Poll any entrepreneur – new, old, successful, flailing, product-focused, service-focused, solo or with a team – and they will all say the same thing:
“What I thought, was definitely not what I got”, each one would scream in unison.
We’ve rounded up some of the most common misconceptions and surprises about entrepreneurship for you below. The list may help you be better prepared for the journey.
What entrepreneurs thought, before launching their ventures:
- “Money will start pouring in.” -Guess what, it only actually trickles!
- “Customers would be clamoring for my product and I have to be prepared because my servers may crash.” -This is actually a great problem to have – alas it never happened.
- “I can handle it alone.” -The reality is that no one can.
- “I am in control.” -Nope, you’ll have to deal with the unforeseen everyday.
- “Job satisfation is a given since I’ll be working on what I want.” -It’s not a guarantee.
- “I’ll be an overnight success” -The definition of overnight can be 3,4,5 or more years!
- “I’ll use all my knowledge from my Big company and MBA.” -My previous learnings weren’t really applicable.
- “I’ll just get online and do some social media outreach to grow my company.” -Digital marketing is a science and an art, not just a few posts slapped together.
- “Cheap labor is great for my small budget.” -You get what you pay for.
- “I’ll be ready to deliver in a week.” -It’s always at least 3x longer than anticipated.
- “I’m launching my own business to be happy, not for money.” -Try being happy when your business isn’t sustainable.
Did we miss any in the list? Let us know “what you thought, and what you got” in the comments below!
This post and comic were originally created for #entrepreneurfail: Startup Success.
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asha chaudhry
lol kriti!!!
this one is awesome.
if i had a penny for the number of times i’ve heard the digital marketing one – i’d be soooooper rich!!
totally agree on all of your points – each one of them seems familiar with the kind of talk one hears around!!
ps: i’m totally guilty of #3 :((((((
Kriti B Vichare
🙂 🙂 I hear ya! Every time I speak to an entrepreneur, I get a new one for the list!!
Vikrant Shanbhag
Haha, Very well written Kriti. I am sure every entrepreneur can relate to this.
Jitendra Patidar
Thanks kriti for sharing such a great article. 🙂
hope every entrepreneur realize these points in their Entrepreneurship journey,
it is helpful for all of us.
Kriti B Vichare
Thanks vikrant! So what misconceptions did you have as you embarked on entrepreneurship?
Kriti B Vichare
Thank you! Where are you on your journey?
Vikrant Shanbhag
I fell for overnight billionaire thing. I know it sounds stupid but I am sure every internet start up has this misconception.
Jitendra Patidar
We are in deep blue sea kind of situation , from where it is still a long way may be.. because we never know where is the end..sounds philosophical but its only the truth. 😛
we are iterating internal prototypes as per as future scope and present market acceptance.
hope we could see sea shore in near future.
As you said every Entrepreneur adds at least one point in Celebrate Failure.. so we all should determined in both situation. but keeping persistance on top.
Lets see.