Entrepreneurs navigate the rough and rugged road with determination, perseverance and the ability to recover from bad situations.
You pursue something that fascinates you, engages and compels you and sometimes you see it down a slow death. But you pick yourself and keep moving, sometimes with support. Don’t count on getting assistance. If you have an amazing team, you can go far. But you still have to do what you have to do. The world would miss out on an awful lot, if we let the bad days hold us back. If you are a solo entrepreneur, aside your personal close friends, find a network you can connect with and reach out more your local entrepreneurship groups.
Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few pursue them. So few people can handle it. If you’re trying to do something impossible, something new and hard, then you should expect it to be a long wait before anyone notices. “Good ideas have lonely childhoods”
Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life as individuals determined to shape their own future and that of those around them by making money through risk and initiative.
Here is what some entrepreneurs out there think about the question: Is Entrepreneurship the loneliest profession in the world?
1. Saurabh Saha Advisor, Co Founder at Talent Pegs
Entrepreneurship definitely qualifies to be the loneliest profession in the world. You’d always find yourself lonely. Be it in the company of friends who make no sense at all or in the company of people who’d always be cynical of your venture. What’s surprising is that when you’re in the company of people you’d crave for your loneliness but when you’re lonely you wish there was somebody who could understand you.
I guess that is perhaps the biggest battle an entrepreneur has to face while he is building his company. The other battles that he faces seem minuscule to this. All this seemed quite theoretical to me 3 years back but now when I am running my own venture which is still to see the light of the day loneliness seems very real.Perhaps its my greatest asset as of now.
2. Alex Konovalov Entrepreneur, founder at BitExperts.com
I think it was Ben Horowitz who said that “managing their own psychology” is among the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs. You could google that up and read more on what he said there.
Yes it could be lonely, esp if you are a solo founder.
3. Sara Kavana Entrepreneur & founder of Zegit.com
Entrepreneurship is certainly a lonely road….From my experience today after spending a lot of time, money, leaving a career thati was very good, my advice is: Start always with people that are 100% aligned with you, same goals, same way of thinking. Dont negotiate with this. Make sure though that YOU are the one that has the last word and resolution.
4. Melissa Skehan Advisor, CEO, President & Founder, InterSchola
Thoughts from a “failed” entrepreneur:
I think I worried so much about failure that in the end I failed. I worked my butt off for eleven years -so much that I was so burnt out that I felt I had to shut down my company because one investor, then another, stopped believing. Yet,I still believed! I fought so hard to avoid the exact outcome that eventually came to pass. I did not want to be the one that “closed it down”. But know what?! I survived. I learned a lot. I am grateful for the experience. And, I am proud of what we accomplished! No one can take that away.
I wrote this note to myself one evening in the depths of despair shortly after closing down my award-winning social venture business (some referred to it as abandoning my “baby”) after 11 years…
I am sharing this here because indeed entrepreneurship FEELS lonely. As the leader, there are things that are hard to share with staff, investors, board members, family, friends etc. Note the word “FEELS”. Like personal friends and family, extend your network beyond the obvious choices so that you can decide who you can go to for which conversations.
Shortly after I wrote this note to myself, I sent an email to my “network” letting them know of the decision to close the business. The outpouring of support from my network (near and far) was incredibly cathartic. I had no idea how much support I had along the way. It was always out there, but I had failed to believe in it – instead focusing on the “loneliness”I felt at the time.
Try not to let the loneliness overpower you. There are people out there that may not be able to help you directly address your challenges, but they may be will more than willing to be a sounding board!
Keep on trucking! :)
5. Boku Kodama Entrepreneur, Managing Director of Renaissance Marin Entrepreneurship Center
Let me bring a perspective from an “old” entrepreneur coming from nearly two dozen start-ups over 40 years. You may understand this at a logical level but not necessarily at the emotional level because it takes time and experiences to fully grasp this. In fact, there’s tons of research on how long it takes to gain an expertise (10 years) in any particular subject which helps dramatically in becoming less lonely. As a young entrepreneur in my 20s, launching a business was a lonely endeavor because:
1. I didn’t know what I was doing and didn’t want people to know especially my potential customers.
2. As a young man, our society didn’t see entrepreneurs as they do now so failing was seen as failing not just in business but in life.
But with each new startup, I got better at understanding how businesses worked and two things stood out: networking (and gaining that emotional connection) and self-education in specific areas of business and more importantly, in how people think and act. The understanding of human motivation and purpose are the most important factor in business because regardless of technology and what you’re selling, it’s still interfacing with people.
These views of the entrepreneurs were originally shared on Founder Dating.