually easy to spot those who “like” the idea of being an entrepreneur, but don’t love the process of being an Entrepreneur.
Some of these founders still make it through. Sometimes its luck, sometimes they just happened to hire the right team and get far enough along before they realise they don’t want to be the CEO. More often than not however the thought of a regular paid check, shorter hours and a clearer job description is all too convincing.
While this may be a fairly blunt assessment of the strength of character that is required to be an Entrepreneur it comes with the best intentions. Being an Entrepreneur often places a physical, emotional, mental and financial strain on people. If you don’t love the idea of being an Entrepreneur and can recognize that now then you are in a better place to set yourself up for success in the future.
While not everyone wants to found or run a company, many make exceptional early stage employees. Often these people love the “buzz” of a startup and enjoy working on something new, but they just need someone else to shoulder the burden that goes along with running the entire company.
If you recognize that, that is you then consider the financial benefit of joining the right fast growing startup, as opposed to banging your head against the wall trying to force yourself into loving what you are trying to do, build or sell.
At the end of the day being an Entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. But that’s okay. There are plenty of other ways to be successful in life and active in startup companies without taking on the burden of leading the charge as founder or CEO.
Paul Towers is a 3 x entrepreneur and the Founder & CEO of Task Pigeon, a web application that makes it easy to create, assign and manage the tasks you and your team work on each day. Paul is also a passionate supporter of the startup ecosystem and regularly mentors other startups and student entrepreneurs.
