Does entrepreneurship change people for the better?

I don’t know how to answer that but I know that being an entrepreneur has done a couple of things for me; given me confidence, challenged me at every single corner, made me look at my reflection in the mirror more than once, ensured that I have more sleepless nights than I care to remember and has given me moments of excitement that I have not experienced elsewhere.

If I was to look a bit deeper, I am sure that there are moments when my friends had wished that I went back to the old me. The one that was a little shyer, more hesitant, travelled less and didn’t lose sight of what’s important in life and that is family and friends.

As I have mentioned before, I have missed weddings, funerals and special occasions of friends and family on more occasions than I remember. I am not proud of this and its only when I look back that I really regret the fact that I have put a business meeting or deadline as a higher priority than what is really important.

In the story, the writer comments on “Entrepreneurship frequently evokes profound psychic responses: Elation and depression can succeed each other so rapidly as to induce emotional whiplash”.

I definitely experienced that more than once. Gosh, is this story really about me?

Fortunately, it is not but there are some areas I can easily identify with.

If I look around myself and think of some of my friends who have become entrepreneurs, there are many pros and cons.

Pros:

– Shared experiences
– Celebration of successes
– Wealth creation
– Openness to new experiences
– Moments of being proud of accomplishments
– Learning about people and employees
– Openness to innovation and creation
– Acquisition of knowledge and skills
– Moments of you being jealous of others accomplishments when you haven’t quite made it
– Winning at all levels
– Living and working in places that blow my mind

Cons:

–  Highs and lows of business
–  Long hours and often little reward
–  Crippling fear of the unknown
–  Slaps in the face 
–  Addiction to smart phones
–  The moments of losing sight of what really is important
–  Moments of other people being jealous of your accomplishments
–  Times when other people celebrate your disasters

Can you identify with any of this? What is your pros and cons as an entrepreneur?

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