If you’re like me, you may likely already follow Seth Godin’s work. If you don’t, you can find it here:https://seths.blog
On his top 100 blog list, he once wrote, "Entrepreneurship is not a job.” It was one of his shortest blog posts, and it thoroughly reads:
"You don’t apply. You don’t get a salary. No one picks you.
Bragging about how much money you’ve raised or what your valuation is a form of job thinking.
Entrepreneurship is a chance to trade a solution to someone who has a problem that needs solving.
Solve more problems, solve bigger problems, solve problems more widely and you’re an entrepreneur.
It’s tempting to industrialize this work, to make it something with rules and bosses and processes. But that’s not the heart of it.
The work is to solve problems in a way that you’re proud of." -SG
I mostly agree, sort of...
At the heart of what Seth is saying, I understand and agree (mostly). Entrepreneurship isn’t a job in the sense that you’re not working “for the man.” You’re not bound to the 9-5 like the rest of us. You’re your own boss! You call the shots. You decide what you want to focus on tomorrow.
But, as a father of a son who is an entrepreneur – I’d argue, “It’s the hardest job you’ll ever have.” I watch my son learning more as an entrepreneur than he ever did in a classroom. He’s reading books because he wants to learn and improve, not because he must write a nonsense paper nobody will ever read. He’s working late into the night trying to solve problems better than his competitors so he can win more business. He does this from the lonely cell of his apartment vs. the corporate office you and I get the pleasure of working in. We have coworkers, clients, prospects, salespeople, and others to interact with. He has a laptop, a bookshelf, and a whiteboard.
This blog post isn’t meant to make anyone feel bad for my son – on the contrary, in many ways, he’s living his best life. I wish I had the courage to try embarking on something entirely “my own” when I was his age. I didn’t (and I don’t today). Instead, I took a normal 9-5 job and worked as hard as I could to make a better life for myself and my family. But when Seth says, “Entrepreneurship is not a job”, I’m guessing he doesn’t have a child working countless hours in a dark, lonely room on solutions that haven’t been realized yet.
Entrepreneurship is more than a job...
Entrepreneurship is more than a job – it’s all-encompassing. It’s like becoming a parent. You’re on 24/7. You can’t take a vacation or walk away from your baby. You’re committed, and that takes real work. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and possibly the most rewarding – but make no mistake… it’s a job.
I invite readers to leave a comment. Tell me what you think.
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I would have to agree with your stance here. At the heart of most entrepreneurs is not just the "want" to work for themselves, but a distinct drive to create something they are passionate about and see it thrive.
One thing I often talk to others about when it comes to their passion projects, their business, or just life in general is the tradeoffs of Quality, Time, and Money. A simple Venn Diagram helps illustrate the point fairly well, but in essence you can have two of these things in a positive manner, but the third is generally effected in a negative way. This is something that all entrepreneurs should be aware of as they start their journey. It can…