Episode No. 2; Seven Common Myths About Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurship
At least half of all new startups fail within five years. According to “Business Insider”, many of the remaining 50 percent eventually fail too. Those are tough statistics for an entrepreneur to face.
So, if you are thinking about starting your own business, give yourself the best chance of success and be sure not to fall for these surprising myths about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship.
1- Entrepreneurs are born, not made
Entrepreneurship is a discipline that can be learned. Passion and persistence may be in your genes, and it can be acquired. In both cases, it takes work to develop the skills that entrepreneurs have.
2-Startups can’t be financed with debt, and banks don’t lend money to startups.
Actually, financing startups through debt is higher than other common sources like friends and family, business angels, venture capitalists, strategic investors and government agencies.
3-Many people start a business to be their own boss and have control over their schedules.
Surprisingly, it is not that nice to have total freedom and flexibility about how you spend your time as you expect. An entrepreneur is accountable to people connected to his/her business like stakeholders, clients and partners. As well as, for the first few years at least, entrepreneurs spend more time working for their own businesses than they would spend working for someone else.
4- A good product automatically translates into business success.
Sure a good product is important, but it’s how good the entrepreneur is that determines how good the business is. How good is he/she at:
Marketing?, Business Development?, People management?, etc…
5- An entrepreneur must be a risk takers and adventurous.
Entrepreneurs are the exact opposite. Many of them are control freaks who’d never gamble on a business venture if they thought the cards were stacked against them.
6- You must invent something new.
No. What entrepreneur makes doesn’t have to be new, but his/her startup does have to involve a new perspective and build value.
It is all about solving problems and changing the world, answering a need no one realized before, making people’s lives easier.
7- You should start a business when you have some extra time on your hands.
Indeed there’s no “right time” to sink all your time, money and effort into a new venture. Starting a business is a big commitment – so know what you’re getting into and don’t do it on a whim.