What exactly makes entrepreneurship so hard

Lack of a boss. Period. The lack of a higher authority to give you your next todo item is the single most-important factor that makes entrepreneurship so hard. In school, you have a clearly defined schedule and you have teachers who give you homework which provides something concrete to do everyday. Then they have exams, a definite end point of the whole yearly effort. In college, you have required classes, projects and exams that keep you sane and provide a safety net from being direction less.

In corporate world, your boss sets your todo list. Most likely, every day when arrive at your desk and check your email you have something definite to do, failure of which is likely to annoy your boss. Day after day, the todo list keeps you busy, happy and gives a clear indication of progress.

But entrepreneurship is different. You have NO boss. Nobody would care if you are slacking a bit, nobody would care if you failed to meet your targets, no body would care if your performance is falling month after month. Being self-motivated over a period of years non-stop is hard. Unlike corporate world, you have to set your own agenda for every single day and you have to meet self-defined targets. What makes it even more dangerous that there is no-one (expect you) to notice that you failed to meet targets. There is no-one to do a review meeting or feedback session. It is just you!

That is what makes entrepreneurship so hard.

8 comments

  1. Paras …this a great post.

    Perhaps the only way to deal with it is to have a good team of founders with complementary skill-sets and the camaraderie to match it. Its the team which can go about setting collective and individual targets.

    But as always is with a successful entrepreneur there can be no bigger boss than your own-self…its the self- discipline and determination which will make things happen.

  2. Paras, Truth revealed, one who re-energises himself for tomorrow is the real enterpreneur. Above all one good trait of being an enterpreneur is patience.. patience.. to analyze before taking decisions in times of stress.
    http://www.valayam.com/blog

  3. this is bit tough to say what make him hard, but yes since entrepreneur is like a boatman who is not able to judge the direction of water stream and thus he is keep on moving his boat with water stream, at this point he actually needs a overseeing can may tell the actual way to get the destination. thanks, Jain

  4. Hey Paras,

    You are exactly right. One more problem which I would like to share with you — What to do next.

    Business cant be done with new changes. But you never know what to choose ? No body tells you where to go?
    I mean there is no boos which you finely pointed out.

  5. Its also because most people are conditioned to “follow” from birth, most societies have not been built to accommodate someone taking charge of their working life.

    Being the boss is like trying to operate right on the edge of everything.

    People like to be taken by the hand, to be shown the way, to be guided, thats probably the reason that so many people are drawn towards religions too, its fear and not wanting to be fully responsible.

    But for the entrepreneur theres no comfort blanket.

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