How do I tell my mom that I want to be an entrepreneur?
The German Nobel Prize Laureate Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) knew at a the age of 15 that he want to become “a Poet, or nothing”. His parents were not amused. If you want to become a carpenter, mathematician or even a priest, there is a clear path to it, there are schools and jobs, and working there with passion is typically the start of a linear career. But Poet? No job, no income… In 1946 Hesse won the Nobel Prize in literature.
Parents want to see their children being safe and happy. To see them going onto an unknown path is certainly an issue. It can cause sleepless nights. But what is the issue, what makes the difference between an ambitious goal that leads you over unpaved roads and not on a defined career path?
Let’s look at the typical development of a linear career versus an entrepreneur career:
Blue curve: If you’re doing a good job, it starts linear, means, your success grows steady. However, you are typically reaching the end of that development once you’re high enough in hierarchy, when a promotion is no longer possible or meaningful. From that point onwards, you repeatedly do what you always did.
Green curve: No-one pays you a salary, you have to work until you can start harvesting the fruits. But then, you’re success typically grows with your business, and that can continue growing much faster than any salary. Bingo, you made it when the green curve surpassed the blue one!
Did you?
If we define “Success” as “Income”, to convert it into wealth means you have to look at the accumulated result over time, mathematically expressed as the area below the curve. In that picture the losses the entrepreneur made compared to a linear income in the beginning (-) must be compensated by the additional gains later (+).
Assuming, you had been clever enough in your early years not to spend your money all over as you earned it, the blue curve might become even more attractive, because of the interest from the savings. Even if you haven’t invested it aggressivly and only made conservative investments, there’s interest on top from the beginning.
In a nutshell: When you decide to take on the entrepreneur challenge, your ambition must be to ramp up fast, alternatively to aim very high, or both. Otherwise, the outcome isn’t worth the headaches of your parents, neither your own ones. I recommend to read as preparation my story “10 rules how to write a business plan” if you consider to look into your own life as a business model. Same rules apply.
So why not simply using best of both worlds? Start linear, when you feel you’ve reached saturation, take the next step. The advantage is, you already have some wealth, means, you can stand a while living from the past, before accellarating into new dimensions.
There are several ? to consider:
First, how do you know you have reached saturation?
Next, even if you know you’ve reached a level where it’s difficult to grow, isn’t it easier to keep going than starting over? This is the convenience trap. If you’re life feels nice and cosy on the blue curve, it might become hard to give it away for an uncertain result. Risk-aversion grows over time. Be aware if your plan goes in that direction starting off blue getting green later, it might be an excuse to please your mom doing it that way, however, the longer you are in a convenient stage, the less attractive it seems to change it.
The pragmatic way out of this trap: choose blue or green, as you wish, however, make a fair (!) evaluation after a period you have set to yourself. Is the result what you wanted? Could you do more? Or are you doing to much? If a change is appropriate, in which direction? Discuss openly with your peer group you trust, may it be your parents, your friend or partner. Get them onboard of your plans, that they understand why you are doing what you do, or why you feel you must change something. Take important steps together, if possible. You will always find someone to go with you if you are open-minded.
