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This Story Is for Those Who Think Entrepreneurship Is Soooooooooooo Overrated

by | Apr 17, 2023 | Entrepreneurs

It’s easy to piss on people who have 9-5 jobs.

And claim entrepreneurship is the only real and free way to live. Below the surface of this phenomenon is something much more important. Let me explain in a quick read.

The crazy thoughts normal people have about entrepreneurship

Dan Koe shared a discussion he found under a Youtube video.

The commenters argued entrepreneurship is overrated and is basically a scam. I instantly felt different.

Screenshots via Dan Koe

“I’m not a wage slave”

Unfortunately, if you earn a salary you are.

Nobody likes to admit it. I lived that way for over a decade. It’s not to say a 9–5 job is bad. It’s just that jobs aren’t forever.

The idea is you earn from a job and then create a business model (even if you’re a solopreneur) to unlock your true value.

Corporations always pay less money than you generate so they can exploit you for profits. This is how capitalism works. It’s not a secret lol.

All it takes is a recession or for an employer brand to become less relevant over time to the market they sell to and unemployment is right around the corner. There’s zero job security anymore.

So by definition your survival depends on a job if that’s all you have and that, yes, unfortunately, makes you a wage slave.

At least with a business mindset you get to make up the rules and become self-reliant — the true definition of freedom that transcends the ridiculous entrepreneur label.

In reality, you’re a line on a spreadsheet until the math doesn’t work out — Justin Welsh

“What’s wrong with offering my skills to a corporation?”

There’s nothing wrong with it.

Just don’t do it until you’re 65 and retire. The answer is obvious: Doing repetitive work that has a fixed financial upside isn’t the way to live the good life. Again, it’s obvious if you block all the emotions and be real.

Most jobs don’t allow you to access:

  • Purpose
  • Meaning
  • Curiosity
  • Creativity
  • Imagination
  • Time freedom
  • Personal responsibility

So you end up doing what I did for ten years and running in circles trying to find these deeply human obsessions and, not finding them. Then thinking “It must be the company. I’ll change company.”

The solution isn’t to change company. It’s to become a business.

“Entrepreneurship isn’t contributing anything valuable to society”

… says the person working for an entrepreneur.

Most jobs do nothing. Come on, let’s be honest. I’ve worked in 40,000+ employee companies. Restructures happened and 1000s of people were laid off regularly and it had no impact on revenue or operations.

Artificial Intelligence will quickly show us how useless most knowledge worker jobs are. It won’t destroy humanity. No.

I predict it will reveal employee work for what it is and radically shift our work model from employees over to one-person businesses. Businesses can’t piss-fart around. You have to work or you don’t get paid.

This is the intrinsic motivation missing in most employee work.

“Entrepreneurship is sh*tting on people you exploit financially”

People who ironically think this don’t realize they’re part of the exploitation. If entrepreneurs are evil and you work for one then isn’t that an oxymoron?

Entrepreneurship isn’t evil. People who are brainwashed and haven’t thought too much about how capitalism works are the real problem.

Ask yourself what your employer does. Dare to consider what they do may not be net-good for humanity.

“Paying $50 a month to escape the Matrix is not how it works”

This person is referring to online education.

What they don’t realize is $50 a month to learn online skills is 10x better than paying 6-figures for college and paying with debt that takes a lifetime to pay off. That degree doesn’t even give you an advantage because everyone else going for the same job has one too.

These days a degree doesn’t even get you a job interview.

Whereas real-world education that demonstrates relevant skills can instantly get you hired as an employee, or as a one-person business.

“Entrepreneurs are busy around the clock”

The people who say this don’t even realize what they’re doing.

Since the 2020 bat virus most jobs are no longer 9–5 anymore. They’re more like 7–7 and “can you work on the weekend?”

The average workday is so jam-packed with useless meetings that the only time to do the real work is after-hours.

And because more and more work is done while working from home, the separation between work and home life has vanished.

It used to be that when you left the office people knew your work was done for the day and they’d have to wait until tomorrow if they needed anything.

That 9–5 freedom dream is dead. You will work … or we will hire someone else from anywhere in the world with the Zoom app on their laptop to do your job.

We’re all entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship isn’t overrated. It’s just misunderstood.

Whether you work a job, own a business with 100 employees, or operate as a solopreneur, you’re an ENTREPRENEUR.

An entrepreneur is just someone who operates a business.

And we all operate at least a one-person business. That business has at least one customer (an employer) or multiple customers if you’re a freelancer, consultant, contractor, etc.

The difference between being an employee and operating a business is subtle.

It’s the labels that are the problem.

We have this grandiose view of entrepreneurship thanks to unicorn entrepreneurs and Hollywood movies like “The Social Network.”

It’s not that glorious at all. It’s a label that explains whether your income is a salary or comes in some other form — commission, consulting fee, monthly fee, retainer, etc.

Here’s what is missed…

An employee has fewer benefits than a person operating a business. If you bill your one or more customers as a business, you…

  • Pay tax after you’re paid
  • Can expense stuff
  • Negotiate your pay,
  • And can set your own KPIs

This small list of benefits is an absolute game-changer. It’s the difference between getting paid 6 figures and 7 figures. And it’s the difference between doing whatever you want and being told what to do.

If you aren’t working toward your ideal future, you are working toward someone else’s — Dan Koe

Let’s just admit what’s really going on with people who hate entrepreneurship

They’re fearful. They don’t know anything else.

The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd — African Proverb

This proverb sums up what’s going on here. We don’t know what we don’t know. When we’re afraid we turn to sarcasm and making fun of stuff to try to fit in and ignore what we’re feeling.

Those who knock entrepreneurship deeply crave what it can do for them. They just don’t know how to get it (and that’s okay).

The way you transition over to the “I-run-a-business” way of thinking is to:

  • Figure out what the hell kind of work you love to do
  • Turn your skills into a one-person business with an offer
  • Test that offer with customers who aren’t your current employer
  • Open your mind to another way of billing for your unique value
  • Transition from time-based work to deliverables-based work

When you do those things, your entire work life will never be the same again. And that’s bloody beautiful.

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