In the last few months I have met many entrepreneurs. I have spent time with creative artists and app developers, with restaurant owners and software engineers, with green enthusiasts and social architects.
A few of them are successful, most are struggling, but none are likely to throw in the towel. What is that drives them? They are not passionate about what they do, that would be a mild description for what ails most of them. Sometimes I think they suffer from a form of insanity.
The app developer who dreams of a Zynga like exit could do with visits to a shrink. The wannabe restaurateur who is convinced his Punjabi Dhaba will be a big hit in Dubai ought to get his head examined, don’t you think? And what about the graphic designer who plans to produce world-class design, has to be bonkers, right?
And so it is with all of them… they are not dreamers or idealists; that’s within the bounds of normality. When it comes to what they are doing, it is as if they are possessed, as if they see something that is denied to the rest of us.
Sometimes I wonder if this sort of insanity is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial success? When I look at the one’s who have made it big, I have to say there is something peculiar about them.
