Maybe you've just watched The Social Network and The Founder, or spent months watching Silicon Valley and Shark Tank. Something clicks, and you decide it's time to take the leap. You can already picture it: the team of experts, the big problem you'll solve, the freedom, and the money.
I understand that picture because I had one too. For a long time, I believed entrepreneurship meant endless work, late nights, early mornings and moving faster than everyone else. Some of that is true. But building a business has taught me that the picture is incomplete, and that some of what we believe about entrepreneurship simply isn't true.
This post began with a question from a friend. She asked what I was doing on Sunday. I told her I'd be working and planning the week. Her response was, "I thought being an entrepreneur meant more free time, but all you ever talk about is more work."
She had a point. Entrepreneurship is hard. Things rarely go to plan, and you're often the one left picking up the pieces and figuring out what comes next. If you're already an entrepreneur, these myths will probably sound familiar. If you're not, I hope they give you a clearer idea of what you're signing up for.
Myth 1: You own your time
You'd think being your own boss means no one can tell you what to do, how to do it or when to do it. In reality, you quickly learn that much of your time belongs to your customers.
Expect the 7 a.m. call from a client who needs an urgent update and won't stop calling. Expect last-minute meetings, last-minute pitches and, now and then, last-minute payments. As your business becomes more established, you can choose to let go of clients who don't respect your boundaries. But when they're your first clients and your steady paycheck is gone, most of us have little choice but to absorb it.
In the early days, you may also be a team of one. You handle the accounting, sell (even if you don't like selling), write the marketing plan, hire, network, build relationships, restock the toilet paper and clean the bathroom. You become the Chief Everything Officer. And at the start, you can't hand everything off. The business still needs your imprint.
Every one of those roles takes time. A lot of time.
And the rewards may take a while to arrive. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics follows new business establishments year by year, and across every group that started between 1994 and 2010, only around half were still operating five years later (opens in a new tab). I don't share that to scare you. I share it because going in with your eyes open is better than building on assumptions.
Myth 2: I just need to try harder
Sometimes, the answer isn't to push harder. Sometimes, it's to stop and take a closer look.
Stepping back to reassess isn't weakness. Look honestly at what's happening, ask the difficult questions, and decide whether to move forward, step back or change direction. Some things aren't meant to be, however hard you try. You may not have product-market fit. You may have the wrong team, the wrong timing or the wrong expertise. You may be able to solve the problem but not profitably. Or you may have built something that nobody but you and your friends really wants.
When that's the case, let it go and begin again with a better understanding of what needs to change.
The research supports this. A 2019 study in Nature used large-scale data on repeated attempts by startup founders and by scientists applying for NIH research grants. It found that people who eventually succeed and people who don't can look much the same at first. What separates them is how much each new attempt improves on the last (opens in a new tab). Effort alone doesn't predict success. Learning does.
A pivot is one option. Starting something completely new is another. Some of the best-known companies began as something else. Slack began as an internal messaging tool built by a team making an online game called Glitch. When the game failed, they turned the tool they'd built along the way into their product (opens in a new tab). And choosing to be an employee rather than an entrepreneur is a perfectly valid option too.
Sometimes, you're simply not ready to lead a particular venture. That doesn't have to be the end of the story. It may mean there's more to learn before you try again, and recognising that is valuable in itself.
Myth 3: I can do it alone
This is a big one. We've all read The 4-Hour Workweek, and Tim Ferriss's ideas on automation can save you real hours. But being the Chief Everything Officer only takes you so far.
To grow, you'll need other people. And if you want to do this well, you'll need the best people you can find. Nobody knows everything, and you can't spend all your time trying to learn it all. As a leader, your job is to make decisions, set the vision, lead and gather the right resources, human and otherwise. That means delegating, and effective delegation starts with having people you trust.
In Good to Great, Jim Collins uses the image of a bus to explain this. The leaders he studied first got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off it, before deciding where to drive (opens in a new tab). As he puts it, "Great vision without great people is irrelevant."
Myth 4: I need investment to build a business
If you're starting a medical company that needs years of research, testing and clinical trials, outside capital may be essential. But if you're offering a service, you can often start with what you already have.
Start now. Call someone you know and ask whether they would pay for what you plan to offer. Service businesses are among the most accessible options for people starting without capital. I started my agency with a laptop, a desk, a lot of online courses and articles on running an agency, and the will to make it work. I met clients in hotel lobbies, coffee shops and online.
You'd be in good company. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, drawing on Census Bureau data, three-quarters of businesses report using personal or family savings to start, only 12% use a business loan, and venture capital and grants are each used by fewer than 6% (opens in a new tab).
You also don't have to take the leap all at once. Writing in WIRED, Wharton professor Adam Grant described a study of thousands of American entrepreneurs which found that people who started companies while keeping their day jobs were 33% less likely to fail than those who went all in (opens in a new tab).
So, is it worth it?
Is entrepreneurship worth the pain, uncertainty and risk? That depends on who you are. Answering that question requires honest self-awareness: an understanding of your emotional and psychological needs, and of what your ideal life actually looks like.
Entrepreneurship isn't for everyone, and that's fine. Many people do their best work inside an organisation, and there's nothing wrong with that. Every path comes with trade-offs. The important thing is to understand them and make peace with the ones that come with yours.
But if you believe you're built for this and you're willing to keep growing into the role, I salute you. I hope these myths help you approach the journey with greater clarity, make wiser decisions along the way and recognise when it's time to change course.
Keep moving forward.
– KB