Most people when they think of starting their own business, earning a lot of money is probably their primary goal. Soon, they will realize that life is more than just money. In fact, the desire of earning big money no longer seems like an effective motivation to push them through their entrepreneurship journey. We often heard a lot of rosy stories from the newspaper or other media that some school dropout youngsters earned their first million dollar after two years of doing some online businesses or other fancy ideas. To be blunt, I think all these are sensational news. Though it does happened in reality, but it probably requires lots of luck. Statistically speaking, the success rate of startups is one out of ten.
IMHO, entrepreneurship is more than just a game of luck. It’s about passion, hard work, and determination. If you are still thinking of starting your business solely because of the big money, I suggest you to think again now. During the recent BizStart Showcase 2011 held in Kuala Lumpur, Andrew Wong (the founder of MAD Incubator) is kind enough to accept my interview, and share his humble entrepreneurship story. “It wasn’t any easy journey. I had probably about 3, 4 or 5 failures.” That’s what he responded when I asked him about his early days. I am not trying to demotivate people from starting up their own business and becoming an entrepreneur. What I am trying to do is sharing a realistic story about entrepreneurship so that we can set the right expectation, and most importantly, be honest to ourselves before taking the first step. Because once you have decided to undertake this journey, there should be no turning back. Quoted from someone whom I can’t really remember,
Entrepreneurship is a journey. No, it doesn’t begin with the first step. It actually begins with a decision in your mind to undertake this life’s journey, your journey, whatever it may take and even how long it may take.
Entrepreneurship is fun and exciting. I like what Bill Rancic said during the Season 1 of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice,
The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business – but it’s a whole lot more fun, don’t you think?”
Yes, I very much think so after all these years! More significantly, entrepreneurs are part of the major force of driving the country’s growth and economy, as what Andrew mentioned during the interview. I hope this interview video will give aspiring entrepreneurs out there the true picture of entrepreneurship so that they can decide wisely.
Coming Up Next
Investors such as business angels and VCs usually work with many entrepreneurs. They very likely have their fair share of experience in seeing successful and failed startups, as well as understand the key ingredients in starting successful business. Follow us on our Facebook Fans Page as we share the entrepreneurship lessons from an investor perspective in in our next issue.
