You should probably read this …
Nigeria is currently undergoing a startup revolution. So it comes as no surprise that there appears to be a rise in the number of young people looking to give up the 9-5 life. But how many of them actually take the time to think it through before taking the plunge?
The following is an extract from a Q&A thread on Quora, highlighting the original question and the most upvoted answer.
Someone asked a question under Entrepreneurship in Quora:
Should I take the entrepreneurship plunge now?
Forgive me for the long question but I’ve been struggling with this decision for quite a while now. I’m currently an (almost) happily employed software developer. Good paycheck, high exposure projects (within my region), responsible for a development division, fast career growth, I work in a medium sized business and between me and the CEO we have a mentorship based relationship.
Day by day, I feel like everything is part of a “job”. The passion and motivation are non existent, and if they do exist, they come in bursts and they don’t span over long periods of time.
I have multiple business ideas, and I know I can make it on my own if I go solo. I’m intrigued by the risks and the freedom, I want to work on the realization of my ideas products.
The problem lies here, I’ve invested so much in my career, I’ve grown so fast, there’s still a lot to learn, there’s still a lot of challenges to solve and there’s a lot of opportunities… But I want my freedom.
If it’s relevant, I’m a high achiever in my early twenties with no savings that can sustain me during the unemployment phase.
Any advice?
Jason M. Lekin, CEO/Co-Founder at EchoSign (which was acquired by Adobe) responds:
No,
you absolutely should not start something unless it’s 100.0000% clear to you this is absolutely the best thing in the world to do, for you.
TechCrunch, YCombinator, The Social Network, and all that have over-glamorized entrepreneurship:
- First, your start-up will almost certainly fail, and while that’s OK, you won’t really get any credit for it. No one cares about your failed start-up that got no traction and that no one ever heard of. They won’t judge you. But they won’t care.
