Businessman rubbing magic lamp to get instant money, financial freedom, money making concept.
As a long-time mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs and several years of experience as an investor, I feel like I hear the same concerns and stereotypes more and more in this era of fast-paced business and global competition. In my opinion, now is the time to chase the huge new opportunities that are out there, rather than worrying about all the risks and never starting. Still, I recommend being disciplined in all your actions.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s possible to avoid the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and learn the necessary discipline by taking advantage of currently available college courses, joining a startup accelerator like Y Combinator, and networking with peers, investor groups, and startup mentors.
One of the first challenges is overcoming common misconceptions about entrepreneurship, recently revealed in a newly expanded and updated book called Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup by Bill Aulet. Bill is an experienced entrepreneur and currently the Ethernet Inventors Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
I liked his article outlining 10 common misconceptions about entrepreneurship that should be cleared up, so I’ve paraphrased it here and added my own perspective.
1. Entrepreneurship relies on motivated individuals. The truth is, building a new business has always been a team sport, and that fact is truer every day as the world becomes more complex. With multiple complementary partners and a great team, your chances of success are always higher, because a single individual, no matter how motivated, rarely has the breadth of skills and capabilities to succeed.
2. A founder must have special charisma to be successful. Charisma may help initially, but it is hard to sustain and can be counterproductive. Great founders focus on creating real value for qualified customers. Their most important skills include communication, recruiting, and selling the value proposition to all constituencies.
3. Entrepreneurs are born ready and don’t need training. Starting and growing a business requires many skills — problem solving, legal agreements, operations, finances — none of which we’re born with in our genes, and research shows that the more times you start a business, the more likely you are to ultimately succeed.
Four. Business founders are smarter than us. While a high level of general intelligence always helps, sustained focus and obsession with becoming an expert in innovative business solutions is key to their success. Their determination is to solve their customers’ problems better than anyone else and to learn all they need to.
Five. To be an entrepreneur, you have to like taking risks. Great entrepreneurs learn how to take smart, informed risks when they have the knowledge and advantage to know that the risk/reward ratio makes it reasonable to pursue a given opportunity. They understand that no place in business today is risk-free.
6. Great entrepreneurs are just lucky people. True entrepreneurs make their fortunes by working smart and hard, never giving up, learning from their mistakes, seeking out mentors and studying the strategies of successful business leaders who came before them, and always balancing their passion for new solutions with real market forces.
7. Successful entrepreneurs must come up with novel ideas. Innovative ideas are necessary to spur teams into action, but more importantly, viable ideas must be effectively executed and evolved over time with real customers. Highly novel ideas are at highest risk of failure because of the long and expensive learning curve for customers.
8. You have to be young to be an entrepreneur. Research shows that the average age of founders launching their first startup is currently 45, and continues to rise as the business world becomes more complex. Entrepreneurship is attractive to young professionals due to the low cost of entry, a passion for technology, and a desire to take control of their own destiny.
9. Entrepreneurs have a low success rate per startup. All successful professionals push the boundaries of their craft and are measured by the satisfaction and ultimate success they achieve, not the individual mistakes they make. Most founders start multiple companies and are successful in their current business or multiple businesses.
Ten. Entrepreneurs are not disciplined in running a startup. The truth is quite the opposite: With limited funds, no reputation, and very little time to build a brand, every aspiring startup founder needs the discipline to communicate effectively, systematically use modern tools to track metrics, and find new marketing strategies.
To sum up, these myths are not only untrue, but they also have a negative impact on the mindset of aspiring entrepreneurs looking for a fulfilling and satisfying lifestyle. I urge you to be disciplined and move forward with your dream of making the world a better place while having fun with your own business.
