When I say entrepreneurship what do you think of? What visual images come to mind? Are you picturing extravagant holidays, private jets and fancy cars? We are living in a time where entrepreneurship is constantly glamorised. And I want to take a moment to identify the issue and put my two cents in on this topic. Because I think it’s unfair for new business owners.
Audio Time Stamp | 00:32
Entrepreneur is Being Constantly Glamorised
First of all I don’t really see myself as quote on quote an entrepreneur, I see myself as more of a creative or designer but the term entrepreneur is quick to say and encompasses all different small businesses. So I do refer to the term Entrepreneurs and or Solopreneurs.
But there is issue i’ve seen with the label entrepreneur. We have associated entrepreneurship as the key to buying ourselves a life time full of happiness. When that’s just not the case, if I has a glass shattering sound effect, I would queue it right there! I have small businesses on my feed and i love seeing their passion live through there post. But I’m also being constantly bombarded with images of a lavish lifestyles and the word #entrepreneurship stamped left right a centre. It’s really become for many people the new aspiration in life. It’s the new if I just have my own business I will be happy, but that’s the same as saying if i just have that fancy car I will be happy…right?
I was listening to a podcast episode the other day and they did a study and found out that if we want to make ourselves happier we usually do something for ourselves. We’ve become very self focused, there isn’t anything wrong with self-care or being self-loving. But they did discover that actually if you want to feel happier you need to something for someone else. Most of the time connection and contribution actually provides us with more happinesses.
Running a small business can provide us fulfilment for sure, it’s a way for us to contribute to the world by helping others with our product and services. As well as that incredible feeling of leaving a legacy behind too. But we are falsely lead to believe, that the entrepreneurial route leads to ONLY happiness and fulfilment and contribution. When in actual fact we also experience negative experiences when being an entrepreneurs. Why do people not talk about it as much? Well because they don’t want you to know that it’s not all sunflowers and roses on the other side.
The reason why most of us start a business is usually because we feel passionate about what we do. And I enjoy collaborating with people who are passionate too. But what’s interesting is the word passion in both latin and greek refers to the word suffering, couple this with the phrase suffering for your art gives you us a new profound perspective.
I don’t know about you personally but I have experience suffering, sacrifice and discomfort whilst setting up and running a design business on my own. These aren’t nice things, it’s like fast food you get a nice feeling eating it and it won’t kill you straight away. But the more you keep eating it then it’s going to significantly hurt your health in the long run. The same applies to your business it’s ok to occasional work longer hours, It’s ok to put yourself in uncomfortable position to push for the goals you want. But how much is enough? And the harder question to answer is… is it really your dream in life to have a small business?
Audio Time Stamp | 06:22
Does Being Entrepreneur Make Us Happier?
Burnout is a real, I think I would know if I reach a rock bottom burnout in an exhausted sense. But creatively I’ve experience many burnouts. This is why boundaries are so important. Because when we start our passion-led businesses it usually feels so important to us to per-sue we are willing to put up with a lot of that suffering. I’m not saying don’t per-sue your passion as a business, but what I want you to walk away from today. Is an understanding around we are sold the entrepreneur dream. And if you’re not really passionate about what you’re doing it might not be worth it. So how much fulfilment are you receiving out of your business and how much are suffering you having to put up with?
This is a good place to segue back and to just take a moment and to remind yourself, that entrepreneurship doesn’t make you a happier person or even a better person. If you thought starting a business was going to guarantee you happiness for the rest of your life than you are wrong. Because essentially nothing can actually guarantee us happiness for the rest of our lives. If we buy a fancy car tomorrow, but we receive bad news the next day like a loved has passed, that car isn’t going to make you happy in that moment. We need to remind ourselves that happiness doesn’t come from external things even though we are lead to believe this everyday. If we think about it we really do have the choice in most situation to be loving, to be happy, to be sad to be angry.
And sometime we can get confused. Like I said we see entrepreneurship being overly glamorised it becomes a spectacle or even worse it has becomes the epitome of happiness. But if we know that money doesn’t buy us happiness, we should also remember neither will entrepreneurship. What it can do is provide you with fulfilment, freedom and contribution.
So if any of my thoughts on the topic resonated with you at all please do let me know at design@oliviagoodenough.com. And from this moment on I encourage you to redefine what entrepreneurship means to you and get clear on why you want to start your passion-led business, not because you’ve been sold the dream of the happiness bucket at the end of the rainbow.
Audio Time Stamp | 10:37
What Does Entrepreneurship Mean To You?
Please don’t leave this episode thinking that I don’t like what I do or that i’m telling you not start your passion-led business. Because I do find great happiness and contentment from designing. But being my own accountant, content creator and marketing is a part of the entrepreneur suffering. I think it’s entrepreneurs responsibility to stop selling newbie business owner the rose-tinted glasses of running a business and actually speak up, be honest and talking about the ugly truth. If you want to learn how to strategically brand your passion-led business go check out this episode.