The first session of our entrepreneurship class is always memorable. Visualize 25 students, bright, fresh and eager to learn. A few fancy themselves as entrepreneurs and are not sure why they are even taking this class, other than the fact that a friend has told them “this was the class to take.” Some have come to see what this thing called entrepreneurship (“How do you spell it by the way?”) is all about, but are quite certain that it’s not for them. Then there are others who have already decided that they do not want to work for “soulless monolithic giants.” Amidst their excitement, a palpable sense of fear is discernible.
I ask them what are they most afraid of? I sense their angst and doubts as to whether they can succeed. In rapid fire I hear:
– I am not creative.
– I am not an engineer.
– I do not know anybody. I have no network. I hate every single one of my Facebook friends!
– I never have any really brilliant ideas.
– I have a lot of great ideas, but I do not know where to start
– I never finish anything I start.
– I have no money.
– I have no time.
– I’d like to give it a try, but I am just too risk averse.
– I’d love to, but I don’t think I can.
– What will people (my parents, friends) think or say?
The list is almost endless. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Do you have any of these doubts. I have had these doubts as well. So, how do we confront them? We will examine them one at a time in our next post.
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