The 6 Scary Truths About Becoming an Entrepreneur

There’s something to all this. Entrepreneurship is indeed
fun, rewarding and freeing. But there’s a back side to
entrepreneurship that nobody likes to talk about much.
Being an entrepreneur can be grueling, spirit breaking
and downright tough . I hope you have thick skin. You’ll
need it. Here are the six scary truths of
entrepreneurship:
Related: The Hard Truth of Entrepreneurship: You Will
Suffer
1. You are not your own boss.
I wanted to be my own boss, just like millions of other
entrepreneurs. What I soon learned was that great
entrepreneurs are never the boss, except perhaps in title.
There are more than 300 sales professionals and staff
members at the company I own -- and they are the
bosses.
Awesome businesses are built by listening to the people
who make the business entity run. Anytime one of my
people calls me “the boss,” I quickly remind that
individual that I am directed by my team. I am their
employee, the one employee who has 300 bosses who
help lead the ship.
2. You won’t be the highest paid.
So many new entrepreneurs have grandiose visions of
making huge amounts of money. Perhaps some will. For
most, though, it will take years, probably decades. To
build an amazing empire, you need the best sales team
and staff, and this will require you to invest funds.
When you find a person who can take your empire to the
next level, you will be the first to give up your own
paycheck to hire them because that’s what
entrepreneurship is about. Your business will take on a
life of its own almost like a child. You will want more
than anything for it to succeed and flourish, even if it’s
at your own expense.
So you will sacrifice and happily eat your $1 ramen
noodles in the quiet of your home so that you can hire
the cream of the crop to help you build your business
bigger. You will sacrifice today for a better tomorrow
because that’s what great entrepreneurs do.
Related: 5 Stern Truths You Need to Know Before
Becoming an Entrepreneur
3. Work-life balance is impossible.
In the building stages of a business, seeking work-life
balance is futile. Work will become your life. When you
are at home working in your yard, at your kid’s soccer
game or getting ready to turn in at night, you’ll be
thinking about your business.
You’ll wake in the middle of the night worrying that you
should have handled something better or jumped on an
opportunity faster. There is no 9-to-5 to building a
business, only 24/7. Yes, you will spend time at home
and even on vacation, but you will always be on,
thinking about your business.
I love running my company, but I’m the first to admit
that my house is always a mess, my car makes me look
like a hoarder with constant remnants of the last two
week’s worth of appointments, and sometimes I go to
bed in the clothes I wore to work because I’m so tired
that changing into pajamas is just not an option.
4. A hidden support team is oh, so very
critical.
A great company has a great support system, including
executive, administrative, production, manufacturing and
additional staff. That’s the official company. A great
entrepreneur also has an amazing support staff outside
the office, perhaps a spouse, kids and friends. Your
family better have a 100 percent buy-in to your dream if
you're going to be an entrepreneur or your business or
family will suffer.
My real estate empire is a by-product of the support I
have at home and the friendships I’ve cultivated over a
lifetime. The foundation of my work life is family
members who understand that I sometimes have to field
phone calls all weekend and attend networking events
most evenings and that a recruiting appointment will
often trump a homemade meal. Time is always carved
out each week for them because they are the
why behind everything I do. But when you have not just
one boss but hundreds, an entrepreneur and the family
that supports her are required to make occasional
sacrifices.
5. Someone won’t like you.
The hardest lesson for me was this: The bigger
the empire, the more enemies are made. For most
entrepreneurs, it's a tough thing to realize. That’s not to
say you won’t have legions of supporters because you
absolutely will. But there will always be people who
won’t like the way you do things, the decisions you
make or the direction you're headed in. For some
entrepreneurs, this is spirit breaking.
You will spend a big part of your life pouring every
ounce of your being into the company. You will give
back to your sales team, staff and the company in
general until it hurts. Sometimes you’ll make decisions
in the best interest of the company but not necessarily
of the employees.
You’ll make decisions that are in the best interest of one
set of employees but not others. You’ll cut out services
because you have to cut costs. There will always be
someone who doesn’t like what you’re doing, and it will
hurt.
Your business is something that you gave life to and it is
in that way your baby. Not much that will hurt you like
someone putting down your business or saying that you
just don’t care about the people who make it up.
6. Perception matters.
Even when your business is not doing amazing, act like
it is. Smile. Perception matters. Perception, in fact,
matters more than reality. Six months ago, I rebranded
my business. It was the most difficult time of my entire
business career. I lost one quarter of sales force
because these staffers didn’t believe in me or my new
brand.
There were nights when I went home and cried myself to
sleep, and yet I put a smile on my face and went back to
the office the next day ready to take on the world. In six
short months I recruited as many new salespeople as
the number of those who left. I can now say confidently
that the rebranding was the best move I ever made in
my career.
The hard truth is that there will always be days when
you have to use every ounce of your being to put on a
smile to tell the world that everything’s OK. I promise, if
you do, one day you’ll wake up and everything really will
be OK.