The road to entrepreneurship

Prerna Gupta provides a textbook case for why people choose to be entrepreneurs. Unsatisfied in spite of her high-paying, high-perk consulting job? Check. Bored selling something that didn't excite her for another (VC) company? Check. Hated working in a 'conventional structure'? Disliked having a boss? Miserable sitting in an office working on 'someone else's creation'? Check, check, check.

So she did the logical thing: started a tech company with her boyfriend (now husband). Prerna is well aware that success is not guaranteed, yet the risk of failure is not enough to send her back to a safe job working for someone else. She has realized that even the most routine work is more meaningful when it is towards her passion (her startup) and being an entrepreneur has significantly improved her outlook on life.

So should everyone who's unhappy with long hours or selling things they don't care about bail and start a company? Of course not. Most people would be happy to find work they care about, even if it is working for someone else. After all, few entrepreneurs can go at it on their own - they need to build a team that can get passionate about their idea and there are plenty of people who'd bring entrepreneurial gusto to someone else's startup. But when many aspects of your work seem at odds with what you want from your work life, it is clear that you should stop and assess what you should be doing as Prerna did. Clearly Prerna had some advantages that smoothed her road to entrepreneurship: a Stanford degree and being surrounded by the startup culture in Silicon Valley that almost pushes smart young people into starting companies. Another advantage is that she obviously has the ability to face potential financial failure with some equanimity too. Most would-be entrepreneurs may not be so lucky, yet, paradoxically, someone who embarks on a venture even without these advantages may be the true entrepreneur for taking the road, potholes, speedbumps and all.

You can read about Prerna here - it's a good read for all entrepreneurs and entrepreneur-hopefuls too.