Becoming an entrepreneur is more challenging than people think it is. The masses believe that all there is to being one is having your capital, but that’s far from the truth. Entrepreneurship is no easy task, and if you want to succeed at running your business, you have to do away with popular myths and misconceptions. These myths and misconceptions have been regarded as the truth for quite a long time and are very insidious to the business world.
Businessmen like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are famous business owners that people have come to love and admire. Most people also copy their business strategies to achieve similar results. However, there are some secrets that many famous entrepreneurs do not tell you, and some are more shocking than others. So, without further ado, here are four secrets famous entrepreneurs don’t tell you.
- They didn’t do it alone. When you hear many business owners talking about their success, they tend to lie about the people involved in it. They take all the glory, failing to mention the reliable people who helped them with their startup. Realistically, we all know it is almost impossible to do multiple things such as designing your website, manufacturing all your products, and distributing them. It is even harder to continuously maintain that system, as you would experience a work overload in no time.
Thus, it is essential that you hire some people, and delegate work you cannot handle. It would help you save up a lot of time and money in the grand scheme of things.
- Only rarely can a business be an overnight success. When a company like zoom became more popular recently, many people think that they had just started up recently. What if we told you that this video messaging application has been in existence since 2011? That’s right, 2011. Does that mean zoom as a company was failing until recently? Of course not. They just exercised a lot of patience and determination to be where they are today. So, the next time you see a business owner talk about how their business became a business, don’t fall for it.
They took their time to network, market, and prepare their product. The same applies to any business that you want to start. If you don’t do all this, you’re less likely to succeed.
- Who you associate yourself with is what would determine your success. As a business owner starting out, you may face many rejections to your proposals, slow sales, and other negative results. When this happens, it is crucial to surround yourself with people that can support you, and inspire you to keep going. If you have negative people around with no sense of motivation around you, it will strongly affect your motivation. Ultimately, it will affect your results.
- Don’t spend too much, and don’t take investor’s money just yet. When many people start out, they immediately think that they need a lot of money. Unless you plan to be a multimillion-dollar company in your first year, it is safe to say that you don’t need ALL that money. Do not just splash the cash on marketing, or other aspects of your business and expect things to sort themselves out.
Additionally, you probably do not need that six-figure cheque from multiple investors. This naturally brings a lot of expectations. As a result, you would want to see instant results from your business. It would take your attention from what your business was initially meant for; helping people. It would adversely mess with your mental health and self-esteem, setting you up for a big failure.
What We Think
Becoming an entrepreneur can be one of the most challenging things to do, if approached the wrong way. The problem is, right now, the media has depicted entrepreneurship to be something it is not. This has given people a flawed mindset towards owning a business.
Being an entrepreneur is not just an idea you throw money at and expect to work magically. It requires a lot of critical thinking, patience, determination, and decisive execution. Fortunately, these four secrets have helped correct some of the myths and misconceptions around being an entrepreneur.