Every entrepreneur needs to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and realistic about their reasons for choosing the startup route. For any entrepreneur, even the best business opportunities, if entered for the wrong reasons, will likely fail.
Most of them say it was to follow their passion, or to solve a problem they encountered in their own life. But sometimes, a startup founder’s heart just isn’t in the right place.
Here are the 10 bad reasons to become an entrepreneur,
1. You want to get rich
Entrepreneurs who have built massive wealth, however they didn’t likely go into business to get rich. They went in to reinvent the way that we search for information online, or because they love to cook and kept finding opportunities to expand the way they expressed that passion, and then they realized they could make money doing it.
Entrepreneurs who become rich do so because they love what they do. It has meaning for them, so much meaning that they are willing to do whatever it takes, at weird hours, often at high personal inconvenience and risk, to do it. Making money doing it becomes inevitable.
2. You want to become famous
Having the title of CEO or entrepreneur comes with great responsibility, and it should never be taken lightly or for granted. You should never start a business because you think it would be cool to have a title, or because you plan on becoming famous.
Even the businesses that attract huge press and attention will die if they aren’t well run. Rather than think, “How can I become famous?” ask yourself “How can I create something deserving of attention?”
3. Sick of working for someone
You hate your boss–fine. You hate the politics of the office place–got it. But starting your own business opens up its own new set of challenges. Have a customer that won’t pay? It’s your problem. And now you no longer have someone else to blame for your own shortcomings. You may have hated red tape and the onerous chore of reporting to someone and keeping a record of everything, but now if you aren’t on top of things, you screw yourself.
You can’t thrive in your business unless you’ve mastered people and processes. If you are so oppressed by your boss or your workplace, consider another job before you consider building a business.
4. You want to work less
So you hate your current job. You’re always working overtime and are putting in 60-hour work weeks, and you feel like you never have time to spend with your family or loved ones. You start thinking, “Man, I think I should be going into business for myself, so I don’t have to work so damn hard.” Wrong.
Starting and growing a business is more work and more stress than any employee role should be. Perhaps you need to look carefully at the reasons for your weariness and stress at work. Health and personal problems don’t go away when you start a business.
5. You Want To Prove The “Haters” Wrong
For many of us — and especially hyper-competitive entrepreneurs — when we hear someone tell us we can’t do something, we want to prove them wrong. Many successful entrepreneurs have had a chip on their shoulder from people telling them that their dreams weren’t possible. It’s all right from time to time to use your desire to “prove the haters wrong” for a little extra motivation. However you should never start a business solely on the foundation of proving people wrong.
6. You have extra time, and need a second income
Being an entrepreneur is not a part-time job. A business startup is actually a second expense more than a second income. For supplementary income, you would be better served to take a part-time job with an existing company.
7. All your friends own hot businesses and seem to be doing well
You shouldn’t believe all the hype, or all the things said in social circles. Definitely don’t jump into trendy businesses you don’t know just to be popular. Even good friends tend to forget talking about the years of hard work and sacrifice, in favor of recent success.
8. Your family has always been in business
Good entrepreneurs do seem to have certain innate qualities, but it’s not clear that these qualities are automatically passed to offspring. If your passions are elsewhere, don’t try running the family business.
9. You want to contribute something to society
This is laudable, but more effectively addressed after you have built a successful company, not before. If changing the world is your main motivation and money is not a concern, then do it, without allowing the building of a company to slow you down.
10. You want to do one specific thing
It’s a bad reason to start your own business if you foresee yourself with a narrow job duty. Even if your plan is to repair rare violins, you will still need to make sure accounting, marketing and taxes are handled.
Via: Biplab Ghosh
Source: Knowstartup