The reluctant entrepreneur
One of my objectives in going to business school was to figure out if I wanted to go down the startup path. I took my part in hack-a-thons, meetups, and entrepreneurship classes and talks. Heck, a friend and I even had brainstorming sessions where we would try and come up with startup ideas. I quickly realized that I had no interest in being an entrepreneur.
In a twist of fate, I ended up in a world where I met and supported entrepreneurs for the last 7 years. Through that process, I’ve found there were predominantly two types of entrepreneurs: the overzealous entrepreneur and the reluctant entrepreneur.
The overzealous entrepreneur wants to be an entrepreneur for the sake of being an entrepreneur. It may be the trappings of money, fame, power, autonomy. The promises of riches and importance. The promise of changing the world. They approach the startup space the same way I did – in search of the idea that fulfills the promise of entrepreneurship. When you have this approach to entrepreneurship, the idea of pivoting makes a lot of sense. You’re in the game for the sake of the game itself – if you need to pivot to survive, anything’s better than leaving the game.
The reluctant entrepreneur, on the other hand, has never had a desire to be an entrepreneur. They may never even have heard of the word. They have something they feel needs to be provided and they can’t find it. They create the product or service because no one else has done it, not because they were desperate to start their own business. It’s the school owner who started a school because they couldn’t find a school they were satisfied with for their child. It’s the engineer who has to tinker because they see a lack of hands-on science learning throughout the school system.
I have no idea which type of entrepreneur is more likely to be successful, but I do know which one I feel a deeper affinity and connection towards.
I remember one day I was on the terrace of a fancy hotel in India meeting an entrepreneur. It was not an easy conversation as I was telling him we would not be the source of financing that he so desperately needed. The conversation went about as well as it could have, and we spent some time reflecting on his journey afterward. I’ll never forget how he described his experience…
You know, I thought the JEE would be the hardest thing in my life…
(Quick aside, the JEE is one of the world’s most competitive exams. It is the all-India engineering entrance exam where your score is the totality of your application. Over 1.2m students each year take the exam for 10,000 spots at the elite IIT engineering colleges of India. Students spend years with private tutors and expensive services to prepare for the exam. The world’s most valuable ed-tech company, BYJU’s, started as a service to help prepare for this exam. Back to the story.)
I was from a rural town. I went to a Hindi-medium school. I wasn’t rich. There’s no way I should have ever qualified. Once I did, I was sure that would be the hardest thing I ever did. But entrepreneurship is way harder. At least for the JEE, it depended on me. I had to work harder than I ever thought possible, but the result was in my hands. Here, I still work just as hard, but it feels like it depends on everything but me. Schools. Investors. Employees. Yet everyone looks to me for the answers.
I have found this type of introspection and self-reflection to be a hallmark of reluctant entrepreneurs. It may not make them more successful, but it makes them more relatable. This may not reflect the sexy side of entrepreneurship, but it reflects the side that’s worthy of our admiration.
I sometimes look at the entrepreneurial journey with skepticism. Most of the time, you see only the “Instagram” side of entrepreneurship. Successful fundraising rounds or exits. Serial entrepreneurs bouncing from one ‘great’ venture right on to the next. The overzealous entrepreneurs are careful to only show this positive side because it fuels their continued existence in the space. Behind this façade, it’s conversations like this with the reluctant entrepreneurs that remind me of the work that goes into building a startup. Most importantly, it reminds me why being a source of capital is not a responsibility to be taken lightly.