Chapter 1 – Introduction
Let me preface this by saying that I am by no stretch of the imagination a successful entrepreneur. I’ve not yet made my millions, in fact, some weeks I struggle to pay the rent! This is not a guide written by an expert that will make you a million dollars just by reading it. It will not give you 15 principals to building a successful business. For me, this blog is a journey of self discovery. If no one ever reads it, that’s fine by me, because in my life’s journey this blog marks a turning point. I hope in some way that by putting these ideas down on paper, I can stop them floating around in my head. I also hope that maybe, just maybe, something I say might help someone along the way.
If you feel some connection with the word ‘entrepreneur’ then this is for you. This is a journal of my thoughts, my ideas and my goals. My hope is that this blog will become a safe place where you can come and feel that you’re not alone, that these ideas you have can become something. The road of the entrepreneur is not all skittles and rainbows; it’s a hard and often lonely road. Sometimes you’ll feel like nobody in the world understands you. Everyone wants you to go out and get a job to get a ‘steady income’. Well, this is your place. You’ll never hear that here, because I believe there is a better way. You’re not designed for the rat race; you probably don’t fit in there. You’re destined for greater things and somewhere inside you there is an idea that can make you a millionaire or meet some of the greater needs of this world.
Let us begin this journey by first defining what an entrepreneur is.
According to the Oxford dictionary, an entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so“. The word is derived from the French word entreprendre meaning to ‘undertake’.
In my humble opinion, and that’s all this blog is, entrepreneurship, or the discipline of starting and building businesses, is a multifaceted skill that can be either instinctive or learned. Sometimes people can work their whole lives before having that first idea, or sometimes they’ve had a hundred by the time they’re 20. Sometimes people just need to hear the right words to have the skill or gift come alive within them.
The words ‘there are no get-rich-quick schemes’ are meaningless to entrepreneurs. It happens every day. Some people start a business and make millions almost overnight; others start small and build their humble business into an empire over years. Some entrepreneurs see their job as filling a need, getting paid and getting out before the competition starts. Others see it as pushing through and building regardless of the adversity.
There’s no right or wrong answer to what entrepreneurship is; it’s individual and unique to each person who bears the title.
Why do I do it?
It’s a difficult question, one that becomes even more difficult when there are bills due and we’re struggling to keep food on the table. My journey starts out with what I like to call ‘Insatiable Dissatisfaction’. It’s that nagging feeling that I’m wasting my time. Know what I’m talking about? Kind of like Neo in the Matrix, who feels a bit like there’s a splinter in his mind, slowly driving him mad. It’s certainly not that melodramatic, but sometimes budding entrepreneurs can feel that way. Maybe they’re working long hours at a dead end job, maybe they’re unemployed and can’t find anything that fits them perfectly. Maybe they’re sitting in school trying to figure out how trigonometry is going to apply to their life.
For me, I felt like I was wasting the best years of my life working for thankless people who didn’t care about me. Does that sound bitter? Absolutely it is.
Here are some of the reasons why I keep on ‘keeping on’ as they say.
Reason 1 – I do it because there’s nothing I’d rather be doing with my life.
I feel that coming up with and running my own business(s) is the best possible way that I can make a living. I’m going to discuss this in greater depth later, but as I said before, I don’t feel like I’m designed for the rat race. That’s not to say I’m lazy and don’t want to work, in fact the opposite is true, but I feel that the only way that I can make a mark in this world and achieve the things that I want to achieve is by doing my own thing and setting my own timetable.
Some years ago, we had a speaker at our local church, Peter Daniels. He spoke for two days on what it means to be an entrepreneur, and I have forgotten most of it, but the thing that stuck out the most and has haunted me ever since, was this quote.
“When you look back on your life, whatever you spent the most time doing. That’s what you traded you life for. ”
Above all, that’s why I do it. I don’t want to look back in 30 or 40 years of working and realise that I traded my life for the 9 to 5. A life where every day involves getting up at 6am (or earlier), commuting for an hour or so, going to work for someone for a minimum (or good) wage, coming home and spending a few hours with my family. The reality is that for most of us, this is what we have to look forward to. There’s something wrong with that picture. Something is terribly wrong with the world. Call it capitalism, or whatever, there’s got to be more to life.
Reason 2 - I’m going to trade my life for something, I want it to be something that I’ve built, something that I’ve grown.
Only running your own business are you in complete control of your finances. Yes, I’ve read the “Cashflow Quadrant”, and I’ll get to that in another chapter, but whether through an investment portfolio, real estate or your own business, it’s still something that you’ve created. You’ve taken hold of your destiny and steered it towards where you want to go. Your wealth is your own doing. You don’t need to beg for a raise each year, only to be disappointed again. If you want more money, you sell more, or you do more, or you build another business that can.
Reason 3 – I do it because I want to be in control of my time.
If I want to spend a day with my wife, I don’t want to have to call in sick or ask for a day off. If life is in the moments, then how much of life passes us by because we have to ask someone for the time or lie about it. For me, I believe in spontaneity. If I’m not free to practice it, then I feel trapped and constrained.
The main problem here is that in order to live for these moments, we occasionally need to ‘stretch the truth’ a bit. We’ve all done it. In Australia, we call them ‘Sickies’ , and they’re a simple fact of our working lives. If you haven’t done it, chances are you know someone who has! I once worked at a company where they didn’t give sick leave; they had ‘Mental Health Days’. What a great idea! At least if you’re chained to a desk, you don’t have to lie about being sick if you want a day off, but you do have to pretend that your mental health is in danger.
Mark my words, no company I ever run will have ‘Sick days’. We’ll call them ‘Personal Days’. Sure there may be times when we say ‘Hey, we really need to get something done, but can you have the day off tomorrow’, but the point remains, I don’t want my employees to feel they have to lie or pretend to be able to go about their lives.
Hopefully this introduction has perked your interest a bit. I’m sure it was long winded and jumped around to much as introductions often do, but I want to inspire you that things can and will get better. Over the next few chapters, and as I have time, I’m going to share about what makes an entrepreneur, how business owners can learn from farmers and importantly how to turn on and tune in your ear to the needs of the marketplace.
I Hope you’ve enjoyed this first chapter, I’ll be adding the next one in a week or so. Please feel free to comment and discuss amongst yourselves. 