3 Horrible Reasons To Become An Entrepreneur (And One Incredibly Good One)

These days it seems entrepreneurship is all the rage.

Many people (perhaps including you?) are fantasizing about ditching the world of corporate ladder climbing to summit their own personal Everest–the world of lucrative self-employment.

And it makes perfect sense, after all it is the way to live in the world if you want to work 4 hours a week, have a ton of freedom, love every bloody second of your life, and go surfing 150 hours a week.

I say this with tongue firmly in cheek. The reality is? While much of entrepreneurship is a soul-fueling, lovefest of awesome, any entrepreneur will tell you that the world of self-employment is not all puppy dogs and unicorn tails.

So if you’re considering jumping ship from the corporate world, here are three horrible reasons to make the switch.

1. You hate your current job

We’ve all heard it before, especially in the under 40 crowd. “I hate my job, I think I’ll start a business so I can be my own boss. I love baking cupcakes, I think I’ll start baking cupcakes.”

While there are numerous people who have successfully gone rogue and entrepreneurial doesn’t me that you should, nor does it mean you shouldn’t. But it is important to not that entrepreneurship is a real way out of your current job, but it isn’t the only way out.

Just a thought? Your current job might be the wrong job for you. And we all know that there are a lot of other jobs out there in the world other than your current job.

A lot.

In fact, other entrepreneurs hire people to work for them. And you can get a lot of the benefits of being an entrepreneur by working for one. Because often, the corporate culture of entrepreneurial businesses encourage their employees to embrace that culture and do entrepreneurial things. Just a thought.

A moment of introspection: If you hate your current job and if you’ve hated all your jobs, the problem might be you. And that is worth looking at.

2. You don’t like working with other people

There is this fancy notion these days that online solopreneurship is the way to go. There are plenty of business coaches touting the notion that you can ditch you j-o-b, and make millions by working for yourself as a solopreneur.

Solopreneur. It is catchy. And sure it’s a cute moniker, but it doesn’t work in real life per se. Because solopreneurs can’t work alone for long, one human being only has so much capacity, and entrepreneurs like growth.

In fact, relatively quickly, so-called ‘solopreneurs’ often have employees to manage, clients to please, and contractors they work with (designers, copywriters, coaches, branding experts, etc).

In this day and age, there is no such thing as ‘solo’.   You are always working with other people, in some capacity. No matter whether you work for yourself, or a CEO in a plush corporate office.

3. You want lots of free time and ‘Freedom’

This is my favorite.

Sure there are plenty of books out there about building a business with passive income, and making boatloads of money by not working very often. Clambering for that elusive 7-figure profit so you can jet set around the world.

But the truth is? That just isn’t how it works.

Building a business from scratch, one that fuels your freedom, and allows you to have passive income is really hard work. Heck, entrepreneurship in general is hard work. Most entrepreneurs I know work a lot, especially in their first few years of business (often more hours than their corporate counterparts).

That isn’t to say that it isn’t possible. It just takes a few months/years/decades to get to the point where entrepreneurship is synonymous with freedom, and by then often you have a new business idea to share with the world.

So what is a good reason to start your own business?

Because you can’t help it, and feel like you just have to. Because if you didn’t you might just explode. Because you have an idea that lights you on fire and you can’t wait to share it with the world.

(Note: it helps that you’re pretty ding dang sure people will want to pay you cash-money for your business/service/product, because you’ve researched the marketplace.)

You see, entrepreneurs often become entrepreneurs because they just can’t not be entrepreneurs. Either they found a business idea that lights them up so much they just have to share it with the world. Or they come up with so many business ideas a day that they just have to act on some.

Pair that passion and excitement with a solid business strategy? And you have an ace reason to ditch the corporate ladder, and climb your own ladder. Hell, you’ll even get to pick what material to make the ladder out of, and in what country.