Comments on: Seven reasons why you shouldn’t start your own business

By: The Investor

The Investor — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:57:01 +0000

@Mohammed — Thanks for taking the time to comment. By all means go off and read only positive stories about how anyone can succeed in business “if only they really try!”

Then ask yourself why not every entrepreneur is successful – in fact, why 80% of new businesses fail.

I have nothing against starting your own business. I am doing it myself, again. But go in with your eyes open.

The post I have written above would have been much more valuable to me had I read it a few years ago then yet another “man up” style booster piece. It makes you aware of some *true* hurdles that lots of pundits (many of whom appear to have never actually started a business, but like to tell people how to do it) choose to ignore.

Hopefully some other readers will feel the same, though unfortunately I think you have to live it to experience it.

By: Mohammed Basheer

Mohammed Basheer — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:02:23 +0000

You are a person with negative attitude, any how thanks

By: Been There Done That

Been There Done That — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:31:11 +0000

Been There Done That, and of your points applied to me. 1-7.
Just sharing.
Great article.

By: Start-ups and failure « Euroside

Start-ups and failure « Euroside — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:30:33 +0000

[...] just cam across this post about why not to start a business. I found myself nodding in [...]

By: What’s gone wrong with work – 2 « Simple Living in Suffolk

What’s gone wrong with work – 2 « Simple Living in Suffolk — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:08:32 +0000

[...] the not economically active adults of working age. Monevator comes across as a bright and above all, highly entrepreneurial chap and is probably drowning in opportunities, but I’m not sure that experience is so widespread. [...]

By: The Investor

The Investor — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:00:22 +0000

Thanks for your comments Martin.

I agree with your last point. I don’t say “if you like cooking, don’t become a chef”. I say “if you like cooking, don’t open a restaurant”. A restaurant is a business…and as you say requires someone who wants to be in business, not somebody who wants to make a nice meal.

Regarding your first point, we’ll have to disagree. I have seen lots of smart business-minded people run failed companies over the past 20 years. I don’t know what your profession is, but if you’ve not been closely involved in business you can get misled by ‘survivorship bias’.

In other words, you see the successful companies run by business-minded people and you can think ‘I need to be business-minded to succeed’. Well, you probably do, but it’s not enough – starting and running a successful business is also down to unpredictable things like luck, personal capacity for pain, sacrifice, and much more.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:15:31 +0000

There is an extremely high failure rate in start-up businesses – but that’s not because its extremely hard to succeed, its because it’s extremely hard to succeed if you’re not very good at business.

Followed by all the other reasons “not to go into business” all of which only apply to someone who is failing as a result of there poor business skills.

You say “if you like cooking don’t become a chef” etc. But true business people don’t follow there one dream of cooking/writing code/writing articles, they follow there dream of wanting to succeed and wanting to make money.

By: Kevin@InvestItWisely

Kevin@InvestItWisely — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:23:06 +0000

I was struggling with this at some point last year, and I eventually decided that the risks were too great in comparison to the rewards. I now lean toward simply passive income, investing wisely, and getting out of the rat race. Far more achievable, and, once I do them, I have a luxury of failing that I simply cannot afford now. Great post! .-= Kevin@InvestItWisely on: Precious Metals Are on Fire! =-.

By: Karl

Karl — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:30:52 +0000

Oh how right you are, Monevator.
Every start-up book, MBA module and blog should show the power law distribution curve of failure rates, instead of the misjudgements from survivorship bias you mention and availability misweighing bias of focussing on the 1 in 1000 successes.
But where’s the money in a professor starting the MBA entrpreneurship module with “over 90% of you will fail to launch a successful business”?

Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com secured capital from his parents in part by a little lie, saying he had a 70% chance of failing within a few years… he didn’t want to say the truth that it’s 90%+.

Solid franchies, local hairdressers or fish and chip shops have a higher success rate.
But the overconfidence of the average wannabe entrepreneur will ensure they plough all their capital into a hair-brain million dollar mousetrap idea. Capitalism is red in tooth and claw.

By: J Jones

J Jones — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:14:57 +0000

Great read! Love your writing style, a motivational and de-motivating post at the same . So many points are true. I’m still going for it though!

By: Warthog

Warthog — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:58:24 +0000

There’s only one loser reading on this page and it isn’t The Monevator Warren. Did you even read the essay? You could learn from it. I came here from Neil Patel’s site quicksprout where he wrote a very similar article:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/07/28/thinking-about-starting-a-business-here-is-why-you-shouldn%E2%80%99t/

(The Monevator is in the comments).

Neil Patel has made tens of millions btw Warren. Listen and LEARN.

Nobody is saying don’t ever do a business. These guys are saying: know what will happen, and be prepared for it, and don’t do it if you can’t/aren’t.

By: The Investor

The Investor — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:00:49 +0000

Good luck with your business Warren. I hope you don’t feel the need to insult anyone else on your journey; in my experience such things come back to bite you.

Then again, perhaps you’re in the hip hop game or similar?

Also, writing succeed in capital letters doesn’t guarantee success, just as an FYI.

Hope you learned something from the piece regardless.