How success can kill entrepreneurship – in 7 days

Day 1. You start. High risk. Nothing to lose. Give it all. Live on the edge…creativity abounds. Figure out how to make it work with few if any, resources.

Day 2. Like the “Little train that could”…you think you can, you know you can…it seems to be working…keep going…still risky, still scary…still alive…

Day 3. Hah…success…staff to pay, service to deliver, products to make. Money rolls in.

Day 4. More success. Bigger house. Bigger bills to pay. Status goes up.

Day 5. Creativity goes down. It feels like there is too much to lose. Now the story is loss aversion. Safe. Secure. Your identity has become the business success.

Day 6. You find yourself awake at 2.23AM….living your comfortable, safe, secure life. But that wonderful creativity, the raw entrepreneurial spirit…it is gone. So is that part of you whose identity was for the love of the creative? And at 2.23AM, you know it.

Day 7. Ah…that is the question…what do you do now that you know?

Photo credit: Kevin T. Houle via Compfight