There are quite a few polar opposite thought processes I go through every time I am visiting another entrepreneur and author friend in Palo Alto. One of the opposing points of view I think about is that there are BIG pros and cons to owning your own business. Whether you are a youtube partner, a network marketer, a serial startup individual, or someone grinding out their dream business and making it work, there are a lot of (you got it) the good, the bad, and sometimes even the ugly. For the benefit of the new entrepreneurial-minded people here in Palo Alto, I want to take a look at some of each one of these states of mind and situations.
The Good
One of the biggest collection of thought I love about the idea of entrepreneurship is the freedom that comes along with it. It is awesome to be able to choose where you are going to start your business, what hours your business will take, when you are going to work those hours, and when vacation is appropriate. Of course, it doesn't take that long to learn this isn't ever like the free-for-all you first envision. Your business needs you working on it constantly to make it....work! To make it profitable. But it does offer a flexibility that traditional employment does not. The ability to make seemingly unlimited amounts of money is also a huge deal, and is an odd concept to grasp sometimes. Human nature being what it is, is to think all the hours and years you spend in college "entitles" you to a certain paycheck. At least that's what we seem to hear from Doctors and Lawyers. oh yeah, and the MBAers. This is not so when starting a business.
Another huge perk to having your own business is that you get to drive the bus of your own future! No more riding with 50 other people to the same place, whereabouts unknown, with someone else at the wheel, and someone else making the decisions that effect you and your future. You are the one that gets to make the decisions. You also get to reap the rewards of wherever that bus ends up. Which, for this section, we will call good!
The Bad
You never get to leave work. If you are a 'work at home' entrepreneur, you never leave work. Not ever, not really. You are basically always on call, and you will always get a call. When you are on a dream vacation with your significant other, you have your phone ringing off the hook and it will make you miss your reservations for your 5-star resturaunt at the top of a hotel in Dubai. And your significant other doesn't appreciate how hard you work....at this particular time. But hey, you will be in Dubai! On vacation, you have to get up way early and sneak into the bathroom to get your never-ending work done.
You will also have some hard times financially, especially at first. It will not always be lucrative, and you will have times where you do not see a paycheck for a great while. You feel like, 'if I pay my dues, I will be done." But, you pay your dues over and over and over. Other times, you will get sick of parenting all of your salespeople! You will get sick of having to be "the boss," even the boss of yourself. Sometimes you don't want to be the one that has to keep track of everything. Because of these few reasons and about ten-thousand other practicalities, you are going to be stressed more often than you thought was possible. And with good cause, justifiably the stress will get to you, sooner or later.
The Ugly
Some of the hardest parts about being an entrepreneur is that you are going to fall flat on your face a time or two...or twenty. Guaranteed. It will not be a matter of if, but rather a matter of when. Some may take these set backs harder than others, but eventually everybody gets knocked down. You may have a bankruptcy, relationship problems, or even a messy divorce. You may end up with a heart condition from chronic stress and eating lousy food, or from only eating protein bars all the time because you are on the go.
In the end, you have to get past the ugly, if you are going to stay an entrepreneur. You will have to figure out how to work "life" around what you want to do and what you want to be. You have to decide what part of this work is worth it and what part is not. You have to learn to enjoy the good, watch the bad, and ignore the ugly.