Let me start off by saying that entrepreneurship is glorified a lot. I personally don’t think it is a highway to success and riches, neither do I think it is for everyone. However, I wholeheartedly believe that every person should give it a shot. Why? Read on…
To start off, from what I’ve observed, we have three internal desires. What I mean by this is that broadly speaking, we are typically motivated by one of three things:
- Money or status.
- Love.
- Desire to create an impact on the lives of others.
This might be different for some of us, but most of us are internally motivated by three things. If you aren’t sure about what is your internal motivation, ask yourself several “why” questions. After five or six, you should have your answer.
But…why does Why matter?
This has a direct impact on our career choices, whether we choose a path that we are truly passionate about or not (read my previous article for my take on this). Some of us chase stability (financial or otherwise) and hence opt for a steady job at a well-known company. Not bad, right? You work hard on projects during office hours, relax during holidays (or not, depending on your work), and rejoice in the fact that no matter what happens you will be paid $X at the end of the month.
Some of us are motivated by love. You might want to work hard so you can provide for your family and loved ones and spend time with them on weekends rather than working. Getting into a business is just too risky and time-consuming, right? I mean, how can I put my family’s lives at stake!?
And finally, if we are part of the broad categorizations made earlier, we are motivated by creating an impact. So we work on projects where we aren’t doing deadbeat or shady jobs. Instead, we volunteer/work at organizations that we believe in and help create a genuine impact on the planet. At the end of the day, we can see that our efforts had a positive change.
I’m sold – let’s get a job! Or not.
Wait! You might be thinking – “Why has Krunal only spoken about jobs? Isn’t this article about entrepreneurship?” And you’d be partially correct if that’s what you thought. For most of us, getting jobs make perfect sense! But I personally disagree. And here’s why:
If it’s financial stability you are looking for, think of self-employment as an investment. What do I mean by this? The chances of earning less than a job are quite high in the initial period. But if you have the skills, it won’t take long before you’re earning as much as you could have at a job. Eventually, you can scale this to earn much more than what you could have at a job. I like to think of the initial low-returns period as an investment. It is the cost of having the possibility to earn much more. And I understand that not everyone is fortunate enough to be in a position like this. But if you are reasonably young then you can freelance full-time or start a business. If you require a steady income source, get a part-time/full-time job and work after hours. Once you start getting clients from your side-hustle, switch over to it full-time!
If you’re motivated by love and want to spend time with and provide for your family, think about it this way – if you are able to build a steady source of income with freelancing or business will it not enable you to provide more for your family? And if you are able to put things on autopilot, it also gives you the freedom to spend time with your loved ones. There are people who work a few hours every week and earn much more than what an average person would earn. How? They invested in themselves and their businesses. During the initial few months/years, they put in everything they had which rewarded them later. They knew that they weren’t able to spend as much time or provide for their family as much as they’d like to, but this is precisely what motivated them to put in even more so that when things click, and they will, they have complete freedom from the crutches of finances and the 9-5 schedule.
If you want to create an impact in the lives of others, self-employment is great, too. There are so many people who have created businesses that have literally changed the lives of millions. Nick Black has developed something that is pretty much a game-changer for nonprofits and veterans. There are so many NGOs that have solved massive problems because their founders believed in it and have impacted so many lives. If you have an idea for a noble cause that isn’t done yet, take the plunge! You never know how many lives you will impact unless you start. If you start your own charitable organization or an organization that helps charitable organizations, you might also end up employing people. Aren’t you impacting their lives as well?
Sounds good, but I’m too old and not in a position to start 🙁
I’ve used this phrase before, but I believe it is very relevant here as well. A Chinese proverb says –
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
Not everyone who will read this will be in a position to take the plunge. And even if you do, there is no guarantee that it’ll work. It most definitely won’t be easy – you might face several roadblocks. But unless you give it a shot, you will never know whether you can make it.
We all want the best lives, but very few want to do what it takes. After studying the lives of several successful people, there is one very clear similarity – patience. I talk about it in one of my other articles, too. Every single success story will involve the person putting in a TON of effort without expecting to see immediate results. If you are willing to do that for years, things will click.
And since very few of us have millions in the bank account to support us for these slower years, it’s best to start small. Can you write copy that sells? Great. Sell it! Are you amazing at making CVs? Help people improve CVs! You get my point… It’s been said millions of times by now but you need to find what you’re good at, find a problem in that domain, and help others solve that problem. I know so many people who have done all sorts of side-hustles to support themselves.
I helped a good friend of mine set up his business. He was not well-off by any means but he understood that unless he pulls the trigger and works on his dream right now, he might never be able to. And bear in mind the person I am talking about is not that young. This was two or three years ago. He now has an office and is consistently breaking-even and making a profit. In fact, his company is also venturing into new fields! He was able to invest in himself and work tirelessly, exploring every option, without expecting to see instant returns. And when he finally did see some success, he put in even more effort.
And sure luck plays an important role in success, but without putting in the massive effort you won’t be “lucky” enough to ever get lucky.
I say this to a lot of my friends who either recently graduated or are about to graduate: we can work on whatever we want for the next few years. Whether it’s a business, whether it’s a nonprofit, or whether it’s impacting people in other ways. We can go ham for a few years and if things don’t work out and we want to tap out, we can do that and not lose a single thing. We will still be young enough for it to have had a negligible (if any) impact on us from a job pov, and we will learn so much more in the process, more than a job could have taught us possibly! This knowledge would also go a long way in helping you in your corporate life.
To conclude…
I thought of writing this article because it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while now. And of course, this is purely my opinion. As I’d said earlier, entrepreneurship and self-employment are glorified a lot and it is not as easy as some people make it seem. You need to be very clear about that and if you have false expectations you will most likely be disappointed, but it pains me to see the number of people who give up without even trying. And that’s something I hope to change 🙂
P.S. As always, I would love to know what you feel about this. If you don’t want to leave a public comment that’s fine. Drop me a message or click here. I’d love to chat 😀