Entrepreneurial Minds

Having now spent a few months away from college in this so-called “adult world”, I’ve moved across the entire country and met a diverse group of people. I would describe some of these people I’ve met as “aspiring entrepreneurs”. They haven’t yet started implementing their ideas, but they do have ideas that they wish to find the time to carry out. To be fair, it takes a trusted team of people to carry out some of these ideas. For these aspiring entrepreneurs, I find their lives and relationship dynamics very interesting to analyze.

What’s Required To Succeed (as an Entrepreneur)

• an idea: those who are entrepreneurial usually start off with an idea of something they want to build, create, or a problem they want to solve.
• motivation: with that idea, they will need a catalyst or enough motivation and drive to bring that idea to life.
• consistency: this piece is definitely the hardest part to achieve for me personally. Without consistency, there is no routine. The consistency doesn’t have to be daily, but the time spent on manifesting this idea has to be enough to make slow progress towards “success” — be it a finished prototype of a product or a consistent social media following.
• persistence: this is the sugar and spice that goes on top of everything. There will be road bumps on the way to achieving these goals that may make one feel rejected and lose their drive and confidence. Ultimately, I find that if people are surrounded by those who support them in their goals and are inspired by other role models and friends, then with willpower, the journey becomes much smoother.
• journey-driven, not outcome-driven: I’ve heard this many times from content creators, “make sure you’re doing it because you like doing it and not because you want to get rich or become famous”. I think this applies to all forms of entrepreneurial minds or those who want to become self-employed.
• calculated risk-taking: any self-employed person is taking a big risk on the day-to-day. Their business could flop, or they could get “canceled” on social media, and in a single day, their career is over. What this is mitigated by is good decision making. Financial decisions have to be carefully made to reduce risk. Social decisions have to be thought through to avoid PR issues.

The Partners They Look For

• someone with compatible needs for quality time: needs for quality time are satisfied by either hitting 2 birds with 1 stone (working together/being business partners) or compromising with time outside of work (i.e workout partner, travel partner, etc.) and scheduling time to spend together.
  [Caveat: For quality time to work, both people should be enjoying it and it shouldn’t feel like a burden. Being business/work partners is nice, but it’s the focused time on each other that makes it work. Being actual work partners makes the romantic aspect more difficult to achieve.]
• someone who is able to support them: this actually goes both ways. Good relationships do well when the lifestyles of the two people involved are mutually benefitting each other. Whether it be through financial support and/or emotional support.
  [Caveat: I would hope that a startup founder isn’t relying only on their partner’s money to seed their venture. There’s a lot more planning involved in taking steps towards entrepreneurial ventures, and I would assume that visible steps towards that goal would allow a partner to agree to the relationship.]
• someone who knows it’s not a “get rich quick”: this is something really important to understand, for both the entrepreneur and their partner (who may also be an entrepreneur). Going from an idea to implementing it and having it be a financially viable career, is a long journey and isn’t certain. It’s not absolute that it ends up being financially viable. It’s not certain that they will “be rich” after all of their efforts.

Final Thoughts

I think what truly makes any relationship work is adequate compromise. Those who lean selfish will require someone who is able to handle their own boundaries very well. What makes a good relationship is very different for different people. Some people are looking for a best friend, others are looking for someone to motivate them toward their dreams.