Skip to main content
SFU Health and Counselling Services
Registered Clinical Counsellor

A man and a woman in a business suit are smiling while facing the front.
I have a lot of admiration for those who are able to strike out on their own and be successful, and I think everyone can identify to some degree with the feeling of being attracted to the freedom that having a business can bring.

Everyone’s had a business idea at some point in their lives.

For most people, including me, they’re just passing fancies – momentary visions of grandiosity that persist for a few moments before reality comes crashing back in.  Yes, I’ve had my share of these.  Allow me to indulge you for a moment with one of my, er… entrepreneurial ideas.

Silent chip bags.

Have you ever been to a movie, either in a theatre or a friend’s house, and someone there is eating chips out of the crinkliest, noisiest foil bag ever? The silent chip bag eliminates this major annoyance without anyone having to cause a scene.  Thank me later.

I’ve been thinking about entrepreneurship a lot lately, because I had the responsibility recently of organizing and hosting a panel event at Career Services called “Starting Your Own Business.”  Not surprisingly, this involved rounding up a group of speakers who had something of value to say about the process of starting a business – mostly entrepreneurs themselves.

The event itself was yesterday, and I can say without hesitation that it went quite well.  The speakers were charismatic, insightful, and a pleasure to listen to.  The students in attendance were engaged, and asked lots of great questions.  In the end, I’m sure that everyone went away happy that they knew more about starting a business than they did before, and that’s all I could really have asked for.

I’d like to share a few of the more entertaining messages that stood out to me during the event regarding entrepreneurship.  We’ll call them my 5 nuggets of wisdom.

1. Entrepreneurs are Pig-Headed.

One of our speakers was a consultant who works with business owners to grow their business, and she said the above in reference to the streak of independence that most entrepreneurs seem to have.  They want things done a certain way.  They want to do it themselves.  They are very often unwilling to delegate important tasks to others.  This is both a strength and a weakness, as it’s this quality that drives them to strike out on their own in the first place, but can quickly stretch them thin and often to the breaking point unless they learn how to trust others with aspects of their business.

2. Starting a Business is like Getting Married.

A marriages isn’t a 9 to 5 proposition, and neither is your business.  Both require you to always be “on,” and are going to cost you a lot of money to get started.  Both can transform your life, for good and for bad, and will evolve over time into something different.  Both require you to establish a balance between the time you put into it and the time you devote to being by yourself.  Half of marriages are believed to end in divorce.  Half of new business are believed to fail within 5 years.

3. Plan to Fail

More than one speaker addressed this point.  You need an exit strategy in the event that things go south, particularly if you are in business with a partner or a group of people.  One particularly poignant example is starting a business whose name is the same as your name.  What do you do when you want to sell the business?  It’s not like you can sell your name – that’s not exactly transferable.  When you’re starting out, make sure you outline not only what you’ll do if things go well, but also what you’ll do if they don’t.

4. Everyone Dreams of Doing Something Great. Entrepreneurs Stay Awake and Do it.

I think this speaks to an underlying theme that applies to a much larger context than starting a business.  That theme is that taking action is the key to all forward movement, that passivity breeds complacence and stagnation.  While doing nothing will always result in nothing, doing something will usually result in something.  With action comes an element of risk, and it may be that successful entrepreneurs have more of a penchant for risk-taking.

5. Embrace Uncertainty, or Else.

Here’s another message that ties in to some of the bigger-picture thinking we do here at Career Services regarding career development in general.  One speaker, a counsellor who developed a successful private practice right out of her Master’s degree, and regularly facilitates workshops on starting a successful private practice, told of how her path sort of folded out before her, and that she hadn’t planned on any of it.  The path of an entrepreneur is arguably more fraught with uncertainty than any other career path – there is always an element of the unknown, regardless of how many factors you try to bring under your control.  Staying open to new, unexpected opportunities and to changing directions could very well be the reason your business survives.

I have a lot of admiration for those who are able to strike out on their own and be successful, and I think everyone can identify to some degree with the feeling of being attracted to the freedom that having a business can bring.  Though I can say with certainty that I’m not at a stage in my life where I feel ready to take that kind of a step, who knows what the future may bring?

Beyond the Blog

SFU Health and Counselling Services
Registered Clinical Counsellor
David Lindskoog is a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Health & Counselling who used to work as a Career Advisor with Career Services. David is passionate about suicide prevention, social justice, career and professional development concerns, and the use of role-playing games in therapy. Check out his group: Dungeons & Worry Dragons. While you're here, check out Dave's Diary! It is an ongoing series of journal entries touching on various aspects related to careers and well-being. Want to hear Dave's thoughts on a particular topic?  Send him an email, and he'll do his best to include it in his next post!  
visibility  97
Apr 1, 2011

You Might Like These... Volunteering, Leadership, Professional Development, Personal Development

Students from an orientation session
Student Profile: Pamela Santos on becoming an Orientation Leader

When I first met Pamela Santos at this year’s Leadership Summit, I was immediately drawn to her enthusiasm. Pamela, who is currently a third-year Business and Criminology student, introduced herself to me in an icebreaker game at the summit.

Photo of 8 men stacked in triangular pyramid formation, standing on each others shoulders
Team Work Works: The Story Behind the Photo

Karan Durairajan may be new to SFU, but that didn’t stop him from entering the 2008 WIL Photo Contest under the brand new entry category, Community Engagement. Read the story behind the photo.

Two women are talking to each other while each holding a book. They are smiling at each other.
Why Be a Career Peer Educator?

Do you want to hear directly from Career Peers about their thoughts on volunteering as a Career Peer? This article showcases reflections from Career Peers on their experience. 

You Might Like These... Leadership

Diary of a Marketing Co-op: How to be Assertive
How to be Assertive

This entry of Diary of a Marketing Co-op asks how you can balance a level of assertiveness necessary to get your job done, without steamrolling everyone around you.

Ali Najaf posing with BC mountains in background
British Columbia and International Students

Coming to a new country thousands of miles from where you grew up and from everything you know is no easy journey. In this award-winning story, SFU Business student Ali Najaf reflects on the past four years since arriving in Canada from Pakistan in 2012, sharing both his challenges and truimphs.