What it takes to become an entrepreneur
Sigma School
18th August 2023
The four most enduring traits of successful entrepreneurs are grit, passion, determination and, yes, a little bit of craziness.
In the early days of a startup, you don't have much money. You don't have enough people, or space, or equipment. You have to find things to make that need doing, and you have to convince people you have what it takes. The odds are stacked against you.
The roller coaster of emotions also describes entrepreneurship generally. It's messy, full of ups and downs. Success feels great, but failure can be devastating. If you succeed, you often feel like you're getting away with something. When you fail, you feel embarrassed and ashamed.
You face another kind of roller coaster when you start your own business. The ups and downs can be worse, because even though you may have less money, you have more responsibility. When you succeed, you feel like you are somehow cheating. When you fail, you feel like a failure. And whereas when you work for other people, at least you can pretend you're working for a larger cause, when you're self-employed, you have no one to blame for failures except yourself.
Entrepreneurship is also lonely. Working on your own, it can feel like you're the only person in the world who is doing what you are doing. The roller coaster of success and disappointment can make it hard to keep trying to get things right.
The loneliness of entrepreneurship may sometimes be alleviated by hiring employees. But even the most dedicated entrepreneur will eventually run into the problem of getting all the work done himself. Eventually, you'll have to hire people. That can be a good time for entrepreneurs, because then they can quit worrying and start working on their real job: running the new business.
But hiring employees takes time, and when people join a company, they have unrealistic ideas about how fast things will go. For example, most entrepreneurs believe that once you get investors, you can run the company exactly the way you planned. But investors have their own ideas
One of the most important tools in an entrepreneur's arsenal is passion. Passion is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. It is the passion that keeps you going, regardless of the obstacles. It is the passion that makes you keep questioning the status quo, despite the naysayers and doubters. It is the passion that makes you believe that you can and will change things, despite all evidence to the contrary. It is the passion that makes you go that extra mile, because you want to make a difference.
A lot of people think of entrepreneurship as requiring brains. And it's true that in a lot of cases you need brains, but the brains don't necessarily have to be yours: they can be borrowed or rented. What entrepreneurs truly need is passion and the will to see their ideas through to the finish.
Once you have an idea, though, it's your job to make it happen. Most brainstormers have the conception that the idea is enough. You find smart people, tell them your idea, and they will do the rest.
But that's assuming that your idea is good. And it's assuming that other people are smart people.Usually, though, they're not. Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's what you do with them that counts. Smart people can be very lazy. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that smart people can be unimaginative. They like doing things the way they've always been done. Inventing the wheel isn't hard. You roll it.Once they get going, though, smart people can be surprisingly creative. But it takes them a while.If the idea is good, the entrepreneur isn't looking for smart people. He is looking for smart people to convince him that his idea is good.
These days, though, it's hard to find smart people who believe in anything. Even smart people who believe in ideas sometimes don't believe in them. The human race has a bias against curiosity and a bias for certainty. The people you need to persuade are usually already convinced. They won't change their minds. They are already convinced, and they aren't going to change their minds.
You have to find people who believe in your ideas. You can begin with your friends and family, but unless you are very lucky, there is probably more opposition there than support. That's one reason that companies specialize in finding customers.
Of course, sometimes the people you want to convince will have nothing to do with you. They won't believe in your idea, and they won't pay attention to your business plan. For that you need money. If you can't find investors, you have to find someone who already believes in your idea. That’s the role of the entrepreneur, to gather enough people to come to their side who believes in their idea and them.
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