The Biggest Myth Of Starting A Business

Starting a business will bring you more freedom.

You’ve seen it before. The yacht life enjoyed by millionaires in movies and Monaco. While that’s one extreme, maybe you’ve heard more relatable stories. The business owner who can take more time off for vacation. The business owner who can choose their working hours. The business owner who retires early.

I have bad news. It’s false advertising.

Starting a business doesn’t bring you more freedom, it brings you more options.

Options are not the same thing as freedom.

Little did we know the yacht-bound millionaire is being sued by his partner and is going through a divorce. The business owners on vacation in Mexico is relaxing by the resort pool, answering emails and taking calls. The business owner choosing their own working hours is working until 1am filing complicated business taxes…hooray for not being forced to start at 8am. Are you seeing the pattern?

Of course, I am using hyperbole to make these points…but the myth is important to debunk. It’s not freedom you get when you start a business, it’s options.

Now for some people, having options IS freedom, and I tend to agree with that. It is exhilarating having options when you start a business. It feels good, it feels like freedom when someone isn’t setting the rules. And yet my journey in entrepreneurship has led to seasons of me feeling like I was a prisoner to my business…held hostage by the very thing I wanted to set me free.

It’s a mistake to believe starting a business will bring you more freedom, because often it does the opposite. Before you play the game, it’s important to understand the rules.

When you start a business, you need to weigh the options.

When you start a business, don’t focus on freedom, focus on outcome. What type of outcome are you wanting? Early retirement? A business that runs itself? A team that runs your business for you? A large exit event (like a sale of the business?).

Outcome in this sense is a lot like outcome in a fitness journey. If losing weight is your desired outcome, then you need to decide the best course of action, because there are many, many ways to lose weight.

Assuming freedom will come from business is like assuming you get a six pack when you start running to lose weight. It CAN happen, but chances are it won’t.

In my experience, and in the experience of others I’ve talked to, there are 3 tips to prepare your mind for starting a business (or running one if you’ve already on the path):

Tip #1: Clarify an outcome. Outcomes can be very lofty (sell the business for 20 million) or very pragmatic (make sure I like showing up to work every Monday morning). Whatever the situation, clarify the outcome you’d like to reach.

Tip #2: Reverse engineer it. Once you have a desired outcome (or a few), work backwards from there to determine what it’ll take. The outcome of selling a business for 20 million in 5 years will require HUGELY different actions and sacrifices than an outcome of making every soccer game your kids are playing.

Choosing 1 might mean you can’t do the other…so it’s important to reverse engineer to get as accurate a picture you can of what the work will look like pursuing your desired outcome.

Tip #3: Talk about it. Accountability is important. It’s been so easy for me to share an outcome with my wife (I want to be more present for our 3 kids) and then get caught up — almost by accident — in the competitive, always-on, innovate or die rhythm of a fast growing startup…even when my desired outcome ISN’T massive growth or some big buyout.

Talking about your desired outcome with friends, family, and mentors can help because they should be the ones that call you out when you’re not doing what you said you’d do.

Remember, starting a business doesn’t bring freedom, it brings options…and you need to choose your options carefully or you might feel more trapped by your business than you did at your 9 to 5 job.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog