PERSONAL FINANCE: The uncool side of entrepreneurship

I was at an entrepreneur boot camp this past weekend. We all relished the opportunity to have some brutally honest conversations amongst ourselves, about the process and yes, the agony that we entrepreneurs go through. These are the kinds of conversations that will not be publicised because people are attracted to the cool looking end result of the entrepreneur lifestyle.

This article was inspired by a very honest comment from a gentleman I met there called Caleb. Caleb is a farmer who has built his agribusiness from the ground up (pun intended). He is disturbed by several agribusiness initiatives that are using celebrity endorsement to entice young people to start farming, especially since these celebrities are not farmers.

I could see everybody nodding in agreement to Caleb’s statement. It resonated with us because the one thing we all knew, no matter our line of business, is that entrepreneurship is not cool. The end result may look cool but the process to get there is not. I met someone who owns a very cool brand of crisps. However when you hear the truth about what goes on in the background – suppliers, payments, sourcing potatoes, marketing – it is not that cool.

I used to think that entrepreneurs are always focused, fearless, and determined. This is not true. Many times we are confused, scared, and overwhelmed. There are days you will not want to get out of bed because you are too afraid of what you will face. You will want to throw in the towel because life is too difficult and you cannot be that clueless about how to fix it. Then they are times when you do things to the best if your ability – and fail.

People talk about staying power for the long haul. We also need to start recognising the simple act of showing up every day. It takes grit to show up when you don’t know how to get a client. You need strength when pay day comes around and you don’t know how you will pay your team their salaries. You need strength for when KRA agents are waiting to audit money you don’t have.

MONEY MAY NOT COME EASY

And then there’s money. For a really long time, you will not have it. And even when you do get it, there’s a queue of things awaiting its arrival. And even with a relatively stable cash flow, there will be moments when you feel like you have gone back to a hand-to-mouth situation. If your entire objective is money, you will have neither staying nor showing up power. Like some people have learnt, if you intended to use the label of business owner to show how well you are doing, you are in for a rude shock.

So, why do we still do it? The description of what is cool changes when you are an entrepreneur. There are some very cool moments that make a lot of things worth it, like a satisfied customer. The relationships that are built. When you do something audacious and it pays off. When a member of your team tells you how much they are growing or learning by just being in the environment you have created. The opportunity to create. To come up with a new product or service and see your customers respond to it. Or to simply innovate by delivering an existing product or service in a different way.

And then there’s money. Its appearance may be sporadic but you are in the driver’s seat of your income earning potential. There’s personal growth: You grow as you surpass the challenges and realise they didn’t kill you. You discover passion and learn how to use it. You learn how to pat yourself on the back. You learn to ask for help, ideas, money, time, etc. You also learn how to deal with the word ‘No’, and to use it when you have to. You learn how to be fulfilled and driven by pursuit of vision and not present circumstances. You learn the art of sleeping at night even when all boxes have not been checked. An entrepreneur wakes up and lives to write yet another story for that day.

Waceke runs a course on entrepreneurship. Find her at [email protected]| twitter @centonomy