It’s something that crossed my mind tonight. I believe that as an entrepreneur is a bit hard to know at times if you are going the right way. Of course, if you are doing this (the entrepreneurship stuff) long enough and are somehow good at it, you probably have a CEO and a board of directors to evaluate if the business goes the right way.
But if you are small, then being the CEO and running the actual business is on your job description. Sure, in the beginning, everything looks pink and the life is great even if you have to pull long hours, pay the employees from your own pocket and being the person that answers the phones because there is nobody else to do this. However, things will start to look messy shortly, and get complicated when you have actually something to lose.
Ok so you made it so far, got a decent business going on, but what’s next? You might not realize but you are actually taking business critical decisions each day, that might do or undo good things or bad things. And even if you think or even act as a very knowledgeable leader, I guess there are always going to be things you wouldn’t know, decisions hard to take or new things that you never thought before.
And what can you do? Who is there to tell you that you’re doing things wrong? Even if you adopt a participative management style and can get feedback from your employees, and even if they are advising you up to their best knowledge, well, they are not you. You are the entrepreneur, and they have a different position (not to talk about inner personal goals) and therefore you’re not getting feedback from similar minded people. (and that’s why some entrepreneurs or CEOs like to hire some “failed entrepreneurs” to have like minded advisers).
I don’t know, I can’t tell you when you are right or wrong or if your path is good or bad. I do know however that successful entrepreneurs are on a mission. They have a vision and they get up (early) each day to make another step towards their mission. You feel that you got something to do, an inner force that pushes to in a direction. Follow the force, it’s your mission in life.
