The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship
What is The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship?
Before I answer, “What is the dark side of entrepreneurship?” let me ask you a simple question.
A question that will help you understand – how messed up the concept of entrepreneurship has become for all of us and why no one is telling us – behind the scenes stories of the world of entrepreneurship.
Since you have decided to tolerate the ignorant me and move forward with the blog, here is the question for you – “What is the first thought to come to your mind when someone asks you to describe entrepreneurship?”
I know you want to answer the question by giving me examples of some of the brightest, youngest, successful entrepreneurs in the world who are known for building billion-dollar enterprises.
But – before you answer the question, let’s take a short break and look at all topics I will cover in the blog.
The break is over!
Now I want you to close your eyes.
Take a deep breath and then tally your answer with the answers I got from a few colleagues. (you do not lose marks for cheating :))
“Entrepreneurship is about changing the world” is what one of my close friends told me.
Full marks to him.
Another noble soul answered, “Entrepreneurship’s goal is to disrupt the existing ways of doing business .”
The rest of the answers I received, too, were similar to the grandiose concept of Entrepreneurship fed into our minds by the never-ending supply of news from media.
However, there was one notable exception out of all the answers I received.
Yes – there was someone who spoke the simple language and did not want to protect or change the world like batman.
It was an answer from a friend who I love for his straightforward, no-nonsense approach.
He said, “Entrepreneurship is the process of getting rich fast by building a company that receives the highest evaluation in the shortest time frame.”
This answer made my day.
This mate of mine was so awesome that I loved him.
Without mixing all the ‘philosophical B.S,’ he focused on why he is in the game.
Please show me the money!
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Now, if you have never tasted entrepreneurship and have been devoid of the fascinating entrepreneurial life – you are going to enjoy this blog as I unravel the interesting life of an entrepreneur for you.
Trust me – it is unlike the imaginary world where – you, the pauper! Fights the big evil, mean world and builds a business empire that everyone envies.
Time for me to be a party spoiler.
(disclaimer – do not hate me for shattering your dreams and showing you the ugly side of entrepreneurship).
Let’s get started!
What if I told you – Everything that you have read and understood about Entrepreneurship was a lie.
What if I told you that you were living in a fool’s paradise.
Why – fool’s paradise?
Well! Because you only heard or read the selective stories of entrepreneurship — stories from the world of Tesla, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Amazon.
You forgot to read about the stories of businesses like Blackberry, Blockbuster, Kodak, or Compaq – all billion-dollar enterprises that failed due to lack of innovation.
You chose to scroll past the stories of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade(two famous entrepreneurs who committed suicide).
It took the death of VG Siddhartha, founder of CCD, to wake you from your rosy dreamy world of entrepreneurship made up of a lot of ‘multis’ – the multi-million dollar entrepreneurs, the multi-million-dollar funding, a multi-million dollar exit.
Do you know what is lost in the stories told, emphasizing everything ‘Multi million’?
It is the real, depressing story of 8 out of 10 startups that fail to survive.
Obviously, why would you want to hear depressing news involving stress and suicides?
Don’t the motivation coaches only ask us to stay ‘positive’?
Isn’t the stressful life of an entrepreneur only about motivation and meditation?
My dear friend, you need to hear these stories because you might soon be getting a reality check of the world, unlike the B.S they fed you.
A world that is referred to as the lonely world at the top (at least, the media is truthful here).
The Real 'Entrepreneur'
In the real world, the Entrepreneur is a lonely guy (presumably) sitting at the top of the food chain.
At times, he is a misfit, and at times, he is a misunderstood genius who is struggling alone to achieve the unachievable.
The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship includes Depression, Stress which at times leads to Mental and health issues.
Quoting from the study published on Springer link on a bunch of Entrepreneurs(Source: link.springer)
‘Entrepreneurs reported experiencing more depression (30%), ADHD (29%), substance use (12%), and bipolar disorder (11%) than comparison participants. Furthermore, 32% of the entrepreneurs reported having two or more mental health conditions, while 18% reported having three or more mental health conditions. Asymptomatic entrepreneurs (having no mental health issues) with asymptomatic families constituted only 24% of the entrepreneur participants.’
I know – No one told you about this hidden article on the internet.
How “The Dark Side Of Entrepreneurship” Took Me By Surprise:
When I started my first venture, I (like you) was attracted to the entrepreneurial life because of all the fascinating stories told by the media and my entrepreneur friend, who (supposedly) was smacking every challenge he faced out of the park.
In my mind, I thought – How hard could it be?
It wouldn’t be harder than my tedious job at that time.
Those were the days when leaving a job in an IT Company was an unforgivable crime that could ever be committed by a person from a middle-class family.
The repercussions were – The marriage stocks would plummet.
Family standing would go down.
Everyone would talk behind your back about your foolishness.
You become a Pariah who people would praise for his bravery in the face, but deep down, they all mocked the idiot.
How Naïve Could You Be To Leave A Job in An IT Company?
We leave our jobs out of frustration, salary issues, family issues, and many other reasons.
I wasn’t very fond of my job, but it was not a reason big enough to leave my job.
For me, the fascination to build something of my own was more prominent than anything else, and fuelling my fascination was my ‘entrepreneur friend.’
His entrepreneurial stories dwarfed my corporate drudgery.
I could hear him talk for hours about how he made sales despite being from a technical background.
Like a snake dancing to the tunes of a snake charmer, I forgot to look beyond the glowing facade.
I was charmed and fascinated with entrepreneurship.
It wasn’t long before fascination turned into inspiration (his tales of conquering the big evil world of business were no joke).
I started assessing my current situation as a programmer in a company, where I worked on a small module of a big project of a bigger company.
Although the glass façade of the building was enough to keep my stocks high in the highly competitive Indian Marriage market, it would never give me the emotional satisfaction of living life on my terms.
One beautiful day, I quit my job.
Hello, Entrepreneurship! Your fanboy has decided to come on board.
A few months into my first venture, and the charm had weaned off.
This was nothing near to what I read in newspapers and what I heard from my friend.
Everyone said, “There is nothing like Entrepreneurship.” I didn’t realize the meaning in “between the lines.”
And it hit me hard.
What they do not tell you about Entrepreneurship!
So, here I was – An overworked donkey who felt duped by everyone who sold him the concept of entrepreneurship.
No One Told Me That, Entrepreneurship’s Real World Involves:
Failures, Not Successes, Make You An Entrepreneur:
Yes! You read that right – word to word.
Failures are more common in entrepreneurship than successes; for someone from the corporate world, that will be a big setback.
You will be required to move fast and not let the failures stop you because, as you slow down – the competition will outpace you.
12 to 16 Hours Word Day Is A Norm:
Let’s be practical.
As a first-time entrepreneur with a limited budget, you cannot have a staff for every line of work.
You will hire multi-taskers and, in turn, will fill in yourself for anyone who is overworked.
12 to 16 hours is the average time that you will be expected to spend in the office. Again, coming from the corporate world – it was a shock for me.
Family Time Is A Myth In Entrepreneurship:
When you work 12 to 16 hours and get 4 to 6 hours of sleep, how are you expected to find time for your family?
I remember not spending any time with our firstborn and missing all his essential events in life (a regret I will carry to my grave 🙁 ).
Though I am more involved in my kid’s life than before, the time lost has never come back.
How our families suffer is another story.
After two years of marriage, we took our first vacation.
We still refer to the trip after two years as our honeymoon 🙂.
Since then, I am either busy handling projects or finding funds to grow our company further.
A wise man once said, “No amount of money or success can take the time spent with your family.” I wish I could meet “the wise man” and ask him, “Did you write it from the perspective of an Entrepreneur?”
Where is the time for family?
Add to the above, missing all anniversaries and birthdays.
I once forgot my birthday and anniversary .🙂
Money Issues Are Real:
From loving the 1st of every month as an employee to hating the same date as an entrepreneur, you will witness a significant transformation.
Money issues can get to you.
As someone who has just started a business and has no reputation in the market – Every vendor would want an advance, and every client would delay the payment.
Ultimately, your Salary cycle would always be ahead of the payment cycle. In dire need of staying afloat, you will dig into your savings. Take loans at exuberant rates (heard of loan sharks?).
And all this for – what?
To live ‘The Entrepreneurial Dream.’
It’s A Lonely World At The Top:
Let me start with how Employees view the owners of an organization.
“Dude! The guy sitting in the cabin has the best job in the world. He makes money.
Spanks us for work and always cribs about client payments and then, we do not get a hike. Life is so unfair.”
The above lines came from my conversation with college buddies who are employees in some of the best companies.
I am sure the employees in our company do not have any better views to share about me.
Most of my friends think, “I am the luckiest guy on earth.”
They have their reasons to believe how lucky I am.
At times, I wish we could trade places.
There have been times when I have begged employees to not leave in the middle of projects (there goes my boss ego). Only to see them leave me to our mess.
Now, you, as an Entrepreneur, can not go and cry your heart in front of anyone because you took the decision when everyone else opposed it.
You decided to change the world. You were the maverick who was to swim against the tide.
Won’t the cribbing hurt your macho image? Aren’t you the indefatigable Entrepreneur?
This is where things start going south. You feel lonely and defeated.
Since you never had time for friends and family, they are no closer to you, and it would be like an act of selfishness just to discuss your problems.
Also, you know – no one will understand you.
Let me tell you a story that covers everything that I wrote above and, as they say, ‘puts an end to an argument:
At the start of my entrepreneurial journey, I got the chance to work with the government.
Before you call me a moron, hear me out.
I was more than thrilled to work with a prestigious government that wanted to start projects without upfront payments.
It was a chance of life – something that was supposed to push my risk-taking ability as an entrepreneur!
It was a disaster. I am an idealist who does not like to bribe and the stupid idealism led to delayed payments.
Within months, all our money was stuck in government projects.
Employees had not been paid in months.
The owner of our office would pop out of nowhere and ask, “When will you pay your rent?”
Worse. I had no money in my pocket.
The dark side of being an Entrepreneur was starting to show its true colours.
I would not be exaggerating if I said – Life was shit.
I had almost decided to close the company when Destiny smiled, and the government officials decided to pay me without getting their palms greased.
Don’t ask me what happened because even I don’t know what happened.
As soon as I paid everyone – predictably, everyone left.
I was the only employee of the company sitting in the company at the end.
—
Wait-2.
There is more to this sad saga than what you have read above.
The story goes further…
Like a phoenix, we rose from ashes (that line really makes it sound dramatic).
Reality check – I and my business partner slogged for another few years and rebuilt the company.
Now one of the employees, who had left us after this incident, recently came to my office and asked me to prepare an experience letter with a fake experience.
When I confronted him for his stupid request, he replied, “Even you are no angel.”
You worked as a contractor under the name of a different company.
I have no idea what my working as a contractor had to do with him asking for a fake certificate but he vented out all his anger on me.
So – like a disgruntled employee, what do you do?
You go on the internet and post a bad review about a company.
In this case, this ‘disgruntled’ employee made a few fake ids and then posted all bad reviews about us.
I will let you decide who is guilty here?
But, as an Entrepreneur, I am expected to maintain composure and drown in my sorrows.
I just have to keep up my composure. Take a deep breath and get ready for the next challenge.
Entrepreneurs cannot confide a lot in their employees.
What if the employee leaves tomorrow? He/she takes all your confidentiality along with him.
I have heard stories of friends losing money and reputation when their trusted lieutenant joined the competitor.
The dark side of being Entrepreneur at times is too dark to see through.
When I see all the hype around youngsters starting startups for all the wrong reasons, I wish I could tell them the dark side of entrepreneurship.
Within years of starting a startup, you might end up without money, friend, or family.
I am sure; the wise men didn’t tell you this before you started.
A budding Entrepreneur in our family once told me how inspired he was to see my company grow from nothing to a company with a decent turnover without any funding or help.
I didn’t want to be a party spoiler and dampen his spirits by speaking to him about the ‘ugly side of being an Entrepreneur.’
The dark side of Entrepreneurship is a secret that unravels itself after you become an Entrepreneur.
We, the entrepreneurs, are supposed to encourage. Speak nice stuff about startups and paint a rosy picture of being an entrepreneur.
I always lived up to the expectations and spoke beautiful things about being an Entrepreneur.
I did not want to come across as a crybaby who cannot handle the pressure.
However, I have changed over the years, and now – I handle the pressure strategically by openly speaking about my struggles.
I make it a point to speak about the hardships youngsters can expect while starting a venture and why the world is so lonely at the top.
I have come to accept the fact that Entrepreneurship is like life.
Every day You can not have a good day.
To ensure I do not screw up – I try not to let the bad days get the worse out of me.
Do I Still Get Depressed Over Failures And Challenges?
Yes – I do, but then I take happiness in the small joys of life, like thinking about my kid’s smile or coming back home to a beautiful family who never complain despite being a part of my struggle.
The dark side of entrepreneurship is the reality of being an entrepreneur, face it before it gets the worse of you.
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I am interested to textile marketing how I can start kindly help me thanks
Hi Rajendra…what do you mean by textile marketing?
Loved this read , I’m definately that “Youngstar” that needed the reality check .
Thanks for the comment. I hope the blog will help you in avoiding the mistakes i did as a youngster 🙂
This is really inspirational Jasmeet.
Thanks, Avinash.
Thank you So Much Jasmeet For sharing the Dark Side of Entrepreneurship! Today, in the Online Era everyone is excited to show their Positive Life, Big Houses, Luxury Cars, etc, Nobody is interested to share their Struggle. Reality hits when we go through this Journey.
Hey Suchit. Thanks for dropping by…I am glad you found the article useful.