By Zain HD

MANY people I know do not actually have a clear idea of what they did in the past that had gotten them to where they are today. I was asked recently to speak to Monash University students on entrepreneurship. Until that point, I was not actually conscious of being an entrepreneur, nor was I aware of how I got “there” in the first place.

In 1995, my father brought home football magazines from an overseas trip, which I photocopied (without legal consent, of course) and sold to my friends at school. That’s a “pirate”, not entrepreneur right?

Years later, I was a performer, getting paid as a rapper and moving with it business-wise such as booking shows and recording with other people. After awhile, when it was not as fun anymore, I left. But that too is being a musician right? Not an entrepreneur I think.

Today, I run a startup company, a business that thinks of, sells and executes ideas. If I have no clients to do business with, there’d be no money. The excitement is fascinating but the risk does make me lose sleep sometimes.

“A person who organises and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.” That was how my laptop dictionary defined entrepreneurship.

So I suppose yes, I’m an entrepreneur although I’m not too sure how I got here. I sure didn’t make any plans, or a conscious choice to be an entrepreneur. I just did what I felt like doing, but let’s set a few things straight.

I don’t mean to discourage anyone but I feel from what little I know so far, certain things about entrepreneurship must be made clear.

First of all, not all entrepreneurs are successful. It’s not always like the stories we hear, where it’s glittered with positive words, romantic elements, big money and at most a difficult beginning. We know this is not true but not many people are that consciously aware of it. For some people the risk they have to take is immense, and when the flowers don’t bloom as they’d hope, the pretty garden they planned for their life can fall apart horribly.

Besides that, there are some who choose entrepreneurship as a way out of something they were unhappy about and not because they wanted it or because they had the characteristics of being one. To illustrate, if you don’t like rock music, that doesn’t mean you might not like another genre.

There are also some people who choose entrepreneurship for the supposed “cool” factor. Your career is also your livelihood and there’s nothing cool about not having enough money to make a living or paying the salary of the people who work for you. It’s a very serious circumstance to be in.

Finally, there’s often a tendency to be inspired when reading the journey of an entrepreneur, but don’t let that devalue your perception of other professions out there.

There are many people out there who hold on to their conventional job while being involved in a business venture.
My company actually started out as a side business while I had a full-time job that eventually didn’t work out for me. At first, the company didn’t work out either, but many lessons learned during my job helped me start the business and subsequently, continue to grow it.

It’s not just about me, myself and I. Apart from the experiences I got at my old job, I also had a business partner who helped make the work smoother by bringing in lessons he learned from his previous work.

On top of that, a supportive staff also made things easier.

So, should you consider going down this path of entrepreneurship, do take into account all the little things you’ve learned along the way. At the end of the day, whatever you choose, make the best out of it.

* Zain runs Random Alphabets (randomalphabets.com), and tweets at @ZainHD.