It’s not easy being a young entrepreneur, let alone a young one just entering the workforce.
I struggled a lot in my earlier years as an entrepreneur working with others that are way older than me. I had a lot of inspiration but the reality of the older folks is constantly trying to destroy me from pursuing a higher purpose.
Maybe because they have failed or had faced similar situations and warned others not to follow the same step. Either way, being a young entrepreneur is tough.
You will spend time with 99% of people who want to work for others
No one in the right mind will start a business at an early age.
That was the mindset the people around me had. Measuring their life based on risk to reward. Questioning your thinking whether what you are trying to achieve in life will be worth it?
The HARD TRUTH you will face as Business Owner
Business owners are rare, really rare. 9 out of 10 businesses fail within the first 5 years of establishment and many business owners have to struggle for years before they ever see any signs of accomplishment from their results.
You Suffer Alone
No one will understand the hardship you are going through, not even your family and friends. It’s no wonder many business owners suffer from some form of mental illness including depression and over-anxiety.
As Elon Musk famously said “you have to be crazy enough to start a business. It’s like eating glass staring into the abyss trying to make sense of it.”
I failed more than 3 different side hustles, it sucks. But as I mature and learn more about running a business, I found that the only way to walk to see the light at the end of the tunnel is to have a plan and stick it all the way.
You see, your conviction in what you are doing or trying to achieve must be so strong that no one can sway you from your mission. When you can do just that, your survivorship of the business is going to probably be a lot better.
You burn your own life away
So as you remain convicted to see your business through. Your most probably going to spend many late-night hours building it up.
The hardest part of it all is losing spending time with family and friends. For my business to succeed, I was too hungry for its success that I traded it for family time.
While many would question the way I did things, I believe I’m not alone in this journey of trying to be a successful entrepreneur. I constantly remind myself that the journey will be tough, and that’s why it is going to be all worth it once it all plays out.
Burning cash to sustain a business
While all your friends and family are out partying and enjoying their life. You would probably be stuck in your room or office working on your business.
As you build it into a bigger scale company, your burn rate to maintain the business starts to pile up. To have an adequate amount of cash, you may even have to skip meals to have more than enough for your business.
Hope
Every once in a while you will start to see a glimmer of hope, it keeps you alive with the little spark of fire to maintain your business.
To keep hope higher and morale better, you will pour more of your time and effort into growing the business. It becomes an addiction to do whatever it takes to make the business a success. At this point, you will learn to take better care of your employee and work for hand in hand with them because they know managing a business is not a one-man job.
Growth
Before many businesses even reach the growth stage, more than 50% of businesses would have already quit at this point.
Money starts flowing in and you can bring in more people to help your business. It’s the good times and you can finally catch some breath. But it’s not over.
Competition Starts
The competitor will start taking notice and look into your growth and are likely to copy some of your methods.
This phase is where it hurts a lot, you can’t seem to break out of the growth and get more people buying your products or services as you are constantly in battle with competitors. It’s tough and the only way to get around it again is to spend more hours working yet again.
When you’re finally at the top
Congratulations, you have made it to the top. By this stage of your life, you would probably have spent many years cultivating your business and you feel you have thrown your entire life into the business.
That’s why many billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are constantly investing in ways to prolong life and also find internal life.
Is it worth it to work on your dream as a young entrepreneur? Are you willing to sacrifice a lot of things before you ever get a taste of success? Is your time precious?
Those are the thought that I think many young entrepreneurs should consider before they ever take the first step in building a business. And if you are willing to start a business, you jolly well be expected to spend many hours, late night hours, and years of it to build a successful business.
