Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster

I came across a great article by Cameron Herold guest blogging at Tim Ferriss’s fourdayworkweek.com blog. He writes:

Regardless of whether or not you believe you will ride an emotional rollercoaster running a business, you will. You have two fundamental choices: you can hold on and scream, or you can wave your hands in the air and have some fun.

Also, you’ll find Marc Andresson’s precious nugget of wisdom being quoted as well:

First and foremost, a start-up puts you on an emotional rollercoaster unlike anything you have ever experienced. You flip rapidly from day-to-day – one where you are euphorically convinced you are going to own the world, to a day in which doom seems only weeks away and you feel completely ruined, and back again. Over and over and over. And I’m talking about what happens to stable entrepreneurs. There is so much uncertainty and so much risk around practically everything you are doing. The level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify things incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude. Sound like fun?

I can’t stress enough how important it is to recognize and respect the awesome force that is human psychology as it comes into play during the hectic start-up phase of a company. More often than not, however, setting the right expectations and being informed about your particular industry means you can flatten the so-called “Transition Curve”.

The problem I find with today’s entrepreneurs is that the optimism is often too overbearing. Perhaps it’s the romanticism with which we surround the notion of a “start-up”. Perhaps it’s because people are starting their own companies at younger and younger ages. Perhaps it’s because a lot of tech start-ups are headed by folks who know more about cool technologies than running actual businesses. More likely, it could be because VC money is (or at least was) too readily invested. Whatever it is, the right expectations are not being set to counter-act what Cameron refers to as the “Uninformed Optimism” phase of start ups.

My advice, for what it’s worth, is that you should find something you’re passionate about, persist at it, and do your research.