What is the biggest problem that entrepreneurship itself is facing right now? by @daniel_ndukwu
Answer by Daniel Ndukwu:
The porn, it’s definitely the porn.
We see entrepreneur porn all over the internet and the news. The stories of brave founders quitting their jobs, tackling the wilderness of business, and exiting at $100,000,000 or more.
Along the way, their passion for the craft strains relationships, burns bridges, and almost drives them broke before it all turns around. The story of unicorns.
LinkedIn acquired for 26 billion.
Facebook Market cap of 359 Billion
How I made $2.5 million in 2 years.
It goes on and on and on. It’s a fantasy. These stories have been carefully cultivated and presented to us — the general public.
The porn makes it incredibly difficult to see what’s really going on beneath the surface. It makes it almost impossible to truly understand what it takes to start, grow, and eventually sell a successful company.
Here are just a few of the truths the porn hides. I’ll also dive into the problems it causes.
1. It’s very rarely rags to riches.
There’s a very interesting discussion on Hacker News you should check out. Here’s an excerpt.
This is the point that has really started to become clear to me in recent years, and not just for startups but for artists, authors, athletes, and all the other dream jobs we idolize: so many of these people are either (1) not really making that much money or (2) already had a trust-fund or come from a wealthy background so they can spend all of their time writing, painting, or engineering. Most authors make below the poverty line [1], and Facebook's success was the outlier, not the norm.
I did the start-up thing in my 20s for about 3-4 years (in the 1990s). My income was about the same as my salary would later be when I went to work for another company, but my stress-levels dropped significantly when I started working for someone else. The constant uncertainty was gone, I was watching my savings grow instead of decline, and I do regret not going for that stability sooner.
I see a similarity between tech-kids in their 20s chasing start-up dreams and the poor kids from my old neighborhood chasing hoop-dreams. The tech-kids have better options to fall back on, but the chances of becoming that rockstar million/billionaire CEO/professional athlete are about the same.
2. You don’t need to be Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, or even in the tech industry
The stories that come out are about sensational teens or twenty something’s that quit their jobs and went on binge coding sprees. When they looked up for air, they had a $100,000,000 dollar valuation and an IPO coming next week.
First, most businesses aren’t in the tech industry and what we see on the news is just a very small sampling of what’s available. There are many companies like Question Nutrition who are doing just fine outside of tech.
3. It only takes a few years
Um, why would you ever think it takes a few years to build a billion dollar business? If it happens at all, it takes decades. The companies you see today like Apple, Shell, and HSBC weren’t even conceived in this century. Not to mention this decade.
The thing is, there is a grind and it’s important to develop your skills in many different capacities. You shouldn’t shun working for the man. The man can teach you things you’d never learn. The man can introduce you to people you’d never meet. The man can open doors you didn’t even know were locked.
Am I saying you shouldn’t chase your dreams? Not at all.
What I am saying is to get some freaking experience to avoid common mistakes.
Problems The Porn Causes
1. The problem all these things cause is a huge number of people calling themselves entrepreneurs with no experience, no customers, and no idea of what they want to really build.
There are a slew of me too companies. I want to be the next Uber or we’re the Facebook killer. No, you’re not going to kill Facebook and why would you want to be the next Uber? You should be worried about keeping your sanity while building the first “gimho” or whatever you want to call your company.
When writing, they always say “find your unique voice” In business, it’s find your unique value. Also known as unique selling point. What is unique about next “fill in the blank?”
Stop watching the porn and really have sex.
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What is the biggest problem that entrepreneurship itself is facing right now?
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