Entrepreneurship is a Sport

There seems to be this universally accepted opinion that entrepreneurship is something special. A mission, a crusade with sacrifices. And together with that goes the whole martyrology and glorification of the efforts, the risks, the commitments: The Hard Thing About Hard Things.

As a person which can be considered an entrepreneur, I strongly disagree with all that.

Entrepreneurship is a sport, a competition. Some win, some lose. And as with every sport you need to have predispositions for a certain discipline. And then you need to work hard. Just because you decided to compete, and if you don't work hard enough, there will be others working harder and outcompeting you.

As every sport, it involves a certain lifestyle, generates a lot of sweat with the rewards of becoming a glorified celebrity, the financial gratification - and - important and motivating in many cases - the adrenaline while competing and the dopamine when achieving the results.

So please don't mix this with martyrology or heroism.

A nurse or a teacher are way more heroic than any entrepreneur. No to mention front-line soldiers (but not the 'active military personel" not directly involved in a life-threatening fight). But a nurse never gets that social status upgrade entrepreneurs do.

The entrepreneurial lifestyle also consciously rejects the concept of work / life balance, which in itself (from a entrepreneurial perspective) is flawed. If you want to compete, consider a sense-of-life / fun balance instead, which in my view offers a much better overall mental health and quality of life.

Entrepreneurs are typically driven by the desire to be rich and famous. And by the promise of living a stand-out lifestyle of fancy private jets and being glorified for their achievements. Very few reach that level (many even don't want to), but being a special category is what motivates many. Even think of the etymology of "business class" (the luxury cabin on commercial aircraft). Sitting there, you aspire to belonging to the successful upper elite.

In the end there is really no hard thing and no hard things about entrepreneurship. Nobody is sentenced to do this, it is all by choice. If you like it - just do it. And don't, if you don't like this kind of life. And be prepared to embrace the failure. Bankruptcy of a company should not ruin your life (that is probably easier said than done). 

To me personally, entrepreneurship is mostly about freedom, with all the consequences of the decisions made and full acceptance of the responsibilities. You make your unforced moves, making your unforced errors, and with that you basically should refrain from complaining about the headwinds, the difficulties, the hard things. Don't be a victim. A failure is always an option and you should not complain about it. It was your decision to enter this game.

These are all games and it is everyone's choice to participate or not.