Startups: Vai-Thee-Fuss?. Not everyone is cut out for the entrepreneurial life

A few weeks ago, I was in Chennai at a relative’s wedding, where I was accosted by a middle-aged man. He introduced himself as an IT services professional with extensive experience of over two decades, primarily in client-facing roles covering business development and delivery. He was bored doing the same thing over and over again, even after changing his job a couple of times at competing IT services firms. He asked me if he should consider starting up now?

This is an intriguing question. Undoubtedly, anyone can become an entrepreneur, and a successful one at that, but it is also important to consider personal and family backgrounds before jumping into entrepreneurship. 

This gentleman had started from a lower middle-class background and, after many years of hard work put in by him and his wife (a college teacher), they were living a comfortable life. No professional pressures, good work-life balance, two daughters who were doing well academically and looking forward to a graduate degree in the US, for which the parents were planning and saving. 

His mid-life crisis was all about boredom with his job.

He was confident he could get one or two small-sized clients, with whom he had a good personal rapport, to give out some projects. He was also sure he could attract good software folks to code for the projects and, with his experience, he had no doubt about completing the projects within the committed deadlines. 

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He had a spreadsheet that showed these clients repeating more projects, a few more new clients signing up and, in a year or two, the company would break even and start investing in fresh business development efforts. So far, so good.

I asked him a few questions: What are your plans if the early clients do not repeat? What will you do if you are unable to get good software folks to join? How much cash can you invest personally in the business? Are you in a situation to run the company if it keeps losing cash for at least 24 to 30 months? Have you imagined a life where you will spend almost all your waking hours worrying about your venture while ignoring your wife and daughters? Are you in a financial position to write off all the cash you invest if things don’t work out eventually?

Expectedly, he had not thought deeply about these issues. 

Entrepreneurship in India is tough and lonely, and not everyone is ready to undertake this journey. It is wonderful that so many young and not-so-young people want to start up. However, caution is important. 

Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. There is a misplaced perception that entrepreneurship is a higher calling than being a mere employee, but nothing can be further from the truth.

(The writer is a serial entrepreneur and best-selling author of the book ‘Failing to Succeed’; posts on X @vaitheek)