Show me the money!

Over the last couple of decades starting a business has become glamorized. The world’s richest men Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos ate feted in the media and by politicians, Hollywood makes films about iconic founders like Steve Jobs and Ray Kroc who franchised McDonalds, books are devoted to Travis Kalanick and others.  This has inadvertently created a dangerous illusion- that the path to huge wealth is by starting a business.  This is a true in a sense. The issue is that it has resulted in people starting a business just to make money.

Twenty years go if you left your well paying job to start a business friends and family were generally concerned about your mental health. I was taken out for a beer by a concerned friend who as well as checking if I had lost my sanity also generously paid for the beer on the grounds that in his words I was about to become very broke and poor.  Taryn Williams, founder of wink, the right fit, influencers.com and #gifted, jokes in our latest podcast that when you add all the hours up it would make more financial sense to get a job at McDonalds https://youtu.be/5c9R0lgmeFY

Before I look at that stats let’s look at why money as a sole motivator can so dangerous. People start businesses for all sorts of reasons but overall they think that there is an opportunity and they’re optimistic that their plan or idea will work.  Every single successful founder I have spoken to talks about how their initial idea rarely goes to plan, that it always takes longer to make work than you think and how stressful and exhausting it is. Reid Hoffman the founder of Linked described it a like jumping off a cliff and working out how to build an airplane on the way down. Elon Musk calls it staring into the abyss where one bad decision will send you to the wall. Most days it will feel like the whole world is against you and is throwing everything including the kitchen sink at you. 

Money by itself as a motivating force simply isn’t enough. Money won’t get you out of bed in the morning when you’re absolutely exhausted and need to try just one more possible fix to a problem.  Money alone won’t energise you when you’re facing seemingly insurmountable problems. Money alone wont cut it - it has to be passion.

Passion is what gets you out of bed. Passion is what makes you try something just one more final time. Passion for your solution, for your idea, for being you own boss, it doesn’t matter. Passion will give you the persistence, determination and grit that you need in endless amounts to overcome the daily challenges.  Passion helps you cope with the mental stress and exhaustion. Passion is what drives you to find a way through the never ending maze of challenges.

However this is where the glamorisation becomes dangerous again with the myth of the founder who never gave up despite all the odds and all the setbacks. There are countless examples of this where a founder encounters a number of setbacks but the more extreme feted stories are the outliers. You have to know when to quit. You have to be ruthless with your runway. When you have run out of funds and no one is buying it and it’s still not working do not double down. This can lead to very poor outcomes from the stress and mental toll as well as financially.

If you’re solely motivated by the possibility of money then statistically the odds are against you. 90% of startups fail in their first five years. 50% in the next 5. So your odds are 1 in 20 of getting to ten years which is the typical time it takes to build a sustainable, renewable, defendable business that someone is going to want to buy. Then you have to hope that this timeline lands in a benign economic time and someone just happens to be looking for a business like yours and at the price you want.  Doing it for the money is not sensible.

So why do it? The exhilaration and adrenalin when you start to work out how to swim upstream.  There's a good reason lots of founders and entrepreneurs  love extreme sports. Jumping off a cliff is totally addictive. Building a business make you an adrenalin junkie by default. When it’s not yet got going it will take every waking moment you have to get it up and running but when it does, it’s the downward part of the rollercoaster.  The slammed back in your seat with wind in your hair, stomach churning, as you hurtle down at an exhilarating pace.

Once it starts going it consumes you. You can’t just get off the ride and nor do you want to. You start to resent weekends as they get in the way of the fun you’re having building your business. You wake up in the middle of the night with your brain whirring with ideas, solutions and new plans. There aren’t enough hours in the day. Now that It’s going you don’t want to take your foot off the pedal for one second while you see how far and how fast you can go. Like I said its addictive.

If this all sounds like something you’re up for then start bootstrapping, buckle up and get ready for the ride. Focus on building a sustainable renewable business that fixes pain points that customers have. If you build it and grow it then don’t worry as the money will come and find you.