Beyond the Hype: Why Entrepreneurship Isn't a Career Choice

Hello and welcome to the show. Today I'd like to talk about something I've been seeing on social media. Well, on LinkedIn anyway, since I don't spend a lot of my time on social media. But looks like this is that time of the year when folks are graduating. There's been the call to bar in Nigeria. Those are people who have finished their schooling. They've gone to undergraduate studies and then also they've attended their professional studies at the Nigerian Law School.

And so they've graduated and looks like there are some other schools graduating here and there, whether local and abroad. And so I'm seeing stuff on social media about parents encouraging entrepreneurship as a career. I guess it comes from a good place because parents are trying to recognize or to validate that you don't have to do a nine to five or, you know, work as a lawyer or as an accountant or as a doctor to get professional fulfillment or to make a living.

And so there are parents that are putting up posts and people who are talking about how entrepreneurship is a viable career. Or yeah, anyway, people talking about how entrepreneurship is a viable career. And so that's what I want to respond to today. Now, I want to point out pointedly that entrepreneurship is not a career, and that if we start telling our kids or our classmates or whoever that entrepreneurship is a career, we could be setting up, setting them up with the wrong kinds of expectations and set them up for a lifetime or years of frustration.

Not to say that entrepreneurship is bad, don't get me wrong, It's just that entrepreneurship is not a career. People who are looking for a viable career should look for a career. People who want to be entrepreneurs or who want to start the business, who want to be self-employed, who wants to be a hustler or whatever it is you want to call it, should do just that. But don't think that by engaging in entrepreneurship you are building a viable career.

It's not the same. Now understand why parents would try and say that you know, it's OK. It's all good entrepreneurship, good career, viable career. And that's because everybody is pretty much biting the entrepreneurial bug. There's lots of talk about it on social media, especially people who have entrepreneurial success. You know, all the media outlets talk about these things all the time. In fact sometimes you don't even talk about the success because currently in Nigeria right now as of the date of this recording March in 2024 also like everybody and their uncle and their auntie and their grandma and their cousins house girl or house boy like everybody is starting a fintech and everybody is raising funds.

So if you pay attention to the the what should I say tech blogosphere or stuff like that. You know they celebrate it all the time. So, so so on. So graduates from Harvard or you know whatever raised 100 million precede drowned something something fintech this fintech that and it's all over the place. So why don't even celebrating people who have actually made a killing in entrepreneurship, people who have been successful entrepreneurs, but we're celebrating people who have successfully raised seed rounds or raised this round, raised financing.

Now raising financing is not the same thing as building a successful business. So yes, Zuckerberg raised financing and was able to build a business. But Zuckerberg also has contemporaries who raised finances and we're not able to build a business. It's not the same thing. But because in the media always talking about this person raised this millions of dollars and of course, you know in Niger we know how the naira to dollar,

what's it called exchange rate is. So you see that somebody raised 10 and in dollars you quickly do the math and like, wow, man, that's that's a huge chunk of change. And yes, it is, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they have hit them entrepreneurial success. So I think it's all these things that are being bandied about on the Internet and then people talking about these sorts of things on blogs and podcasts that make everyone think entrepreneurship is cool.

And so parents putting up the post and people blogging and giving advice about these sorts of things. Like, yes, you've been called to the bar, but I'm OK with my son or daughter having an entrepreneurial, a career in entrepreneurship. And so I just want to let you guys know that it's not the same career as a career. Entrepreneurship is a is entrepreneurship. And in my own opinion, I don't think the two can meet. Although there's some people who say there is something called intrapreneurship, which is where you take a career in a company,

but then you take entrepreneurial tendencies into it and maybe we can make that a subject of another podcast episode. So this whole thing about parents saying follow your passion, yeah, you finish law school, but follow your passion or you finished your watching MBA by following your passion. Build a career and entrepreneurship actually is bad advice and you're mixing a bunch of stuff. So what I've been trying to describe as entrepreneurship or as hustling or as being self-employed or as whatever it is that you want to call it, it is a lifestyle and it is not a job.

And this is what I mean when you have a career. A career is 95. You start at 9:00 or you start at 8:00. You can clock out at 5:00, except in countries like Niger, where you know your manager, if he knows your phone number, he can harass you and he can actually work beyond that. But there are some climbs, like in the UK, for instance, where with legislation, they actually have done a pretty good job of making sure that 95 is 95 S

While I worked in Scotland, if my guard tried to holler at me at six, it will be wah holler, you know. So they respected the whole 95 thing. So the bottom line is, whether Nigeria or abroad, there's the expectation that if you have a nine to five, it's not your life, it's just a job. So I clock in at it. I finish at 5 and Oga, I've done my own, I've given my own. I beg leave me, free me. I want to be with my husband, I

want to be with my wife, I want to be with my kids. I want to go to church, I want to do choir practice, I want to do whatever. And it's cool. Everybody respects the terms of engagement because it is a job. On the other hand, if you're going to be self-employed, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you're going to be a hustler, you're going to be a businessman, you're going to be a businesswoman, you're going to be whatever it is you call it.

It is a lifestyle. Your business needs time and attention and your business does not respect that you need to have choir practice or that you want to hang out with your wife or your husband or your children. Your business does not respect that. You've either put in the hours to justify the level of business growth and profit or you haven't. You must put in those hours and unfortunately sometimes the hours are going to go beyond 95,

especially in the beginning when you're going to have to be the general everything in the business Instagram post, you're the one that is making it customer call. You're the one that is making it product delivery. You're the one that is making it. There's an angry customer. You're the one that is dealing with it. You're a happy customer. You're the one who is following up to try and get the testimonial or whatever. If customs people strike and you're not able to get your products you're not supposed,

you're unable to get your deliveries through to the port. That's for those of you who have to import some stuff from abroad, maybe like those of you whose help pajamas on Instagram, this kind of thing happens. It's your problem. You either get to Lagos yourself or you're finding out how you're going to have to pay somebody to get on that whole thing And it's it's just it's a mess. It's it's it's a huge mess. That's if you're not cut out for it.

So for somebody who is thinking I want to build a viable career and Mumsy and Popsy is telling you that, Oh yeah, entrepreneurship is a viable career. You're just going to be frustrated from the get because career is 95. O'clock in, I clock out, Olga give me my space. I want to go to choir practice, I want to watch movies, I want to go for my husband, I want to take care of my kids, I want to take my girlfriend on a date,

you know, blah blah, blah. Those expectations, they fly is 95. But then if you're going to be engaged in entrepreneurship, it does not follow. So yes, you have to stay home and do your children's homework, but then by the time children homework is up and they've gone to bed, you have to pay your dues. You have to sit down and start writing your Instagram post or whatever, or start sending out your invoices and you know all the things you are not able to get done during the day.

So parents, part of it is why I'm saying parents are well wishers. Please stop telling people entrepreneurship is a viable career choice. It is not Careers 95, entrepreneurship, hustler, businessman, business woman, whatever it is you want to call it. It's a lifestyle. It's not 95. It does not respect 95 and if you want to put in 95 especially in the early days of it, the business is going to suffer. It's not going to reach its potential.

So entrepreneurship is more like 24/7 365 depending on the kind of business you're involved in. In fact holidays in fact there are some businesses that holiday is gone, gone like those are the main days that you have to grinding. There's some businesses that OK, 95 people Christmas, you guys relax you slack off. There's some businesses that Christmas, that's when the money is coming in. So Christmas, you have to, you have to really double down.

Like I have a cousin who runs the bar and you know, family outings, you know, people, you know, say, ah, we don't see you again, I'm blah, blah, blah. He's like, look, me being here, this thing is actually costing me money. I'm here because I love you guys. But look, this is weekend. This is why business is moving. So I actually need to be in the shop to make sure that stuff is stuff is moving. You know we need to sell the alcohol because no business has to be moving.

So there's some people that weekends, that's their thing, holiday, that's when they even need to double down even harder. So please parents, stop telling your children or stop telling your your words or whatever that entrepreneurship is a viable career choice. If people want to do career, I beg advise them well on career. If people want to do entrepreneurship, advise them well on entrepreneurship and let them know that this thing is plenty of time.

It's high risk, but yes, there's also high reward. The newspapers, the magazines, the blogs, podcasts. Everybody celebrates the high rewards. Unfortunately, it could also be no reward because there's some people that put in a lot and unbeknownst to them, you know, it's not the right time. It's like YouTube, they started off, wanted to be video for dating, but you know, people are not there yet. Now. Dating apps, huge thing.

Luckily YouTube they were able to pivot. What else? In Nigeria? I know somebody who was thinking, who thought at the time I thought was a stupid idea, but now I can see that actually it works. This guy thought was based in Abuja and this was a long long long long long long time ago. But now this idea makes a lot of sense. This guy thought, you know what these things called apps are becoming really popular. How about I make an app where if people want a taxi, they will just, you know, ping the app and then the taxi will come to them and blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. And a bunch of us thought, Collins, you started again. You know this idea is stupid. This thing will never work. Looks like on what Like it actually was a good idea. It's just that the idea was ahead of its time. So now everybody knows Uber and everybody knows Lyft and everybody knows what are those other companies, You know, if I didn't leave it, if I didn't know Collins, if I didn't see it, I would have said and now somebody made-up the story, but not live and direct in Abuja.

I saw it will mount to ice. There was somebody who said this is a fantastic idea. A bunch of us stopped. This thing is rubbish. He actually tried, got a few clients, wasn't able to make it work. I guess the timing wasn't right. Maybe he wasn't able to raise financing. You know, I didn't ask him all the details why didn't this thing work or the financials like, but it seemed like it was an idea ahead of his time. So some other boys in the UK and America, they have executed on the idea very well and they have gotten high reward.

But then Collins, What did he get? He's moved on to another venture. So was high risk, unfortunately, was no reward. The career, on the other hand, is not high risk, high reward. A career is stable. You get stable benefits. If your salary is 300 K every month, you're getting that 300K every month. It's not up and down. You can make projections. You can plan. OK, my salary, 250K every month. So we're in March. Now, December.

I can hope to get this much. If I'm removing 5050K or 2525 or 1010 K, you can plan and it's more or less guaranteed. I mean, so long as you don't F up, like go and steal in the office or shout at yoga or let's see what else Or you come late, perpetually, then it's more or less guaranteed their your salary is going to be there, especially if you're a civil service person. And then with Korea, it's stable. The paycheck is stable, the pension is stable.

Entrepreneurship. There's no paycheck. Or, well, they should be. If you do it right, you should be able to take a steady paycheck. But for most people, there's no steady paycheck and there's definitely no pensions. That's for most folks, except, you know, people are able to build viable business around it. So I'm sure that dango team must have a healthy pension or some retirement package or something, you know, based off the company.

But for most folks, until you have business systems, the SO PS and employees and you know everything, No steady paycheck, no steady pensions. So parents, these are the reasons why I'm begging you, people stop saying entrepreneurship is a viable career choice. Entrepreneurship is not a career. If your child is career minded, please talk to your child and quote your child accordingly. If your child is entrepreneurial minded, they like taking risks,

they like you know, then actually then now this is the time. Because if you've just finished law school or you've just finished, maybe your parents sent you, you know, to America, went to go and do NBA and watching, and you're coming back. Now if your parents, you know, if they hold, as in if they have money, then now is the time. As in, you're not married, you're staying at home. Now is the time to take the risks. Because if you flop, at least your meals are guaranteed.

You know Popsy will help you out with fewer once in a while. Mom sees that to encourage you. You don't have wife and kids demanding anything of you or husband demanding that he wants you to come and spend quality time with him, things like that. So yeah, if your child likes taking risks and they have big dreams and stuff, then yeah, now is the time they finish law school. Now is the time. They can stay at home for one year or whatever.

You're trying to help them out with their business ideas. Bar beg. If you have an inkling that your child is career minded, please coach this child accordingly. Entrepreneurship is not a viable career choice. Another reason why is because skills are not enough when it comes to entrepreneurship. When it comes to career, skill is enough. I mean medicine. OK, well, not enough per SE, but it's a good starting point. So medicine, law, stuff like that.

If I'm the best medical whatever in my class or the best lawyer, it's it's a start. It's a start. As in the skill is something, but entrepreneurship, the skill isn't everything. Because if you're going to be an entrepreneur or hustler or self-employed person, there's lots of stuff we're going to have we have to learn before going down this business route. So it's skill plus knowledge of sales, plus knowledge of marketing, plus leadership skills.

Because you're going to have to be leading one or two people. Let's face it, if you're a tailor, you have tailors under you. If you're waiting photographer, you will have second shooter. What else? I mean, you guys get the picture. No matter how big or small leadership skills you have to know small finance. How much money do I put in? How much do I put out? What's my profit going to be? What's my cash flow? How much money can I afford to spend in a week?

What's the cost of running my business every week, every month? You know, things like that, some level of operational skills. I think there's plenty of stuff that people are going to need to learn. But for career route, if I was the best engineer in my class, I'm the best engineer. I can go and get a job in Julius Berger or Dantata or whatever and I'm off. But if I'm an engineer and I'm entrepreneurial minded, I want to strike off on my own, then the whole thing of I got first class in engineering.

That's not enough. You're going to have to take your first class engineering. You have to learn sales, learn marketing, learn leadership, learn finance, learn operational skills, learn negotiating, learn what pricing you guys get, the gesture. There's plenty, plenty, plenty. There's more learning that is required for people who want to be entrepreneurial or self-employed. So summary, instead of parents calling this thing a career path because it's not.

Have the frank conversation. Share some of these ideas that I've been talking about over here and let the people know that. OK. My son, my daughter, you finished first class MBA coming back to Niger, my command. You welcome back my son. Welcome back my daughter. You've done me proud. You've finished law school. You've done this. You know you've done as well. So how far? What is it that you want to do? Do you want to do this law thing or do you want to do this engineering thing?

Cause I've noticed that you've been making this. You've been producing this, you're doing this thing on Instagram. So how far was the way forward? You have the conversation. If the person, if your child is sound like career person, then you guys need to now go down and come up with a plan that OK, it's going to be career, you finish law school. So what are the firms in Abuja or in Lagos or in Port Harcourt? You know which one are we going to apply to?

Let's come up with the list. Let's start applying, let's start networking, let's let's get this thing going. But if they're saying that they're entrepreneurial and they want to do this, they have this idea, they have the idea, then sure, no problem. You guys need to have the conversation. You don't say, oh, OK, entrepreneurship is a is a viable career. We have the conversation, OK, that's good. We already have this education thing locked down.

These are the skill, additional skill sets that you need to acquire. How are you going to handle sales? Do you know, have you started reading some stuff on financial literacy? Have you thought about working for somebody else to get some experience so they can see how it is to grow a business? You know, you need to have these frank conversations. And the reason why it's because entrepreneurship might not be for everyone.

So yes, everybody's celebrating it. Blogs are talking about it, people are Instagramming about it, tweeting about it or whatever. But it's not necessarily for everyone. Now, the more people that join the pound of opinion, the better, 'cause I think everybody should have a taste. Because even if you try and you fail, the kind of skills that you're going to learn in entrepreneurship are transferable into politics, into career, into anything.

You know. Even if you want to be a pastor, let's say you decide to to be in business for yourself and you wanted to sell a Google and these harsh drinks and the thing didn't work out, The skills that you learn in building relationships with patrons will transfer very well. If you decide to open up a church later on or, you know, if your church community calls, you need to be a junior pastor or something. So the more people that try, the better you will learn.

A lot skills are transferable. But please parents, cousins, Big Sisters, big aunties, big uncles. Stop telling your words, your people who have passed through you, your children that entrepreneurship is a viable career. Because it's not. Entrepreneurship is not a career. If somebody's thinking career, please coach them accordingly. Let it be career. If somebody's thinking entrepreneurship then coach them accordingly. Let it be entrepreneurship.

So thank you very much for your time and attention. Please connect with me on WhatsApp. I love hearing from you guys. The number is 080. 64662140 The country code is +2344 Nigeria then where else? LinkedIn. Please connect with me on LinkedIn as well. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. Don't worry about the spelling of my name, you can confirm it and my e-mail address from the link. We are currently listening to this episode so thanks for your time and attention.

I'll catch you guys at the next recording. And don't worry. I remember that I was supposed to get back to you guys on No, not objection handling on what's it called? Buying signals. Yes. How do you know that you have a buying signal? How do you know that people are interested? Yeah, I'm supposed to do that today. But this entrepreneurship as a career, I think it was just scratching my brain. So I said, you know, you know what?

I need to make this career now. I'm sorry, not career. I need to make this podcast episode now and get this thing off my chest. So yeah, so we'll be off to the regular scheduled programs at the next episode. So thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next episode.