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Editor's Notes

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• #3: I’d like to offer some perspective about what it’s actually like, in terms of risk, to be an entrepreneur\n
• #4: As a starting point...\nImage, metaphor...\n
• #5: Keep short, don’t mention images shaping how we think.\n
• #6: Keep short.\n
• #7: Keep short.\n
• #8: Keep short.\n
• #9: Most pernicious of all...\n(Keep short!)\n
• #10: Horrible and violent death...\nNot meant to be taken literally, but the images we use shape our thoughts and our behaviours.\n
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• #12: \nEnd of a startup often feels depressing *and* exhilarating...\n
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• #21: The “sink or swim” or “jump out of an airplane” metaphor convey the idea that either you make it or you don’t. It’s heaven or hell - nothing in between.\n\nMost of you - probably all of you - will not become billionaire entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg or Gates.\nMost..... will not end up begging on the street for food!\nMost of you, probably all of you, will end up somewhere in between those two extremes.\n
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• #24: Are there scary moments? Sure...\n\nBut jumping off a cliff, for people who enjoy that, the whole point of it is the thrill, the scare... In entrepreneurship, the scary bits are the bits you try to avoid.\n\nWhy do we think entrepreneurship is scary? Campfire horror stories.\n
• #25: People tell each other scary stories to reassure themselves that they made the right choice.\n
• #26: What does it really feel like?\n\nAsk any wannabe entrepreneur just before they “take the plunge”, and they’re usually shit-scared, though they may pretend otherwise.\n\nAsk them a year later, and they’re having the time of their life, they’ve never felt so free, they love it, they can’t imagine doing anything else.\n\nYou don’t spend most of your time as an entrepreneur scared and cowering. Here’s what you get to do.\n
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• #32: And so on!\n\nStarting a new business is not scary, it’s exciting - or rather, it’s scary in the same way that moving to a new city is. There’s newness, there’s possibilities, there’s some uncertainty - all of which combines to making it a very exciting adventure, not a scary one.\n
• #33: Finally, what I called the most pernicious idea in this metaphor... the idea that entrepreneurship is more risky.\n\n
• #34: Again, this seems like an idea concocted by those who are not entrepreneurs, to validate their choices, which otherwise may not seem sensible.\n
• #35: Often, the idea that entrepreneurship is scary is accompanied by quotes of startup failure rates... 40%... 70%... 95%...\n\nCertainly, if you’re a startup, life seems pretty uncertain and scary. I’d hate to be a startup too.\n\nBut the good news is, you are not a startup. You are an entrepreneur, someone who creates startups.\n\n2 out of 3 of my startups failed. Am I a failure? No. The third one is succeeding, and that’s what matters.\n
• #36: Job security... can you be fired as an entrepreneur?\n\nSure, you might fire yourself, but you’ll see it coming!\n\nIn a corporate job, however...\n
• #37: Upside... can you earn enough to extract yourself from the rat race?\n\nAs an entrepreneur, the upside is all yours.\n\nAs a corporate...\n
• #38: Beyond job security, what about career security?\n\nCorporate careers are more insecure today than any other time... I read somewhere that the modern knowledge worker can be expected to retrain themselves in a new career up to 4 times in their working life.\n\nTechnology eating at...\n\n\n
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• #40: More like being a scientist...\n\nIt’s not as sexy, but having the right vision for what it means to be an entrepreneur might help you make better choices in your first startup, second startup, third startup, etc.\n
• #41: That’s all I have for you today... I hope this perspective will be useful to you. Thanks for listening.\n