Being an Entrepreneur and having walked that path (and still walking), I have
come to realize why most Entpreneurs fail. Or in other words what is the life
cycle of an Entrepreneurs? And when do most drop-off happen.
First Phase
You start with a complete ignorance towards your surrounding. The only think
you have is an IDEA which you love more than your life. This ignorance slowly
starts to come between you and the opportunity.
As a result : This experience will either tarnish entrepreneur's faith and
hope, or he/she will rise above it and be enlightened.
Second Phase
If you find yourself in the second phase than it means that you have surpassed
the First Phase. Now you are more open to other ideas and open to more
opportunities. In a way, you feel that you have identified the truth behind
running successful business. But as you move confidently, you come across
another aspect of entrepreneurship, self-doubt. While moving confidently, you
tend to realize that there is something which you have left out in a race to
grab opportunities, to increase your revenue and valuation. This will make you
disheartened. You feel you have failed yourself.
As a result : This experience will either tarnish entrepreneur's faith and
hope, or he/she will rise above it and be enlightened.
(Most interesting fact of entrepreneurship is that in every phase, you come
across an opportunity to be enlightened and gain strength.)
Third Phase
You see, an entrepreneurs always has to fight between his doubts because there
is no other way he can guide himself along the way to success. It is this
balance and struggle between the self-doubt and realization that entrepreneurs
learns to trust and make decisions.
At this stage there are two things going inside an entrepreneurs' mind. Is this the right way? Am I on the right track? I don't see any signs?? But then with all the energy and hope, you wait and then you finally see the light at the tunnel of the darkness. "Yes, I knew it was the right path", you will console your heart half satisfied and half stressed out. Mind you that, at this point our entrepreneur is fully exhausted, if he is not than he has been ignoring everything that has been happening around. Learning is a method which stresses our brain to come to a conclusion. The state from confusion to conclusion is a pretty frustrating process because your mind cannot make head or tail of the situation.
You realize the dilemma of chasing an opportunity versus chasing your vision. You understand, it needs to be balanced and balanced in a right way. You take control of the situation and turn it around.
So what is the next phase now?? Well when you are on your foot and you have gone through the experience of life time. You certainly tend to gain your ignorance back. So you do gain your ignorance back and walk confidently again. The cycle repeats.
I find that entrepreneurs move in this cycle where he/she is continuously confronted with complicated situation personally and professionally. It is the overcoming of these hurdles which would teach an entrepreneurs to succeed.
Failure is more of giving up than not being able to attain anything. So in which stage do I think I am in ? Well, there are micro stages of this cycle which have repeated more than 2/3 times. So I would say I am still in the cycle holding myself. Is there an end to it? I don't think so. The speed of the cycle may slow down, but I think the motion will not cease. It will continue in one or the other form.