The Myth of Entrepreneurship is a short, easy, and insightful book about the inherent risks of entrepreneurship. These days, it has become trendy to become an entrepreneur, to follow your passion, and there is no shortage of people promoting this idea- often for selfish reasons. But starting a business is risky, and it is worth understanding what you will be giving up before making the leap.
Starting your own business doesn’t only require time and money, but the right mindset, and the right timing.. Many people push themselves into entrepreneurship before they are ready, because exceptions to the rule exist and are highly publicized in popular culture.
Who doesn’t know about how Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to start what is today one of the biggest companies in the world? People hear about stories like this, and they think that they can be the next outlier, partly because their social media feed convinces them that it’s possible, and partly because they want to escape reality.
The truth is that entrepreneurship doesn’t just attract hard working geniuses, it attracts anyone who doesn’t like the idea of a boring, stable job.
There are common motivations for entrepreneurship. For example, ‘follow your passion’ has become a dogma – many people believe they cannot be happy without finding their passion, but being passionate will not guarantee either success or happiness.
Having these beliefs is also a symptom of our times, of being uniquely located, in a historical sense, in a culture of social media, where the messages that are most prevalent and accepted are not the most truthful, but the most tempting to believe.
If you are thinking about starting a business, this is a great book for you – it will help you learn to think better about the risks involved, and if you finally decide to take the leap, to do it well.