I would never ask anyone to become an entrepreneur. It’s a role that suits me, but most people would not be comfortable with the amount of work, risk and responsibility you have to bear.
Many people have an idealized view of what it means to be an entrepreneur; they think you make a lot of money and have a lovely life.
In reality, most of us risk everything on the business: our house and savings and even the quality of our lives. If something goes wrong, we either fix the problem or lose everything. If business declines, we might not take home any money this month or year.
In every entrepreneurial company, from time to time an employee steps forward and says s/he wants to become part of the ownership team. I’ve never figured out the right way to explain what they should expect if I agree to include them, but it goes something like this:
1.) You’ll need to risk some of your own money.
2.) You’ll need to take specific actions to increase the company’s growth and profitability.
3.) You’ll need to act like an owner, figuring out what needs to be done and doing it on your own.
4.) Even if you do everything right and work incredibly hard, we might still not succeed. If this is the case, you could be worse off than you were when you were “just” an employee.
Like I said, I would never ask anyone to be an entrepreneur.
