Entrepreneurship: The Narrative v/s The Truth

V.G Siddhartha’s death shook me. My wild guess is that he was an honest, hard-working man who said to himself, ‘I gave hope to my people, but I failed them. I failed as an entrepreneur. I could have done so much more to make this all work out. But I failed. I can’t face myself anymore.’

As someone who, in the past, has failed as an entrepreneur, I wish to share a few thoughts:

Entrepreneurship: The Narrative v/s The Truth

N: Entrepreneurship is about passion.
T: Entrepreneurship is about sacrifice.

N: Entrepreneurs change the world.
T: Of the thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs, a few dozen change the world. The world changes the rest of them, for the worse.

N: There is great learning in failure. You will come out stronger.
T: Very few come out stronger after a failure. Most of them break. For life.

N: It is cool to be your own boss and have the freedom.
T: An entrepreneur is answerable to more stakeholders than an employee – investors, customers, employees, etc.

N: Follow these ‘Top 10 things successful entrepreneurs do’.
T: Being successful is a function of effort, timing, luck, skillsets and a million other factors. Don’t lose yourself trying to be someone else.

N: One goal: A billion dollar valuation.
T: Success doesn’t like in that one number. It is about how many lives you touch and transform in a positive manner. No matter what the scale, entrepreneurship is about a desire to create.

Please think twice before you commit to being an entrepreneur. What we read is a result of skewed analyses. There is a dominant and dark side to this world of entrepreneurship. Beware.

That said, the entrepreneurial journey is beautiful. Only for those who have the ability and willingness sacrifice.