4 ms·

What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so hard

19 points by paraschopra 17y ago

JacobAldridge 17y ago
If you need a boss to make all of the prioritisation and deadline decisions, you won't make it as an entrepreneur. But you can take responsibility without having to make all of those decisions on your own. This is where having the support of people who have walked the path before (like the YC team or even others here at HN) is invaluable, as well as getting the right advice and being held accountable by a specific mentor or coach.
idlewords 17y ago
Maybe a better question is, what makes entrepreneurship so self-involved? Hats off to the lurkers here who are just building shit.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- nazgulnarsil 17y ago
  narcissism seems naturally correlated to self starters IMO.
andrewljohnson 17y ago
Well, that's not what makes entrepreneurship hard for me. Each day, I can get up and decide various things to do, and I'm plenty motivated. In fact, I would guess most entrepreneurs are the workaholic, get-it-done type. What makes entrepreneurship hard for me is figuring out what to do, not following through on it. So, in some sense, it would be easier if I had a boss with a todo list, if the ideas were better than my own. At a chugging corporation, it's easy to figure out stuff worth doing, and hard to motivate people. At a start-up, it's just the opposite... it's easy to motivate people and hard to figure out stuff worth doing.
nkabbara 17y ago
I completely disagree with the “Period.” I think it’s a very small part of why it’s hard. Actually, if I were to ask the question differently and say: What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so attractive? Many would say it’s the lack of a boss. Entrepreneurship is very personal and if you don’t have the discipline muscle already trained and ready, the first year or two will be very hard. But after that, you simply pick up a sheet of paper in the morning, look over at your yearly plan, and write down the couple of things that you must do that day to get a little closer. At the end of the day, cross all the items off the list. If you’re lucky, that is. Of course, it’s much harder than that. Specially when your plan is evolving as you go. From my experience, I believe what makes entrepreneurship so hard is having to fly multiple plans in the sky simultaneously. It’s telling which planes are carrying the cargo and which are carrying the people. The ones that can absolutely not crash no matter what from the ones that can not crash.
coffeemug 17y ago
I disagree. Everyone has some kind of a boss, even though it may not be a guy working in the office next to you. For entrepreneurs it might be the customers, it might be your investors, it might be your cofounders, but there is still "a boss". What makes it hard for me is the fact that there is a fog of war. There is a high degree of uncertainty about almost everything. I'm dedicating a tremendous amount of my time and effort to something that might tip over at any moment, either because of a wrong decision, or because of a situation outside of my control, or because I'm not good enough, or because it was a terrible idea in the first place. Entrepreneurship requires faith, basically, and I'm not used to structuring my life that way.
Aegean 17y ago
its a very small detail for why it is hard. there is about 100 - 150 more other things you need to worry about just as much.
DaniFong 17y ago
The full responsibility for the fate of your company, and all of the people depending on it, though it depends to a great extent on investors, partners, customers, the markets, technical and social and financial risks that you can only vaguely see and barely control, ultimately rests on you. This is so completely unlike the typical modern day human experience that people often just get culture shock and flicker out. Even more often, they give up and fade out, blaming some little thing or external cause for their failure. The creation of valuable new technologies, while challenging, seems like a cakewalk compared to the moral weight you're required to bear when running a company. I think this can be partially seen in how many entrepreneurs do end up giving up the reins of their company; either during an acquisition or to 'professional managers' (who often themselves simply shirk the moral weight since the company isn't theirs to the same extent.) Those who can take their company to the next level are, at each step, both rare and exceedingly valuable.
lsd5you 17y ago
The economic equilibrium.

19 points by paraschopra 17y ago

If you need a boss to make all of the prioritisation and deadline decisions, you won't make it as an entrepreneur. But you can take responsibility without having to make all of those decisions on your own. This is where having the support of people who have walked the path before (like the YC team or even others here at HN) is invaluable, as well as getting the right advice and being held accountable by a specific mentor or coach.

idlewords 17y ago

Maybe a better question is, what makes entrepreneurship so self-involved? Hats off to the lurkers here who are just building shit.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
nazgulnarsil 17y ago
narcissism seems naturally correlated to self starters IMO.

andrewljohnson 17y ago

Well, that's not what makes entrepreneurship hard for me. Each day, I can get up and decide various things to do, and I'm plenty motivated. In fact, I would guess most entrepreneurs are the workaholic, get-it-done type. What makes entrepreneurship hard for me is figuring out what to do, not following through on it. So, in some sense, it would be easier if I had a boss with a todo list, if the ideas were better than my own. At a chugging corporation, it's easy to figure out stuff worth doing, and hard to motivate people. At a start-up, it's just the opposite... it's easy to motivate people and hard to figure out stuff worth doing.

nkabbara 17y ago

I completely disagree with the “Period.” I think it’s a very small part of why it’s hard. Actually, if I were to ask the question differently and say: What exactly makes Entrepreneurship so attractive? Many would say it’s the lack of a boss. Entrepreneurship is very personal and if you don’t have the discipline muscle already trained and ready, the first year or two will be very hard. But after that, you simply pick up a sheet of paper in the morning, look over at your yearly plan, and write down the couple of things that you must do that day to get a little closer. At the end of the day, cross all the items off the list. If you’re lucky, that is. Of course, it’s much harder than that. Specially when your plan is evolving as you go. From my experience, I believe what makes entrepreneurship so hard is having to fly multiple plans in the sky simultaneously. It’s telling which planes are carrying the cargo and which are carrying the people. The ones that can absolutely not crash no matter what from the ones that can not crash.

coffeemug 17y ago

I disagree. Everyone has some kind of a boss, even though it may not be a guy working in the office next to you. For entrepreneurs it might be the customers, it might be your investors, it might be your cofounders, but there is still "a boss". What makes it hard for me is the fact that there is a fog of war. There is a high degree of uncertainty about almost everything. I'm dedicating a tremendous amount of my time and effort to something that might tip over at any moment, either because of a wrong decision, or because of a situation outside of my control, or because I'm not good enough, or because it was a terrible idea in the first place. Entrepreneurship requires faith, basically, and I'm not used to structuring my life that way.

Aegean 17y ago

its a very small detail for why it is hard. there is about 100 - 150 more other things you need to worry about just as much.

DaniFong 17y ago

The full responsibility for the fate of your company, and all of the people depending on it, though it depends to a great extent on investors, partners, customers, the markets, technical and social and financial risks that you can only vaguely see and barely control, ultimately rests on you. This is so completely unlike the typical modern day human experience that people often just get culture shock and flicker out. Even more often, they give up and fade out, blaming some little thing or external cause for their failure. The creation of valuable new technologies, while challenging, seems like a cakewalk compared to the moral weight you're required to bear when running a company. I think this can be partially seen in how many entrepreneurs do end up giving up the reins of their company; either during an acquisition or to 'professional managers' (who often themselves simply shirk the moral weight since the company isn't theirs to the same extent.) Those who can take their company to the next level are, at each step, both rare and exceedingly valuable.

lsd5you 17y ago

The economic equilibrium.