When you finally make the decision to start your own business, you’re going to experience a whirlwind of emotions, and the biggest two emotions are extreme excitement and a sizable amount of horror! Think about it… when starting your own business, if you’re serious about it, you’re going to have to let go of the security of a full-time job and take on your business full-on.
It’s exhilarating to start a new business because it’s a new adventure! Sure, you might have gone to business school, but what did you really learn there about startups?
You, of course, learned the basic principles of starting a business like marketing, finances, administration, etc but some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world didn’t go to business school or dropped out of college, and they’re CEOs of major corporations…
Just look at Aj Cartas… He was a college dropout and started a six-figure social media business! So how did these individuals achieve such a level of success and not go to business school or complete college?
Well, you have to understand that not everyone can afford to go to business school and not everyone gets accepted into business school… but do you know the school that the world’s most successful entrepreneurs got accepted into?
They were accepted into the School of Hard Knocks!
The School of Hard Knocks is a school that anyone will get accepted into and life is the teacher. The only thing about this particular school is that there has yet to be a graduating student because life is always teaching lessons.
Okay, so that might have been a bit of a “cheesy” analogy but it’s the truth, no matter how much it wreaks of cheese!
In running a startup business, there are just certain things you won’t learn in the classroom… certain things you just have to find out through experience, and that’s okay too… it’s not always a bad experience. Take a look at some truths about startups that you more than likely won’t learn sitting in a classroom.
Truth 1: Failure is a Good Thing
In business school, your professors preach to you that failure is this terrible thing when failure is one of the best things that can ever happen to your startup. According to entrepreneur.com, behind every success story, there are stories of failure that come with it but people only talk about success.
People fail to see the good in failure, but failure is all about perception. When you experience failure in your business, do you see it as a personal shortcoming or do you see it as another chance to get it right? Failure is growth; Failure is a new approach; And more importantly, failure is strength.
If you can learn to embrace this, rather than fear it, it’s going to take a lot more than mistakes to put your business under. But, if you can learn from the mistakes of entrepreneurs that came before you, why not take a lesson from them in at least being aware of why businesses fail.
Truth 2: Enjoy the Ride
In business school, it’s all about business… which makes sense, given that it’s called “business school,” but the thing that business school won’t teach is to enjoy your entrepreneurial journey. In school, you’re taught to work, work, work but they not once mention to have fun along the way.
In building a startup, whether it’s an online business or brick-and-mortar business, getting started is going to be stressful but it’s also going to be fun. During your entrepreneurial journey, you’re going to get to meet all kinds of interesting and like-minded people through various networking events.
If you’re building an online startup company, you can operate from anywhere in the world! With that, just make sure your business is properly insured… You’re, of course, going to need to get your business insured anyway but when traveling to foreign places, you want to especially make sure your business is covered; you just never know… You can have damage to your equipment or it gets stolen… you never know but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Nonetheless, starting your own business is an adventure and you having fun on your entrepreneurial journey doesn’t show a lack of focus… it shows that you know how to find the balance in work and fun. Not too many people know how to do that in general.
Truth 3: It’s Okay to Tell People About Your Ideas
You may have noticed (maybe not) but entrepreneurs are extremely paranoid, thinking that if they share their idea with someone, that person is going to try and steal their idea. While there may be some truth to this theory, this doesn’t happen as often as one might think. The solution is to simply make sure your business plan is air-tight and that your idea isn’t one that can easily be duplicated or replicated.
