MBA1234 Do You Really Want To Be an Entrepreneur?

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Hey O welcome to the $100 MBA show, the business podcast that always has your back with daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn do you really want to be an entrepreneur? If you're looking to start a business and become an entrepreneur for the first time today, I want you to go through a thought experiment with me. I'm going to share some questions with you, some questions I want you to ask yourself before you get on this journey to make sure you know for sure entrepreneurship is the path for you. I've met many people that have thought about starting a business, but after a few minutes of discussion, answering a few questions, they start to realize, maybe I just need a new job, a new career, or maybe I need to change some other aspect of my life. And really what I'm looking for is change and not necessarily looking to start a business. Being an entrepreneur is definitely a lifestyle change. It will change many aspects of your life. So it's good for you to make an informed decision about this step. By the end of today's episode, you'll be able to answer this question definitively. Do you really want to be an entrepreneur. So let's jump into it. Let's get down to business. From listeners from the show, from people that email in, from my own friends and family on a regular basis, I get approached with the statement, hey, I'm thinking about starting a business. And my first answer is, why? Well, it's really a question, but the answer is, why? Why do you want to start a business? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? And many times they're like, hey, entrepreneur, that sounds so big and grand and Fortune 500. And my answer to that is, you have to be comfortable with who you want to be. And if you're going to start a business, you are an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody that creates a solution for other people. It could be a simple solution, it could be a complex solution. But an entrepreneur is a job, just like every other job, every other profession, a doctor, a lawyer, a plumber, a fireman. And there are certain things these people do every day at their job. So I like to start with that. What do entrepreneurs actually do every day? So the first question I want you to ask yourself in this thought experiment is, do you like solving problems? Now, before you answer, before you just say yes, understand when I say, do you like solving problems? That means, do you like receiving problems? Or flatly, do you like problems? Because that's what an entrepreneur is, a problem solver. An entrepreneur wakes up every morning, I'm speaking about myself. This is what happens to me every morning. I wake up in the morning and there are a list of problems waiting for me. I have to understand what these problems are. I have to come up with strategies and solutions to solve them. I have to actually implement, actually, you know, take action and solve these problems and then confirm that they're actually solved. My phone is busting with notifications from my team, from customers from other businesses wanting my attention. And. And most of that is, I have a problem. I need you to solve me this problem. And a problem can be defined in different ways. It could be, hey, we need to fix this issue with the business or with the product. Or it could be, I'm not clear on how to use your product by a customer, or I have a question or I want your time for an interview. They're presenting you with things to do. They're throwing things on your plate. But essentially, an entrepreneur is a problem solver. That's their value. As an entrepreneur, your value to the world is your ability to solve problems through your product. Even you know, that's why people buy your product is because you solve a problem for them. A doctor gets his value because they have the ability to understand the human body and medicine and be able to alleviate your pain and feel better and put you in better health, or at least point you in the direction to better health. A lawyer is a good negotiator, understands the law, understands how to work in the confines of the law, and how to seek out the best course of action and make sure you get your rights. So as you see, every profession has value. Like, that's the value you add to the marketplace. As, as an entrepreneur, your value is solving problems. So are you happy to wake up every morning with a list of problems to solve? I'm not saying this to discourage anybody here, I'm just saying the reality, and for most entrepreneurs, when I say, are you happy to wake up to solve problems? They're like, yes, that fires me up. Solving problems honestly helps me feel significant in the world. It helps me feel like I have value, helps me feel like I'm able to contribute and, and actually help people. So that's the first question you have to answer, because that's what an entrepreneur really does, solves problems. We're going to flip it for this next question. I want you to write down what you don't like about your current profession, job, whatever it is. Write a list of things you don't write until you feel exhausted. There's nothing else to write. What about the job? What about the tasks you have to do? What about, maybe it's the pay you don't like. What about your colleagues? What about the people you work with? What about the hours? What about the environment? Write down everything you dislike about your current job, your current career, current situation. Now, just as an exercise, what I want you to do is look at all these things you don't like about your job and write what would be the opposite of those things. So say, for example, you said, you know, the salary is kind of capped. There's only a certain amount of money I can make at some point and I'd like to make more. So more money or a higher ceiling in terms of salary. That would be the opposite. Let's say, for example, you said, with my job, there's a lot of travel. I don't like to travel, so I prefer not to travel in my next profession, job. So write the opposite of everything and then ask yourself this question. Can you get a job? Can you find a career out of all the jobs and careers and professions out there in the world that will give you those things that you See on the other side, the positives, the things you want, and really think hard about this, because if there are jobs, if there are career options, then maybe you just need a new career. The reason why I say that is because many people will go to entrepreneurship thinking it's the answers to their problems. And really the answer to their problems is just a new career, a job change, and that would make them content. Now, there's nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur, but understand that as an entrepreneur, not only do you have to do an entrepreneur job, the things we talked about earlier, but. But you have to create your own job, create your own position. Then you gotta create all the positions within your company. And most of the time when you're getting started, you're gonna have to do all those positions yourself. You're not gonna have the luxury of saying, I don't like this, I don't like this job. Because you have to do it at the start. You have to kind of get the ball rolling until you can afford to hire somebody to do those jobs that you don't like. If you don't like accounting and you're just a startup with very low on funding, you're not profitable yet. You're still getting your feet wet and experience. You still have to do payroll, you still have to pay people, right? You still have to pay your expenses, you still have to have a budget, you still have to know basic accounting and be able to use an accounting software to run your business. The next exercise I want you to do is a brilliant one. I love this exercise. I highly recommend it. And I want you to take a look at the entrepreneurs that you admire. The entrepreneurs that the businesses you would like to have in the future, they don't have to be world famous, but they could be smaller businesses and read and find out their story, whether it's reading their biography or a podcast episode with their interview, or even approaching them in person like a local shop, asking for the owner and say, hey, I'm thinking about building a business, being an entrepreneur, and I want to get your advice, I want to hear your story, I want to learn what you went through. How did you get to this point? Buy them lunch, buy them dinner, but get that information. Why? Because it's gold. Learning people's story that have gone through the path that you want to go through is absolute gold. Why? Because they're going to tell you all the ups and downs, the struggles, what it takes to get there, the sacrifices, what it costs them personally and professionally. And you're going to ask yourself the question, as you're listening to the story, as you're absorbing everything you're hearing and reading and everything, you're going to ask the question, do I want to go through that? Do I want to experience that? Is this the life I want? If it's yes, awesome, but if it's not a hell yes, then you need to reevaluate your decision because that will be your life. That will be a reality. Because this person's telling you what they went through. Well, you might say yourself, well, I'm not going to make the same mistakes, I'm going to do it better. Well, you may not make the same mistakes, but you will make mistakes. You'll make different ones. That's just a rite of passage for any entrepreneur that actually successful. It gives you an idea of the type of challenges you're going to go through and allows you to kind of have a heads up and be like, hey, this is the reality of the situation. This is, you know, not the glamorous idea in my head. This is really what's going to happen. Am I cool with it? If I am, great. If I'm not, let's reevaluate. The final thought experiment I want you to take on is asking yourself this question, is there anything I rather do than become an entrepreneur? It's very important to ask this question in that way because it opens up possibilities. You might say, hey, I would rather be a professional golfer. But you're like, hey, I'm not that good, I'm not that talented and I don't have the time to become a great golfer. I need to make some money. But go down that rabbit hole a little bit, maybe you can experience the same things as a professional golfer without being a professional golfer, like being a golf coach or a sports analyst or a writer, or having a golf blog as a side hustle while you're at your job. I grew up playing basketball, and many of the coaches and trainers that I had as a young basketball player were people that wanted to play professional sports. Didn't make it, couldn't do it, but wanted to be around the sport, still wanted to be around this spirit of basketball. And they go home every day fulfilled because they feel like they're still around their passion, their love, which is the sport of basketball in this case. So ask yourself the question, is there something I rather do than entrepreneurship? If the answer is yes, then explore that option. Because all the great entrepreneurs I know personally, my personal friends, people I've worked with in the past, people I've partnered with all the ones that I really respect. They wouldn't rather do anything else other than be an entrepreneur. They can't even imagine being something else. It's like asking someone who's like a famous singer like Adele or something, hey Adele, would you rather be something else? She probably would say no because this is her calling, this is her gift, this is what she does. So ask yourself these questions to really get a solid answer, a true answer to do you really want to be an entrepreneur? Because sometimes we're not super clear on what we want. We need to kind of dig in and explore within ourselves to get some answers.

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You get your podcasts to wrap up today's lesson. This is a tough question. Do you really want to be an entrepreneur? Because you really don't know yet. Because you haven't started yet. You haven't actually tried it yet. So my advice is give it a try part time. There's nothing wrong with having a side hustle. I had a side hustle for a decade before I was a full time entrepreneur. See if you enjoy it. See if you enjoy solving problems and building things from scratch and scrapping away to make it happen. If that excites you, if that gets you motivated in the morning. If you prefer doing your side hustle over your job, then you know you chose the right path and you need to now just transition to full time. This is why apprenticeship is great. I remember when I was young and in high school, I couldn't even imagine what every job actually was like. What is it like to be a doctor? What is it like to be a lawyer or police officer? The only real way to do it is actually do the job. Or at least go on the job site and see how it is. And you could do the same for entrepreneurship. You can have a side hustle. You can work for a small startup. Heck, you can work for a big startup and learn the ropes within an actual organization. That way you're minimizing risk while answering this so important question. Do you really want to be an entrepreneur? Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you love what you hear and subscribe, hit subscribe right now on whatever you use to listen to. Podcasts. Whether it's Spotify, Stitcher Radio, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Tunein, we're on them all. By hitting subscribe, you get the next episode automatically downloaded to your actual device. That way, it's ready for you when you're ready to listen. All right, before I go, I want to leave you with this Becoming an entrepreneur is a big step in life. It's a big transition. There's nothing wrong with taking your time. You don't have to rush into anything. There is no kind of countdown clock. Even if you're not quote unquote young. If you're in your late 40s or 50s or 60s, you still have time. You can still make the transition. Thanks so much for listening. I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Q and A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

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