10 Fantasies Vs. Realities of Entrepreneurship Life of a businessman may look glossy but it is full of hardships,let's have an insight view of it

By Amishi Mehta

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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Everyone at one point or another contemplates leaving their job and starting a business. Let me help you understand the difference between what the world sees and what it truly entails.

1. You become Millionaires & Billionaires overnight: -

There is a lot of blood, sweat and toil that you don't see. We might see the private jets but what we don't see are the sleepless nights. You might see a swanky building but we fail to see is the building up debt.

2. A Business is started only to make money and grow rich: -

Most people think starting a business = becoming rich or in other words, for money! Firstly, not all businesses make money. I call most businesses "Paper Businesses'. What that means is Entrepreneurs who only have their papers in order, but there is hardly any business actually being done.

3. Business is pure luck: -

Well, luck is not one of the key factors in making a business successful. The key to business success is hardly obtained by waving a magic wand; it is persistence, a lot of dedication, hard work, some smart work, some risks, some motivation, and many more factors to success.

4. Business cannot be started without money: -

The biggest myth of them all is you need money to start a business. You don't need to take a big loan, or borrow from people, or mortgage your assets. A lot of businesses have started with no money and are very successful to this day.

Case and point ShutterStock Jon Oringer relied on his skills, rather than money and the company is currently worth $2 billion dollars.

5. Isolation and Entrepreneurship: -

The more successful you get, the more you might have to walk the path on your own. In the initial phase of your entrepreneurial journey, you might have to keep yourself motivated and you might just be a one-woman/man army running the Business.

6. Business Owners and confident: -

There is more to it than meets the eye. Like everyone in this world whether you are a homemaker, a professional, someone who is doing a job, a freelancer or are the creative type like an artist or a writer, all of us go through self-doubt time and again and the people who choose to overcome it gain confidence.

7. The social stigma attached to Entrepreneurship: -

In many cultures, Entrepreneurship is still looked down upon and considered to be a very unstable option. A job, on the other hand, is considered the right thing and ideal thing to do to secure your future.

8. Freedom in Entrepreneurship Vs. a Job: -

Yes, entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to be your own boss but, that also means you are responsible and accountable for every single thing, which means sometimes you can't afford to take a holiday when you want one or need one. There are a lot of sacrifices that come with Freedom.

9. Flexible Hours: -

Everyone feels that an Entrepreneur gets to work at his or her own time but that also comes at a price. During the initial set up phase of any business, one might be required to put in many more hours of work than intended. When it gets to the point of the business being on autopilot is when you can think of and enjoy those flexible working hours.

10. Struggle Vs. Success: -

Yes, there are a lot of struggles in the Entrepreneurial journey. Think of it this way, when you are climbing a mountain it seems like an uphill task, but when you get to the top the view from the top makes it all worthwhile the same goes for the Entrepreneurial journey. In life we deal with daily struggles and what do we do? We overcome the same and keep moving forward.

Amishi Mehta

Strategic Business Advisor, Coach and Consultant

Amishi Mehta dons many hats. She is an empowerment and success Business coach & consultant, corporate trainer, life coach, speaker, author, entrepreneur. Has 17 plus years of experience, with 30,000 hours of coaching done, helped business owners, corporates, achieve business & personal success, worked with business owners and their leadership teams of more than 43 countries.

She is a transformational, innovative and pragmatic coach. She connects with her audience easily and makes them feel comfortable from the get-go. Her energy and positivity are transcendent. The herculean challenges that she has personally and professionally endured help her resonate with the challenges of others and has helped find her true potential in life and in Business. Now she helps empower people to be the best versions of themselves and achieve success at work, in life and in business through her CXO coaching, executive coaching, seminars, training, business consulting and with the spoken and the written word. She believes in “Turning struggles into Success!”

Her Mission is to:

Empower people to be the best versions of themselves by increasing their self-worth personally & net-worth professionally. 

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