When I read about advice for startups, I am often struck by the sheer banality of a lot of them; how easy they make it seem to become a successful entrepreneur.
Maybe it is (somewhat, see below) easy. I guess it depends on your ambition;
If it is to use a tried and tested formula to do something others have done before but just with a slight twist and present it in the “Lions Den” in the hope of celebrity investment maybe it is somewhat ‘easy’?
It is certainly quite well inside your own span of control and the effort you put in will go a long way (with some luck added for effect of course). It’s is very much about the quantity you put in – the number of hours etc.
You can do that in limited time and with very limited investment apart from your own hard work. And if it doesn’t work out, chances are you will not have bet the entire farm, and you can always try again.
But what if you instead want to make a really big bet?
What if you want to try to do something, no-one has done before?
What if you want to serve a new audience that has so far been not only underserved but downright neglected?
What if your future product is novel, still in the R&D labs and a lot can still go wrong?
What if, as a consequence of the above, your product is some distance out in the future?
And what if on top of all of the above there is no truly authoritative way you can test whether what you’re looking to do will ultimately be successful?
Making a big bet is daunting in an entirely different way.
Yes, the rewards can be huge. In more ways than one.
If you succeed.
But there are still countless ways you can fail.
It may look intriguing in a Powerpoint, but it’s an entirely different matter when the decision to follow through and make the bet has been made.
Then the real work begins. Then you’re on the hook.
But you will be on the hook for something bold and deeply worthwhile.
Not just 5 minutes of fame.
(Photo: Pixabay.com)