Come along for the ride on a bumpy road to a destination you secretly want to see. ;)
First, and this will blow your mind, no one out there in the mainstream is talking about toxoplasmosis and higher rates of often dangerous risk taking and entrepreneurship. Soooo, this is a wild one! Toxoplasmosis is a condition caused by a parasite found in cats. The cats handle it sorta well, but if it spreads to rats they not only lose their fear of cats but it actually often makes them sexually attracted to cats haha! So, instead of running away they rush to cats and get eaten. Now, this parasite can get into us humans, to the effect of France reportedly having had 50 percent of its population affected by it!!! In humans, it causes higher rates of risky, dangerous and stunt behavior, greater propensity to risky or reckless entrepreneurship ideas and endeavors, and also things like abnormal attraction to use of risky levels of high leverage in activities such as trading! So, what does this tell us? It tells us that at least some percentage of entrepreneurship is the result of a diseased state of the human brain and mind. It really makes you think.
Another thing people make a mistake about is that you get work-life balance or at least the freedom to set your own hours and pace. This is very much not true for a lot of the people out there. Running a business does one very good thing and one very bad thing- especially while the business is very small. The very good thing is that, when you see a clear correlation between more effort and more money, you work more and harder but it feels ten times better than pulling off miracles at a job and getting paid the same and getting very small raises. The very bad thing is that you realize if you do not work, you do not eat. So, you are often in a state of fear and greed all at the same time, with tons of people outside of your business competing for and demanding your time and attention as well. Finally, there is a fact that, when a business is going well, you do not work hard and longer hours merely because of the fear and the greed, or even because you clearly see that more work immediately gets you more money; you also become a dopamine junky and that gives you a whole host of problems in and of itself!
But hey, do not take my word alone for it! A channel called Life After Layoff, the content of which I respect a lot, recently released a video on this topic. You can see it if you click here in case the YouTube embed below does not work.
1. **Misconceptions about Being Your Own Boss:** Brian challenges the common belief that being your own boss is an ideal career move, emphasizing that it's not as glamorous as it may seem.
2. **Discipline and Passion Required:** He stresses the importance of a burning drive to overcome obstacles and maintain momentum, especially during the initial stages of building a business.
3. **Constant Worry and Lack of Structure:** Brian discusses the perpetual concern about the future, even in times of success. He points out that unlike a corporate job with a steady paycheck, being one's own boss means dealing with uncertainty, irregular income, and the absence of benefits like paid time off, 401(k), and health insurance.
4. **No Rule Book and Multiple Roles:** Brian highlights the absence of a clear rule book for entrepreneurship, emphasizing the need to wear multiple hats. He shares his experience of having to handle various aspects of his business, including marketing, bookkeeping, IT troubleshooting, and more, with no predetermined guidelines for success.
Finally, let me add one more thing which may be the greatest possible misconception about entrepreneurship. I love hearing about different business ideas and my guilty pleasure is going down the side hustle rabbit hole and the content that so many people are pushing for views and clicks on YouTube and TikTok. Sometimes, I open Excel and try to work out the numbers for the side gig business models they lay out. So, here is the deal. It is exponentially more difficult and expensive to try and run most of those as a full-time business, is not for the faint of heart, and I wish you luck if you try to make it your primary income if you have zero outside support or backup or you took out loans in your name, not your corporation's. ;) But, to do it part-time for a decent semi-automated side income is significantly easier and actually achievable without running out of money or energy or both. So, maybe Canada should become the land of successful side gigs. :):):)
So, dearest readers, what do you think about this cross-section of the other side of the entrepreneurship argument? Let me know any way you like and have a great rest of the week!
Mwah! :)