The Dangers of Sensationalising Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are having it good these days. A big part of it is due to ‘hustle culture’ and how social media rewards attention harvesting content. I shall not name names, but if you’re like me, we find inspiration from those who share their entrepreneurial journeys publicly. We watch their content online. We feel inspired. Then sometimes, we get jaded and we look elsewhere. To someone else. We go to their events. Pay big money for it. We queue up to meet them. To take a selfie with them. We feel like we’re part of their journey. We leverage on their social currency.

But I’m here to offer a somewhat different perspective. I think the recent culture of celebritising or sensationalising entrepreneurs could do more harm than good.

Your circumstances differ from theirs

The ones we look up to, who shared every intricate detail of their fancy entrepreneur life… he or she had very different circumstances than us. Even at their early stages. We relate well because we want to. We find what we seek. But we miss out the details, and my friends… the devil is in the details. Life isn’t a montage. It’s a grind. Day in, day out.

These well known entrepreneurs may be more willing to part from certain things, make certain sacrifices… things we consider important in life. And that does not make us a lesser person. It doesn’t make them bad either for making those cuts in their lives. These are just life choices and each of us have to live with our decisions. There is no right and wrong. 

This leads to the next point. We compare ourselves too often to them.

Comparison is the thief of joy

Some might claim success in a very short period of time. Even when you’ve filtered the Bullshit ones or Scammy ones, the legit ones do ride on their accomplishments. For them it’s validation, part of establishing their brand. That’s fine. We flaunt our achievements to gain credibility too. Things like ‘I made X amount in a year’ or ‘Grew the biz from X to Y in a short period of time’ are common talking points.

However, consuming such content… we may find ourselves comparing our accomplishments. Especially if our beginnings are somewhat relatable to theirs.

“Why have I not accomplished what he got within a year or two years?”

To my first point, the reality is that we had made certain decisions that put us to where we are today. There is absolutely nothing wrong in that. If we feel failure, I blame the old education system for dichotomising everything to passes and failures. 

People take different routes in life. If our ‘model’ entrepreneur raised a kid singlehandedly while growing a business. Those are just two variables we are aware of. There would be thousands or more things that differ between us and that person. But of course, we won’t think about those. We just see why we can’t match up to his or her accomplishment.

Unreal expectations

Elon Musk says to work ‘like hell’ Put in 80 to 100 hours a week..

Jack Ma says if you have that ‘8 to 5 spirit’ you might as well do something else.

They can’t stand each other on stage. But that’s beside the point.

This hustle culture… putting in ungodly amounts of work, at the expense of what’s important in life… I’m totally not agreeable to it.

I despise inaction and laziness too, but we need to be aware of what is important in life. Setting expectations to work like a mad dog every single day, at the expense of family, responsibilities, steadfastness of faith etc… it’s just not worth it. This goes for all types of entrepreneurs, from the solopreneur to those of us fortunate enough to have grown a business that can contain a company culture. 

This kind of culture breeds burnouts. In all honesty, as entrepreneurs, we are bound to experience burnouts. But that doesn’t mean we welcome them. We don’t glamourise them. We don’t wear them like a badge of ‘look at me I’m such a hustler’. 

We have to understand what’s important in our lives, and in the lives of our team mates. The business is tied to our purpose, yes… but life isn’t a single linear path drawn in extreme clarity. It’s full of greyness, uncertainties, confusion. We hold on to things that are important to us, for the sake of our sanity and well being. This delicate balance must be respected. 

Consumption vs Action

This holds true in taking care of our physical health, and this holds true in running a business. Yes, we need to learn. We need to absorb information… but if we don’t synthesise them, apply them and embrace them as knowledge, then we are just pouring a stream of information into our heads with no clear use. And when that happens, the ‘signals’ become ‘noise’.

I think it is far better to learn one thing, put it out there in the world and practice it. Then learn another thing. 

The problem is that we find ourselves consuming so much of these webinars, courses, YouTube videos, and by the way, the production level of these things are really good now. We consume these things like a drug trying to fix our own lack of motivation. It might be a quick fix, but the depressing state comes right back. Then we jump on to the next entrepreneur’s motivational content to get a fix.

Information does not automatically change to knowledge. Only when it is absorbed, understood, internalised, and even practiced… can we call it knowledge.

It’s not knowledge that we are hearing. It’s information. And today, information is everywhere. Question is… what are we taking in as knowledge?

Shallowness vs Depth

Ok here’s my last point. 

This culture of sensationalising entrepreneurship often results in the sharing of ‘knowledge’ to ‘help’ others who are in the pursuit of the same kind of ‘success’. Sorry for the multiple use of quotation marks but if you’ve read the above carefully, I hope you understand my skepticism.

What I’ve observed is that the things shared on a 5 minute platform — for example, on stage, at a a conference, cannot be in a form that is in depth to be of serious help. It’ll shake us up, yes. It will give us fresh perspective. It will give us ideas, sometimes making us feel like we can take the world. 

But again, life isn’t a montage. We don’t go back and go into some kind of movie montage and come up successful at the end. We go home, sleep, wake up the next day to the grind, faced with life’s beautiful serving of challenges we never want to deal with… and next thing we know is that the pep talk given by the sensationalised entrepreneur slowly fades into the background.

However, imagine if we spend serious time learning, practicing, working on our craft… and documenting it so others can benefit… and we stay focussed at the next thing to master — this kind of work requires immersion and depth. 

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Please don’t get me wrong. I love and admire the entrepreneurs that you probably follow as well. They have been an inspiration to me. But we need to draw the line as to what is inspiration, and what is unknowing distraction.

Tell me what you think in the comments below, or if you’d like to discuss this over tea, I’m game. Drop me a message anywhere.