27 Sep 5 Signs You May Not Be an Entrepreneur

So many people dream of starting their own business. Slaving away in a miserable job with miserable bosses and miserable hours and being mistreated, underpaid and unappreciated fuels those thoughts. But entrepreneurship is not for everyone who is just sick of being employed. Here are five signs the excitement of building a business just may not be for you:

1. You lack the big dream. If you say well, I can start a business in my industry and see what happens, then doing so may be a bad idea. The most successful entrepreneurs are always dreaming big, coming up with either innovations or innovative ways to sell things, and reaching for the stars. And they have a detailed short and long term plan.

2. You have a fear of risk. You turned down a job at a smaller company since you were worried it might not succeed. If that’s true, then starting your own business is probably not a good idea. The greatest success comes to those who risk the most, throw off the safety net, mortgage their entire lives (ideally within reason) and go for it.

3. You have a highly skeptical spouse/partner. One of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs burn out too soon is the lack of spousal and family support. If you will come home to that serious worried look every day and there will be tremendous pressure to perform and succeed, think seriously about whether you should proceed.

4. You are not particularly driven or obsessive. For good or bad, the greatest successes tend to come to those who commit everything to it. I caution about the importance of finding balance, which is doable during the marathon of building a business, but without unyielding passion, you are much less likely to grab that brass ring. But be careful: true workaholism also can be problematic.

5. You micromanage people. If you cannot develop skills to delegate and focus your energies on strategy, key hires and problems that arise, it will be much more difficult to build your business. A healthy skepticism of your team’s capabilities is fine, but if you cannot mostly leave them to do their thing then the long-term health of the business and its direction will likely suffer.