10 Days in the Life of an Entrepreneur

With jobs a major concern for so many, more people than ever are considering the life of an entrepreneur. As one who has been an entrepreneur for 25 years (since getting out of law school), I have some insight.

Being an entrepreneur is exhilarating and debilitating. It is a path to enormous personal satisfaction ... and pain. Since 9 out of 10 start-up's never make it, the odds are against you. However, there's always the 1 in 10 chance you'll make it, and the 1 in a 1,000,000 chance you'll fly like Google.

I have started or participated in the start-up of at least 20 businesses -- including a shirt factory in El Salvador, a "pure play" Internet marketing venture, a real estate brokerage and development enterprise, and an adventure ski company. On balance, I am ahead financially but, there have been many days when I wondered what the heck I was thinking. Here are a few of the days budding entrepreneurs should know about:

1. Little or no sleep over a 4-day period -- comes with the territory.

2. Embarrassment and humiliation -- my new venture is a publishing company. Nothing like a book signing when no one shows, or a call-in radio interview where the only caller is the host's daughter.

3. Fixing toilets -- as an entrepreneur, there are few support systems. In trying to fix the office toilet, I made it much worse.

4. Feeling invisible -- notwithstanding great products or services, if you do not have the capital for marketing or a terrific viral strategy, there are many days when you feel like no one even knows you exist.

5. An overwhelming sense of helplessness -- you finally start to get some traction and then some technology issue rears its head. It takes seven days to fix. You want to jump off a bridge.

6. Banker envy -- you have drinks with an investment banker, who you personally know to be a moron, crowing about his seven-figure bonus.

7. Spousal concern -- after an extended period of long days and nights at the office, my wife wondered out loud about my priorities.

8. Missing kids' events -- only happened a few times but when I missed a soccer game, school play or teacher conference, I was down for days.

9. Self-Doubt -- you of all people must believe in what you are doing. Sometimes, that is easier in theory than in practice.

10. AN ENORMOUS HIGH -- then, after all the pain, frustration, family and financial pressure, introspection and heartache, you hit some kind of tipping point. People start to notice you and your venture. Sales increase. The media begins to call. "Wow," you think to yourself. "I knew it would all work out."

Jim Randel is the founder of The Skinny On book series. His books are winning national awards and reviewer acclaim. Still, none of them are bestsellers ... YET.

The Skinny on Success: Why Not You? was released this month.
http://theskinnyon.com/item.aspx?id=24

 

Follow Jim Randel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jimrandel

Comments

[condor101]

Great advice Jim.
Thanks for sharing.

[MediaSlackers]

Very good, indeed. The entrepreneurial roller coaster can be quite the ride, but you have to be prepared for the ups and downs and somehow keep a level head throughout. Two other posts I can recommend reading, along with this one, are:

Derek Sivers (founder of CDBaby, musician and technologist): Confidence Required - http://sivers.org/confidence

and

Tim Ferriss (writer and explorer of all things life and tech): Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You - http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/10/03/harnessing-entrepreneurial-manic-depression-making-the-rollercoaster-work-for-you/

[lmpub]

Welcome to the new economy. After the financial and economic bloodbath of the last 18 months, it will be entrepreneurs like us that will help bring it back. Nice piece.

[First Step Organic]

I just recently started an online business, my first take on entrepreneurship ever! I can say that I have experienced at least 6-7 of those days listed in the article, waiting patiently for day #10. Great article, thanks.

[enochsmoky]

Good article, Jim. I am a new car dealer so I know all of your concerns first hand. You will not get much response from the HuffPo readership and if you do it will probably be negative. The typical HuffPo poster is either an academic, union worker. activist, student or a welfare recipient. They cannot fathom the trial and tribulations of an entrepreneur and they do no understand the innate resistance most entrepreneurs have to the statist proposals being offered by the most anti entrepreneur administration in the last 80 years.

[ResoluteBob]

I was going to offer you good luck wishes for your venture, but your poor attitude and gross generalizations about HuffPo readers put the brakes on that sentiment very quickly. The article, however, was quite good.

[sonoffestus]

You're a new care dealer.............Wow that's entrepreneurial..........LOL!

So you opened show room called a company and said I have space to show your cars and a mechanic out back .

When you create a new hybrid car then you can tell us HP posters what we are or are not.

FYI ....My wife and I started 3 differnet business in our 27 years together. Number 1 failed so we started # 2 which was marginal. When then took # 2 and transformed or 'morphed it into # 3 which has been extremely succcesful for the last 15 years. As the market place is in flux and our industry changing we are now discussing what is next. I suggest you do the same, unless of course you come up with that new hybrid car.

My wife and I have found all of Jim's points to be true.

[enochsmoky]

Sonoffestus, your snide remarks show that you know very little about one of the most complex, competitive businesses that a person can enter into and yes, every time that you trade in a car, purchase cars at an auction or set up repair work, you are being entrepreneurial. Just because a businessman is not working in a "cool, new internet" business, does not make him any less entrepreneurial. I would let you work in my business for one week and you would be amazed at the complexity. And by the way, we have a web site and sell parts nationwide over the internet. Come help me run my parts department, service department, rental department, new and used vehicles, finance and insurance, newspaper advertising, online advertising.......I think you get the message.

[condor101]

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