The hard truths of entrepreneurship

When my family and friends knew that I sold my house to start a company, they called me insane. But I knew my decision wasn’t crazy, but brave.

Starting your company is just like getting through the narrow gate. Many try but few succeed. The hardest part of it is jumping out of your comfort zone and taking your first step in this journey.

Five years ago, I was a member of the management board of JobsDB. Most of my work was assigning tasks to my subordinates. What I did in my office was reading newspapers and planning happy hours. To me, deciding to start my own company meant giving up my comfortable life. Many people would face a dilemma but I had no hesitation in reinvesting all my dividend from JobsDB to fund my own first startup. Even though my family put pressure on me and said I wasn’t fit for the career, I still insisted on my dream because I was passionate about craving challenges.

After starting up and being in the position of CEO, I have found out that entrepreneurship is far from what I had seen as a spectator in JobsDB. If my brain was a CPU, only 10 percent was used when I was an employee. However, it is overloaded everyday when I have become a founder of my own company. Starting a startup is not easy – we have to inevitably confront unexpected problems about creating a product, managing teams and operation every day.

It is no exaggeration to say that the gap between running a company and being an entrepreneur is like heaven and hell. As the CEO, I have a lot of responsibilities, even including cleaning toilets. Only at that time did I realize outsiders just look at the bright side of being a boss or a founder. When I was an employee in the old days, I used to complain about my boss as well. But when it comes to my turn to be a boss, I have understood how difficult to make some changes. As the saying goes, “it is easy to open a shop but hard to keep it open.” Startups come and go all the time. 80 to 90 percent would be gone in the first or second year. Only a few will survive for three years and let alone enduring for 5 years.

Since I have started my own company, I always admire my ex-bosses. They started from zero to one, taking the company through “valley of death”. I admire their courage and hope one day mine will make me a tougher and better entrepreneur.

Community manager’s note: The author is the founder of AppTask and Y-Combinator backed TeamNote. 

Lead image from photophilde.