Be Careful When You Take Business Advice From “Entrepreneurs”
Not all entrepreneurs are really “entrepreneurs”.
Most are big mouths and not doers.
Some entrepreneurs aren’t really truthful even when they operate their own business.
I’ve been taking a break from Medium lately because I’m working on another side hustle as of late and getting back to my full-time job as more studios are now more willing to release their contents to the cinema.
As I was trying to grow my side-hustle, I took in advice from people who labeled themselves as entrepreneurs.
However, I began to suspect a few red flags as I took in their advice. Their behaviors didn't seem to match their words, most of these “entrepreneur”’s common behaviors are:
- Not as hardworking as they should be,
- They make it sound like starting a business is simple and they took the operating lightly.
- They keep bragging about their business.
- They call 9–5 jobs sucks.
They always told me to “just do it”, “hard work”, and all this forced positivity to start a business. It sounds just too good to be true.
In most entrepreneur books and advice from billionaires, this is quite the opposite of what real entrepreneurs should be doing.
Starting a business is not easy, and they must be really determined and consistent in doing so. However, these so-called “entrepreneurs” said otherwise, which got me thinking.
Sure, they do run a business, but after I did more research and asked them further questions, I found a common answer that most of these proud “entrepreneurs” made them this way.
These “Entrepreneurs” Are Helped By Their Parents
From my relatives’ and friends' connections, it’s not common to see some people my age are starting a business. However, they fit the criteria where I feel not comfortable hearing their advice.
After speaking to these so-called “Entrepreneurs”, I finally realized that these people are mostly saved by their parents. The blueprints, connections, and efforts on the business are not entirely from them at all!
All these “entrepreneurs” do is follow their parent’s lead and just “manage” it once it’s operational. They never did the dirty work, they weren’t the ones reaching out to people about their products, and they weren’t the ones raising money to get the business going.
They just got it like a CEO!!
In other words, they are not the ones putting in the effort. They are just given like it’s a gift. Well, no wonder they think running a business is easy.
And sadly, there are so many people doing this.
“Entrepreneurs” Who Are Helped By Their Parents Are The New Fake Gurus
I remember getting so frustrated after realizing the truth about their so-called business. Sure, they are their own boss. But they didn’t even put in the effort.
It’s like in the entrepreneurship journey, they just hop on a plane of their parents and reached the finish line without going through the obstacles and the rest of us just couldn’t afford to take that plane yet.
In my head, I was like…
“How dare they had the audacity to tell me to give me business advice when they didn’t even do it from scratch?”
I really took on their advice, but the more I asked them, they would always tell me the same thing:
- Hard work
- Follow your dreams
- You can do it.
Although this advice is true, it just sounded too simple but stuck up. And that made me even more irritated. Why should I take advice from someone who talks too much but never did their work?
In short, they really love bragging, and as Bruce Lee once said:
“Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.”
There are some entrepreneurs who followed their parents that are not as arrogant as the others I’ve spoken to, and it’s good that they are self-conscious about this.
Usually, they give me management advice, which I would buy in because some weren’t helped by their parents once the business is operational. They really had to learn to keep the business together.
One example I can give is from Bernard Arnault, the CEO of Louis Vuitton. He didn’t build it from scratch, but he managed to keep it alive, and now, the company is more than 160 years old and he’s one of the richest men in the world.
Plus, they didn’t brag about how successful their businesses are, so I was more comfortable taking in their advice.
Famous successful people who really started from scratch are basically the top dog billionaires like Jack Ma, Mark Cuban, and Bill Gates (take note that Bill Gates went to Harvard, so don’t think college is useless).
And do you see these billionaires brag about how successful they are?
No.
A True Self-Made Entrepreneurs Know That Starting A Business Is A Harsh Journey
The only entrepreneur I know face to face and I really took his advice to heart was my guitar teacher. He truly started his own music school studio and luthier shop from scratch and grew big from there.
When I told him about my interest in this entrepreneurship, he sat back on his chair, placed his guitar down, and looked at me with serious eyes:
“Nicole, don’t start a business because your parents or others told you so. It’s not an easy journey and it’s much harder than your full time job.”
“Well, why not?” I asked, and I truly wanted to start my entrepreneur journey not because of them anyway.
Then he gave a heart-to-heart conversation for 30 minutes, where he told me his journey of becoming an entrepreneur. To protect his privacy, here is the highlight he gave me:
- Do your research
- People will doubt and discourage you a lot, even when you show them your success
- Arrogance will be your downfall
- The people you work with can betray you
- Don’t quit your job yet until your side-hustle can exceed your wage, but be someone irreplaceable in the workplace
- Find a way to solve a problem, and the money will follow.
I bold that last one because it’s rarely been said. You can’t just blindly open a business without knowing what the market wants, and this is what most “entrepreneurs” and fake gurus would fail to tell you.
My teacher gave really honest, and genuine advice. It’s not to say that no one can be an entrepreneur, but it’s more about how well-prepared you are in this journey.
His final advice to me is,
“Don’t rush, learn to live. You can’t solve anything if you are rushing through life.”
That day, I went home from his guitar lesson learning more than just music.
Conclusion
Just because someone is an entrepreneur, doesn’t really mean he is really an entrepreneur who started everything from scratch.
But really, be careful who you get your advice from. Because most are just bragging about their business and talkers, but not doers.
Perhaps they may have a lot to say about managing people in the business, but I don’t see them talking about that much.
I used to take business advice from Donald Trump’s book about entrepreneurship, but after seeing that his business was from his parents, I decided to just take his management lessons from the stories he shared.
All in all, be careful who you take advice from. Find the doers, not the talkers.
