As a full-time entrepreneur and multi-business owner with a sizable and diverse network of
fellow entrepreneurs, I'll be the first to confess that the "entrepreneur lifestyle" isn't all it
seems. While I adore running, creating, and counseling businesses — so much so that I'd
probably do it for free if I could (I've done enough pro-bono work over the years to prove it)
— there are a few lingering doubts and concerns that cloud my and many other
entrepreneurs' thoughts.
Unfortunately, part of the societally acceptable entrepreneurial strategy appears to be
pushing those ugly truths under the brush and portraying ourselves as the confident, brave,
business-loving leaders our colleagues, peers, and customers demand.
Aside from the confidence-inducing presentation and swagger, I believe that honesty is the
best policy, and that disclosing these lesser-known entrepreneur secrets is in the best
interests of both business owners and our customers. Perhaps a peek into the darkest
recesses of our business owners' minds can assist you, as a colleague, aspiring
entrepreneur, or consumer, better understand the entrepreneurial journey that takes place
behind closed doors. It's possible that you'll be startled by what you find.
Secret 1: Angry people can be dangerous.
If you play the entrepreneurial game long enough, you'll eventually run upon dissatisfied —
or possibly unsatisfiable — customers, no matter how fantastic your product or service is. As
business owners who are accountable for our company's success, our first response to an
unhappy consumer should be an internal audit. Is our product unsatisfactory and
underwhelming? Did our advertising make any deceptive claims or make high promises that
we couldn't keep?
An internal audit may demonstrate that the unsatisfied customer was an outlier and not due
to your company's fault. Unsavory, ill-intentioned folks with a tendency for making a racket
find their way into your sales funnel or client list from time to time. These are the "haters"
that business owners aren't taught to expect — and unlike social media trolls who can be
"banned," these people can have a major negative influence on your company's reputation.
Customer disputes, returns, unfavorable reviews, insulting and inflammatory comments, and
falsely reported ads can weigh heavily on the minds of business owners in today's age of
"cancel culture," in which the public is quick to side with people over businesses.
People are given infinite ability (assisted by their extensive and immediate worldwide reach
via social media) to permanently damage a company's reputation without granting them a
fair shake when society agrees that "the customer is always right." This fear keeps
entrepreneurs on their toes, walking, talking, and marketing on eggshells, bending over
backwards to appease and pacify even the most demanding customers, all to protect their
fragile reputation from the whims of angry keyboard warriors and pseudo influencers looking
for a digital fight.
Secret 2: Sales increase foster insecurity.
To a non-entrepreneur, having our best month in sales may sound paradoxical, but it isn't the
most satisfying achievement. Of course, we want sales - they're an important statistic for
corporate success, and the higher the number, the better. Here's the issue: Each increased
sales spike or milestone is a new personal record (PR), which means we're holding
ourselves to a new, higher level of entrepreneurship.
What's the issue with higher standards? They're more difficult to match or beat. Instead of
encouraging confidence in our abilities to "do it again" or exceed this performance next
month, many entrepreneurs are faced with an insurmountable problem that plagues all
businesses: uncertainty.
Being an entrepreneur entails becoming accustomed to — or at least comfortable with — the
unpredictable ups and downs of business ownership. Last month's sales don't guarantee this
month's or our ability to reach that great topline again. They do, however, raise the pressure
to try, as well as acute feelings of humiliation and failure if we are unable to reproduce or
beat that elevated PR. Every day, that insecurity bothers many entrepreneurs, especially
after their finest sales month ever.
The universal 5-year business plan is the third secret.
A three-month, six-month, two-year, five-year, ten-year, and beyond plan is expected of
entrepreneurs. And many of us — sort of — do. We have rough plans – they could be really
comprehensive, down to the date of future product launches, or they could be more broad,
with monthly or quarterly objectives. Nonetheless, we all have one thing in common: none of
us has a clue what our business (or profession, for that matter) will look like in the next five
years.
We make plans, and then life happens, as it does for most people in today's world. The
difference for entrepreneurs is that we've created the illusion that we know what the future
contains, and our 5-year plan is well-defined, ironclad, and backed up to 10 external hard
drives and three clouds to ensure it comes to fruition.
The truth is that entrepreneurs aren't psychics, and they don't have an advantage over
everyone else when it comes to predicting the future. Most people don't think our companies
will be around in five years. Even those of us who have enjoyed years of consistent
development and success question if our sales gold rush is a fickle well that will dry up
unexpectedly, leaving us scratching our heads and back at square one.
Secret #4: They all gamble (often with large sums of money).
You usually imagine a middle-aged man in a casino with his hair slicked back and a cigar
dangling from the corner of his mouth when you think of a professional gambler. If I'm
completely wrong, it's because I've only visited a casino once; I'm too busy gambling the
entrepreneurial way, with new products and marketing campaigns.
Let me remove the misconception that puts entrepreneurs on a pedestal constructed for
world leaders and business titans: No, we're not psychics, and we have no idea what will
happen with our next major marketing campaign or brand-new product launch. What
happened as a result of our $20,000 decision? It comes as a shock to both us and everyone
else. Seriously.
We must take reasonable risks as entrepreneurs. Just because they've been "calculated"
doesn't imply they'll go our way. We've assessed the advantages and disadvantages and
calculated the amount we're willing to lose if this risky business transaction goes wrong. Yes,
we occasionally risk thousands of dollars on new campaigns, products, collaborations, and
projects that don't pan out.
Being a "seasoned entrepreneur" does not protect you from a failed launch or a loss-making
product. Even the best of us are subject to this. How many of Elon Musk's spaceships have
to burst mid-flight before we realize that failure is an inevitable aspect of life and business for
even the most skilled entrepreneurs?
Secret #5: This is the most humiliating of them all.
Remember how I said that failure is a natural part of the entrepreneurial process, especially
when we're risking our marketing budget and time on new ventures and campaigns that
could completely fail? Even worse, when entrepreneurs fail, we assume the entire world is
aware of our failure and is laughing at us — even though no one outside our private
company's core staff should have access to those sales numbers and financial records...
As a former entrepreneur who has had his fair share of failures, I can attest to the reality that
when a new product launches with poor results, we feel completely exposed, as if our failure
is aired for all to see. I know I'm not alone after meeting with scores of entrepreneurs who
have had numerous setbacks. Some people are simply better at concealing it than others.
They may try to sweep the failure under the rug or move on to the next launch, but they are
secretly embarrassed, as if their audience and the rest of the world have seen them for what
they are: an unqualified charlatan. When a new product fails or a launch goes awry, they feel
like charlatans, imposters, and pseudo-professionals unworthy of the title "business owner."
Isn't it reasonable to expect a "company owner" or "entrepreneur" to know better?
Shouldn't their title of "CEO" allow them the knowledge to identify the appropriate items,
develop the correct launch strategies, and execute those campaigns in such a way that they
generate a steady stream of successes and profits?
Entrepreneurs frequently question how long it will be before they are exposed as the
unqualified quacks they are, and they worry that they will only be as good as their last
launch.