What is an entrepreneur?

It seems that there is a wide range of interpretations of what an entrepreneur is. Some of the entrepreneurs I interviewed would not consider themselves an entrepreneur. They would say “they run a company in X”. Others slowly start to feel more like a “real entrepreneur” now that they are acquiring other businesses. In my eyes they are most definitely an entrepreneur. According to the definition of Merriam-Webster an entrepreneur is “a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money”. So how come many small business owners don’t embrace their identity as entrepreneurs? And on the other hand, why would many independent freelancers wear the title of entrepreneur with pride? Do we consider a freelancer as an entrepreneur? What about someone who runs a small webshop without any employees? Or a franchise taker? Where do we draw the line? Additionally, I also interviewed social entrepreneurs that are taking risks to create value to society, not money. One thing is clear, the definition of an entrepreneur is definitely changing.

Entrepreneurial freedom

For many people, one of the main motives for starting their own business is the freedom it represents. We are not only talking about financial freedom, but also freedom in work, purpose, lifestyle, time and location.

Challenges make entrepreneurs

Overcoming personal challenges is an important aspect of the entrepreneurial journey. Some even refer to entrepreneurship as a journey of self-discovery. Overcoming challenges gives you the feeling of being invisible and motivates you to continue taking on challenges and risks. It is a positive spiral that gives confidence. Many entrepreneurs already experienced success in overcoming obstacles in their early lives, which have motivated them to continue taking on more challenges in the future.

When business gets personal

Entrepreneurship is definitely not just a job. Entrepreneurship requires a total devotion to a cause. It is the only way to be successful, but also the main reason why entrepreneurship feels personal. That is why a lot of professional struggles feel more personal. Examples of professional situations that might feel more personal include: employees that are leaving; challenges in raising money; not able to convince people of your vision; or employees not executing your vision like you had envisioned. These circumstances somehow reflect back on you as a person.

The reality is that things take time

We are aware that entrepreneurship comes with a lot of challenges and obstacles, but we generally underestimate the complexity and the time it takes to overcome these challenges and obstacles. Examples include finding your product-market fit; recovering from financial debt; and exiting your company when you have co-founder struggles. In situations like these and countless others, there is no easy way out. The only thing you can do is persevere and don’t give up.

Growing a thicker skin

As an entrepreneur you are in the spotlights. It feels like people are constantly watching you. On the one hand people will start excluding you from communication. They will talk behind your back, gossiping about the things that you did ‘wrong’ but never saying it to your face. On the other hand people will have more absurd demands and strong opinions about what you are doing. Employees, advisors and friends will start telling you what “you should do” or “have done”. How entrepreneurs experience this differs based on personality and experience, but the one thing we can all agree on is that it is impossible to please everyone. The only way to cope with it, is to grow a thicker skin.

Lonely at the top

As an entrepreneur you constantly will have to make hard decisions under a lot of uncertainty. At the same time your decisions will have an impact on others, while you most probably not have a lot of people you can really share your worries, frustrations and challenges that you are facing. And this inability to share and discuss can create a sense of loneliness, insecurity or pressure. 

People will also try to influence your opinion towards their own personal interests. It is important to keep listening to the different opinions and involving others in your decision, but never follow one person’s opinion. You will need to develop a helicopter view or just follow your gut feeling to make difficult choices. It’s the only way to do it right and it gets easier when you have experienced more difficult situations.

Dealing with the entrepreneurial ‘rush’

As an entrepreneur you are focused on activities that produce results and creating as many results as possible. You keep pushing yourself. Making yourself more efficient everyday and finding better and creative ways to solve complex problems. You can do and manage everything. It gives a confidence boost that you are able to cope with everything that comes your way. But there comes a point when it will backfire on you. You will lose focus and start seeing everything as a number one priority, getting caught in the nitty gritty details and transactional management. Or you are back to back in meetings without time to think. Working harder and harder, but coming to realize that you only have 24 hours in 1 day. You end up sprinting a marathon and that is physically and mentally exhausting. Eventually you will go beyond your limits and that will come at its price. Most of the time you will feel more down and tired. It will take some time to feel energized. This phase sucks, because you can only give it time.

Surrounding yourself with the right people

Trust is crucial in entrepreneurship, since you are dealing with a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty. Trusting yourself, trusting things will come, but the hardest part is trusting others. In order to grow your business, you need others to help you. It is impossible to do it all on your own. However, when you are successful, people will come to you with ideas, advice and requests, wanting to benefit from your success. There will be a lot of people that are in it for the ‘wrong’ reasons. Many people will take advantage of you, but few people are there for you through the bad times. Surrounding yourself with people that you can trust and that actually help you is hard. Being clear about your own personal boundaries can really help filter out the right people.

Can’t leave can’t stay

Many entrepreneurs felt at a certain point hostage in their own company. The process of helping clients with their problems will not give the excitement it gave you in the past. You feel annoyed when employees are still largely dependent on your input and they are not taking ownership and getting the job done. Celebrating your company’s anniversary does not feel like something you want to do right now. The thrill of it all is gone and you could feel stuck in the same routine day after day. You are in it too deep without even realizing it. Your company is dependent on you and/or you are (financially) dependent on your company in some way. Some entrepreneurs break free by moving abroad, taking a sabbatical or taking on an interim job. Others slowly move their attention to a new project or business. 

Post-exit depression

Exiting your company is more depressing than many entrepreneurs think. Successfully selling your company feels great. But the misery starts when you stay aboard to help the new management and see how they take a totally different direction in business than you would take and you can’t do anything about it. Next to that you most likely will experience an identity crisis. Selling your company drastically impacts your life. Your life and more importantly most of your relationships are probably built around your business and suddenly it’s gone. You really have to refind your own identity and values.