Entrepreneurship is a Lifestyle

At the AMA yesterday with the RemoteIndian community, I was asked why I left my job at a unicorn (Unacademy) and instead started building a micro-SaaS.

My answer triggered me to write about it.

A lot of people quit their jobs to start a business for numerous reasons. There’s good reasons and there’s others.

Other reasons

• You don’t like your job or boss
• You want to be “your own boss”
• You want to “work less” like how Tim Ferris describes the 4-hour workweek
• You want to get rich

Good reasons

• You want a life where you are completely in charge of your decisions and you are 100% responsible for the outcomes. You can’t blame your boss, your co-worker, a poor office culture or any other reasons but yourself.

I choose entrepreneurship as my path for this reason. I couldn’t fathom another way of life in the long run.

Here’s what you’re signing up for when you choose this lifestyle.

1. There are no rules

Our reality is a construct that operates under countless “rules”. For example, Friday nights are meant for partying and getting wasted.

There’s no 9-5 work hours.

There’s no “this is what’s supposed to happen”.

Forget all these rules. Pack them up and throw them all out a window.

Friday nights are when you might be supporting your customers as they are in-turn serving their customers the most on those nights.

You work during the hours that suit you best, ideally when your customers are asleep. You might start at 5pm and go on till 2am.

Your weekly holiday day might be Tuesday instead of Sunday. And it’s unlikely that your office-going friends would be available to grab a beer that day.

Get comfortable forgetting the rules under which you operated, and make new ones that give your life order in this chaos.

2. Total accountability

Everything that happens with my business is my responsibility. Whether it makes a million dollars, or it fails completely. It’s on me (and co-founders, if you have them).

3. Work and Life separation into one

Work and life blend into one. You can create boundaries, as you should for your physical and mental health, but as a co-founder or founder, you are likely to field customer inquiries even on a Sunday, or give customer demos at midnight (as I’ve had to do with DelightChat, which has brands signing up from all over the world).

4. You may or may not strike riches

There are many, many ways to get rich in this world. Entrepreneurship is one of them, but by no means is richness guaranteed.

You’ll see friends getting promotions, buying cars and whatnot, which would make it difficult. Meanwhile, it’s possible that you’re still barely paying your monthly expenses several years in. And you have to be prepared for that possibility.

5. Playing the long game

When I embarked on this journey, I had decided that to give this at least 4 years before I could say that I failed.

After all, I spent 4 years in college. The least I could do was give my highest pursuit in life, entrepreneurship, the same amount of time before I could pass a verdict or give up.

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