5 Real Reasons Why People Become Entrepreneurs

5 Reasons Why People Become Entrepreneurs

The latest recorded statistics indicate that there are almost 600 million entrepreneurs worldwide.

I used to think that entrepreneurs are far and few between.

I used to believe that not many people take up the unconventional path and decide to go their own way.

I had thought that people with big dreams and a strong desire to change the world were limited.

Every entrepreneur becomes an entrepreneur for a specific reason.

No one ever wakes up and thinks "I want to be an entrepreneur, let's go!"

When I first started, I just wanted an alternative path to what was available to me.

I had finished sixth-form (year 13) earlier than usual due to the pandemic and I had some extra time to really think about where I was heading.

I knew that university was the last thing I ever wanted to do.

Apprenticeship seemed like the safest bet - go and get an education whilst also working a corporate job simultaneously.

We had a few people from our school who went to get an apprenticeship and told us they loved it.

I saw them earning money right after school whilst everyone else went into debt and I thought 'that's exactly what I want!'

After signing up for many apprenticeships, even getting through the first few stages of some, I slowly realised that this corporate world might not be for me.

On top of that, the pandemic was forcing these companies to close their doors and so it wasn't long after till I got the bad news.

8/10 (roughly) apprenticeships I signed up to ended up cutting me off because they had no resources to make new hires.

There I was, straight out of school, with nowhere to go - "had I just wasted the past 13+ years of my life?"

I had to think of something to do, I had to make something work.

That's where entrepreneurship came in, it was my shooting star and I grasped it as fast as I could.

Every entrepreneur has their own story, their own path, and their own reasons.

So why do people become entrepreneurs?

Here are 5 real reasons why.

A triggering event

Every person has a triggering event that leads up to them becoming an entrepreneur.

In the comics and in the movies, superheroes become heroes because they also had a triggering event.

Maybe they got bullied in school and wanted to change something.

Maybe they lost someone close to them and didn't want it to happen again.

Or maybe, they saw something evil and wanted to stop it forever.

All these reasons are different, yet they lead to the same result - a hero.

Entrepreneurs are exactly the same.

When I became an entrepreneur, I felt like it was the only thing I had left for me.

Since going to university was the last thing I ever saw myself doing, apprenticeships all closed off, I had no other choice.

My hand was forced, and I needed to find something as soon as possible, or else I'll be lost.

I never expected my life to be like this.

I never expected I'd take this path.

I thought that I would just coast through school, go to university and do something involving money, banking, and finance.

See, not everyone is an 'entrepreneur' when they come out of the womb.

Not everyone is selling candy bars in school and becoming the neighborhood's richest kid.

Not everyone gets the itch early on.

Some people don't get the itch till they're 40 or even 50 years old.

In fact, some don't even get it until they're 65.

Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, was 65 when he started KFC.

His whole life, he felt like he was on a cold, unlucky streak.

He found no peace in his marriage, his family life, his work-life until he realised his hidden talent - making really good chicken.

For the next 25 years, he worked on building KFC and would probably be happy to know that it's one of the largest fast-food restaurants in the world, today.

Some common triggering events are:

• It becomes your only choice
• A strong urge or pain
• Wanting to make a difference
• Creative

What is your triggering event? Do you know?

Tell everybody in the comments section!

Big dreams & goals

Another reason why many people make the leap from mediocrity to entrepreneur is that they have dreams and goals that others don't understand.

When I began my journey, I never thought my goals would reach the size they are today.

All I ever wanted was something that would make an income where I could live a life that doesn't involve working.

After I began my Shopify eCommerce store, my goals quickly grew to a six-figure income.

If only I could have a six-figure income, there's nothing I couldn't do!

I started to read books and stumbled across 'The 10X Rule,' by Grant Cardone.

No matter your opinions on Grant Cardone, you must admire his passion and energy for business and success.

Not everyone can do what he does.

His book taught me that whatever you want, 10X it. You're thinking too small.

And so I did - my six-figure goal quickly climbed to 7-figures.

I've always been competitive.

No matter how hard I try, comparing myself to others is something I do.

Even though It's become a lot less impactful than before, my comparison has made me increase my goals drastically.

I would see people, not making 7-figures, but 8 or even 9 figures.

That's when I realised, it's not as hard as I've made it out to be.

With my massive goals of reaching 8/9 figures, I realised that nothing in the world can really get me there other than owning businesses.

When your goals and ambitions are huge, the only way to reach them might be to become an entrepreneur.

No job will ever make you millions unless you get lucky like Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google.

Less than 0.4% of people in America earn a 7-figure salary, I believe the stats to be much lower than this too.

Yes, you can retire a millionaire.

Yes, you can invest some of your income over 40+ years to become a millionaire.

Ask yourself this.

Do you really want to wait a whole lifetime to enjoy your life?

If the answer is no, then maybe this is the reason you become an entrepreneur.

When people's goals and ambitions misalign with where the status quo is taking them, they make the switch.

Can't work a 9-5

My whole life, I've only ever worked 2 real 9-5s.

What was my opinion on them?

The most depressing times of my life.

My very first 9-5 job was as a salesperson.

I walked the streets of London, door-knocking and selling something I barely knew about.

It was difficult, painful, and cold.

It was sometime around October and November.

The weather here in London was terrible, like usual.

It rained every other day and it all just made my situation worse and worse.

Waking up early in the morning to catch a train, a bus, and go to a place full of faces I never really knew was not what I wanted with my life.

After that, we traveled for hours to a random location outside of London, where travel was very expensive.

All of this, only to go home sad and empty-handed.

I wasn't cut out for that job - it was the furthest thing outside my comfort zone, and I realised that the hard way.

Why did I do it? It was the only thing I could find.

I was sold into the dream of earning a 6-figure income.

Had I only realised how hard it would be, I never would have done it.

I talked about this job a few times.

I even talked about how it made me change my perspective and embrace change as a whole.

After leaving, I thought that was the final job I'll ever work.

Not long after, I found myself in an Amazon warehouse - it was a new beginning, and a fun one too.

The first month or two were the best.

I was making a lot of money from my job and side hustle, I was meeting amazing people, and the staff was great too.

I even made a YouTube video about it.

Waking up at 3-5am was no problem, I was actually enjoying myself.

Not long after, some of my old school friends were also finding their way into the warehouse and it was the best thing ever.

I can never forget the coffee machine they had - free coffee and hot chocolate that tasted like it came from heaven.

Not long after, it all started to go downhill.

• Staff got stricter
• Work got harder
• Hours got longer
• Breaks got shorter

They hired more people and cut our working hours.

I was no longer making as much as I used to.

I was not enjoying myself like I used to and I started to remember why I didn't want to work a job.

Management started to dehumanize us, treat us like robots.

I started to hate working for others, taking orders from someone who was in the same situation as me - just another 9-5 worker with a better-sounding title.

I hated the idea of spending my precious time making someone else's dreams come true.

It was time to snap out of the dream I was in and remember my goals and ambitions.

This isn't what I see myself doing, it was time to go back to what I really wanted - to be a successful 9 figure entrepreneur.

A lot of the time, people who dislike their jobs realise there is an alternative option.

People who have been in their jobs for dozens of years finally realise they've been manipulated this whole time - they see how much there really is awaiting them outside their comfort zones.

Feel out of place

Have you ever been somewhere and you felt like you simply don't belong?

Have you ever gone somewhere and felt completely out of place?

Have you been around a group of people and knew immediately that these are not people you really resonated with?

This feeling can be annoying to shake off, and many people don't really know what it is.

However, when you decide to really embrace it, you'll realise that you're made for so much more.

The world is abundant and needs people like you - big thinkers who are ready to get their hands dirty to make new things possible.

You might feel out of place, you might feel like you're being shackled by a title, but you don't have to be.

If you wake up every day with a weird feeling in your stomach that you simply don't understand, then this might be why.

It's normal to feel like this.

I always feel this way - around family, around friends, around peers.

When I was in school, I was always the silent, introverted kid.

Why? I now believe it's because I just didn't fit in.

The conversations people had were not ones' I was interested in participating in.

Now, I was no loner, but I just didn't fit in with a lot of people.

Even in my family life, I feel some sort of dis-attachment.

When I'm around my grandparents, and other family members, they always talk about what I do like it's a 'phase' that will eventually pass.

They always encourage me to find a job, go to university, without knowing how much damage small, meaningless comments like that could make.

When you have a goal that no one understands, people will tell you it's not possible.

People who have never seen something will always think it's impossible.

Things they say or do can be very discouraging and can force you to give up.

In fact, I have so many friends who want to do what I do, but they're shackled by what others think.

They "want to make [their] parents proud," but I always tell them, they'll be much prouder if you buy them a house rather than become a doctor, or a lawyer, or whatever they want you to be.

When you feel out of place, you start to seek comfort in a place where you feel like you belong.

For many people, that's becoming an entrepreneur. That's becoming part of a community of people who understand what you're going through and what you really want.

There's no better feeling than being able to tell people about your dreams and goals and having someone understand, even resonate with you.

They embrace risk

I've never been an avid risk-taker.

In fact, the risk is usually the last thing I ever want when I'm working on something.

My first ever business came to a stop because I lost £11 and was afraid to lose more,  disappointing, I know.

The reality is that risk is unavoidable, it's inevitable in whatever field you step into.

If you go to university, you're gambling on the chance of making it through university, getting the results needed, then finding a good job.

On the other hand, building a business also takes heaps of risk.

Coming up with good ideas, executing on them, managing your fears and emotions, bouncing back from failures - it all takes risk.

Lots of people who like risk realise that they're on a very safe path.

A path where they're not challenged and pushed nearly as hard as they'd like.

It's much easier to find a job and stay in it than to build a successful business and maintain it.

Many people love the thrill of taking risks and so entrepreneurship might be the only thing that can satisfy that thrill.

Picking an idea and traversing through the maze of surprises gives them a sense of excitement.

Whether they succeed or fail, it's the journey that makes them happy. 

In the book, 'Principles,' Ray Dalio says that "view [your] life as a game where conquering obstacles is the objective."

Many people live life this way, making risk-taking a lot easier.

When I'm playing videos games, I'm much riskier than when I'm making entrepreneurial decisions.

This doesn't mean that only risk-takers should become entrepreneurs.

It just means that risk-takers are more likely to become entrepreneurs.

For those of us who are risk-averse, it's much better to make more calculated decisions, spend more time on thinking ideas through.

For those of us who are risky individuals, maybe this is the calling you needed to finally make the switch and begin a chase that leads to a more meaningful outcome.

Those were the 5 real reasons why people become entrepreneurs.

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Till next time,

Mohamad