The Harsh Realities Of Being An Entrepreneur | Hacker News Reader

The Harsh Realities Of Being An Entrepreneur

onstartups.com

58 pointskno11 comments

"Your Friends And Family Won't Understand What You Do."

Very, very true. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed 'The Social Network,' it certainly didn't help our cause in this regard. Practically overnight many of my friends and extended family went from thinking entrepreneurship was a fancy word for unemployment to them thinking that entrepreneurship meant: Step 1: Think of an idea. Step 2: Build it in four hours. Step 3: Party. Step 4: Party. Step 5: Party a bit more. Step 6: Profit.

This is so true, especially when you aren't in the Valley.

If only people could understand. Usually when you say 70-80 hour weeks you're really saying..every hour I am not sleeping I am most likely working on my business....

err...wait I've had some working dreams that have help my business. So count some of those.

My Mother "Your web site is doing really good. You should go work for IBM or Microsoft. They could use your talents."

or the ever popular.

"Your cousin just finished school and he's going to be working on Wall Street. You should call him. Maybe you can help consult with his company since you know computers so well."

A really good reply to the first would be "If I wait until it it is a little bigger I would get a large signon bonus" (that is you would be aquired).

Me - "Thanks mom but do you think IBM would hire me. I dropped out of school to work on this web stuff."

Mom - "You're right maybe you could work with your Uncle. He needs computer help from time to time."

Me- "Good idea. I'll have one of my engineers call him and see if we can help."

Mom - "Good. Maybe they can get work also."

Me - "You're the best."

This is a great list but it strikes me as just a list of The Realities. The harsh bit is that you will work 80 hours a week for weeks and months for no money, that you will prioritise your coding and design time over friends and family and may loose some along the way, that you will fund marketing with your rent and servers with your food budget, and that if you are successful in doing this you are statistically likely to be a rather disappointing "profitable small business" rather than the internet rockstar Social Network sensation your friends associate with entrepreneurship.

The nice bit is that if you have your feet planted firmly on the ground, all of that is probably OK with you.

"There are forces outside your control"

This one is huge. You have to persevere and not let things get to you. At a micro level this will cause all sorts of unexpected and frustrating challenges for your new venture and you'll just have to roll with the punches. If you're the typical OCD entrepreneur, you'll have to be extra careful to avoid digging too deeply and for too long into why one of these happened.

I'd say this is one of the primary causes of entrepreneur insanity.

You got scored on. Forget it and get ready for the next challenge.

"Everything Takes Twice As Long...If It Even Happens"

HAHAHA. I wish! So far, everything's taken 5-10 times longer than what I hoped.

Please crop the number "11" out of the title. Thanks!

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com