When I returned home after my freshman year of college and told my father, a career Air Force man, my plans, he barely looked up from the morning paper before he said, "That's great, Beth. I had no idea you weren't afraid to eat bugs, live in abject poverty and not shower for a whole year."
Envy entrepreneurs? Consider this
Beth Zacharias
How many times have you decided the best salve for a bad office day would be to go out on your own?
Have you ever been so mad at your boss that you decided you'd be better off working for yourself?
Fancy yourself a consultant?
Maybe you'll steal all your clients and go off and start a business that way?
These are harmless fantasies, but before you file your incorporation papers, perhaps a dose of reality is in order.
Are you ready to eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner? Are you ready to lose sleep wondering where your next paycheck is coming from?
Are you ready to learn the hard way that some people don't pay their bills?
I have no experience with entrepreneurship beyond trying to sell Girl Scout cookies as child. When it comes to leaps of faith on this order of magnitude, you can define me in one word: chicken.
The closest I ever came to that kind of self-reliance was a flirtation with joining the Peace Corps. When I returned home after my freshman year of college and told my father, a career Air Force man, my plans, he barely looked up from the morning paper before he said, "That's great, Beth. I had no idea you weren't afraid to eat bugs, live in abject poverty and not shower for a whole year."
That cured me. When I graduated, I got a job, ate regular food, lived in after-college poverty and showered every day.
That job led to this job, and at both and every one in between, I've had a front-row seat in the theater of entrepreneurship. It's much like the Peace Corps - not for the faint-of-heart.
It's often born out of adversity. A company closes. A job ends. The boss from hell finally wins.
Its survival, though, depends on grit, timing, luck and a whole bunch of courage.
© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
