Visiting a bar and owning a bar are very different things

There is another thing you can learn from “Do you want to be a fisherman or do you just like fish?” the story I published yesterday. When you start a business you generally do so because you have passion for something or see an opportunity to make money or please people. Whatever the reason, over time you will go through several stages of being an entrepreneur, and every stage is different and has its own challenges.

Take drinking beer as an example. I remember telling an older entrepreneur that I might consider opening or buying a bar when I was a bit older. The older and more experienced entrepreneur replied “Enjoying a beer in a bar or owning and running a bar are two very different things. You might want to think twice about that”. I did, and it stuck with me.

Some entrepreneurs really love coding. So they start coding, hack something together that their friends like, it starts growing, they raise funding, grow some more and hey, suddenly they have their own company. How cool is that! But once you’ve got customers, revenue and employees you aren’t coding anymore! You are now managing coders.

That is all bad. In fact, it is part of being an entrepreneur. There are different stages in the life of a company and a good entrepreneur can grow with the company as it involves. You will be coding, cleaning the kitchen and toilets, doing design and sales, raising funding, doing helpdesk work and negotiating. All very different jobs that are required at different stages.

What is important to know is where your qualities are as an entrepreneur. Are you really great at doing sales but hate the rest? Then maybe you would be happier just doing sales. Is coding all you want to do in your life? Then maybe join a start-up as a developer.

Being an entrepreneur means learning a new skill on almost a daily basis. You have to enjoy that and have talent for that. Drinking beer or managing people serving beer are two very different things.