Entrepreneurship Is Easier When You Are Young

image: pinterest.co.uk

When I started UrBizEdge my initial goal was to replace my salary which was N135,000/month. It took me over a year to replace it. And what was worse was that I ended up spending my entire savings of about N600,000. There were many days I felt like I had just dug myself into a shit hole. And there were days I felt like the whole entrepreneurship stuff wasn't working for me -- that my personality, technical skills, horrible social skills and choice of business were altogether a disadvantage in my entrepreneurial pursuit.

Last month, I made about N300,000 from my online video training course without doing anything. A course I created when I had too much time in 2014 and never imagined it would make me that much passively. I also charge up to N100,000/day as a hired facilitator (just to show up and teach). And we charge between N60,000 to N100,000 per participant for our training classes. On average (spreading the revenue from Jan -- Dec), the business pulls in over a million naira per month. There has been a month we earned over 3 million naira. Yes, there are expenses too. And I get a lot of rest on my bad months, which can be a good thing too. 

Why am I saying all these? I believe more in saying reality than saying high sounding abstracted motivational/philosophical words.

If I was already earning a million naira in my last full-time job, I don't think I would have taken the bold step into entrepreneurship. And even if I was fired and forced to embrace entrepreneurship, I don't think I would have survived emotionally nor pour myself fully into the creation of the online course and other materials than now earn me good money passively. I would have had the goal of matching that one million naira salary and, sincerely, I never believed nor knew any Nigerian making that much from just Microsoft Excel. So I would not have felt motivated enough to carry on and my high expectations would have killed the entrepreneurial drive or made the journey much more difficult for me.

There is a deep beauty in having very small expectations and the ability to feel happy/rich with little. That ability degrades fast with age. The older (and worse, richer) you are, the less possible it would be for you to endure the hardship of entrepreneurship. And much worse, if you have a family to support.

That's my explanation for why I think entrepreneurship is easier when you are young. If you have any entrepreneurial dream, don't wait for when you are older and richer 'cos that would be the very reason you won't want to make the entrepreneurial leap.