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Entrepreneur: A word which has no limits and dimensions.

Being an entrepreneur is itself a feeling of incomparable joy. It's a feeling of self realization, having broad thinking and a positive mindset.

But we are in the age where this ‘word' has got a new definition.

Where this word is going in a different direction.

People call themselves entrepreneur after buying a 100 INR ($2) domain from GoDaddy.

They call themselves an entrepreneur by starting a blog, having no vision where they are going to hit in next 5 years.

They call themselves entrepreneurs by making an app.

But in reality – this word has the definition far beyond our thinking.

I usually laugh at myself when I go back in 2011 (when I started my first blog), as I used to call myself as an entrepreneur.

My friends were laughing at me.

And I was thinking that why the hell they are not seeing the potential in me.

Why are they not seeing an entrepreneur in me.

…but they were right.

Their ridicule was genuine.

Which I realized after 3 years of being a “Fake Entrepreneur.”

I was not an entrepreneur.

I was not putting anything in risk.

I was not taking big decisions.

I was not creating something which could change people's life.

I was just seeing myself as an Entrepreneur.

But after spending 5 years in blogging, now I know what a true entrepreneur is and what sacrifices he/she makes to become a true entrepreneur.

In this article I am going to talk about those 15 realities which no one is telling you that what it costs to become an entrepreneur.

What problems do we face and how we overcome them.

#1. We Sacrifice Our Health

It's said – health is wealth.

But this world is going in the opposite direction.

We sacrifice our health to gain the wealth, and after 40-50 years we spend ‘that earned money' to gain the health back.

Such an irony of life.

I hate being an entrepreneur when it comes to health.

We sit 12-15 hours in a day in front of our computer, and keep on waiting for any miracle to change our life.

These 12-15 hours in a day converts in weeks, weeks into months, months into years.

We realize our mistake when we get some serious health problem.

In 2012, I got cervical pain. It was so worse that I couldn't do anything for next 3 months. I was on complete bed rest.

My business was declining and my pockets were going empty.

During this period, I realized the value of our health.

I asked myself – What the hell will I do with the money if I got any serious health issue.

That pain was a nature's call for me.

Soon I started doing some stretching, some acupressure, and I was back on track.

Since that incidence, I do stretching by going to gym and I keep on taking acupressure on time to time.

So we as an entrepreneur sacrifice this big part of our life.

#2. We Sacrifice Relations

We spend so many sleepless nights to achieve our goals that we end up paying less attention to our family and friends.

We spend time in isolation.

We miss a big part of our life in this never ending race.

I remember the days when I was not paying attention towards my family members, I lost my friends, no one was coming at my home to meet me.

I spent months by working in the small room.

So being an entrepreneur we go through this hard phase of life where we neglect our near and dear ones.

#3. We Sacrifice the Fun

How would you feel when your family members are watching their favorite TV serials and you are fighting with your idiot laptop in another room?

and the worst feeling when your friends are going for a movie and your website server is down at the same time.

We sacrifice a lot of fun in our life to achieve fun which we are going to enjoy in next 5-10 years.

Strange.

We live in future.

#4. We Are Our Own Brand

It takes a lot of efforts to build your brand.. or I would say to blow your own trumpet.

We represent ourselves as a brand.

We show our face in different meetings, blog posts, videos and online interviews.

Doing these activities needs a lot of time.

But we are always ready to build the brand.

#5. We Go Through a lot of Frustration

I hate this.

I hate being frustrated.

We are on the path where there is no direct channel. We learn by doing a lot of mistakes.

So the frustration is obvious.

There are a lot of incidents in an entrepreneur's life when things go wrong, and he/she feel helpless.

It feels that all doors are closed and their is no exit way.

We end up wasting a lot of money on experiments, make some big mistakes (like I deleted my whole site in 2012 by mistake) and we want people to spend time.

So the frustration at this phase is very obvious.

#6. We Do Self Introspection

Keeping yourself motivated in such a negative environment is the biggest task.

We are surrounded by people who don't know our goals, who are not aware about the power of internet, and who are not big thinkers like we are.

They keep on proving us wrong.

They feel that we are doing something wrong with our life by putting immense efforts on the internet.

So the self introspection is something which we keep doing time to time. We keep ourselves motivated by watching videos, reading interviews and reading books.

#7. We Hustle to Achieve Big

When I heard the word ‘hustle' for the first time on Gary Vaynerchuk's blog, I didn't know what it meant.

But then the definition of this word made me feel super special when I understood this.

We as an entrepreneur hustle to achieve big in life.

We do something which normal people cannot do.

We take risks, learn new things daily, talk to people for business, market our blog, build an authority, and other things which are way beyond the reach of a normal human being.

#8. We Spend a Lot of Time on Learning

Learning is something which has a special place in the dictionary of an entrepreneur.

We learn by reading big blogs, watching a lot of videos, listening to podcasts and talking with the experts in our field.

Learning is a process.

A never ending process.

I see people who have never ever read any books in their entire life, they don't watch motivational videos, and they don't read any blogs.

But we are super special species.

We spend a lot of time by learning from successful people.

We analyze their life, their vision, their work ethics, and we try to become like them.

This is something which makes me feel proud as I am an avid book reader and I spend a lot of money on self learning.

#9. We Waste a Lot of Money

It's a bad feeling when you spend a lot of money and you get nothing in return.

I spent $500 on 50onRed, $500 on 7Search, and another $2000 on buying a domain name.

All money converted into a BIG ZERO.

It hurts.

But this is how the life of an entrepreneur goes.

Keep on spending money to learn new things and see a big picture of results.

#10. We TRY to Become Humble

Let me confess something.

I faked to become humble.

I tried to become humble when I started blogging. I used to hate people when they ask so many questions.

But once I started faking it for so many years, this habit got integrated in my life.

Now I am genuinely humble. 🙂

We have so many tasks to do in a day that we become frustrated, and finally it's difficult to become humble.

So this is something which we try to do. Some people become genuine humble and some starts feeling themselves super special.

#11. We Master Many Skills

  • We are writers.
  • We are risk takers.
  • We are marketers.
  • We are social media experts.
  • We are social in real life.
  • We are designers.
  • We are copywriters.
  • We are managers.
  • We are financial experts.
  • We are technical experts.

and there are lot of other things where we are better than the crowd.

We are multi talented people.

But to master these skills, it takes a lot of efforts, time and dedication.

I haven't seen any entrepreneur who is just an expert in one field.

#12. We Stay Away From Negativity

This is something which we have to avoid at every corner of life.

Negativity from friends, family, customers, readers and from almost all possible sides.

It's very difficult to work in a negative environment. It demotivates you, make you feel insecure and degrade your energy.

So staying always from such people is itself a challenging task.

#13. We Struggle Hard to Find Time for Ourselves

Ahhhhhh… I hate this.

We entrepreneurs don't have time for ourself.

We are so committed to make our future better that we are ready to sacrifice our TODAY.

I personally hate this.

#14. We Create Our Presence Everywhere

Creating presence on social media, videos, podcasts, offline seminars, content sharing sites, and getting featured on some big blogs needs a lot of efforts.

We are always ready to put immense efforts to make our presence everywhere.

The more present we are, more we are going to reap the benefits.

Neil Patel is one of the live examples. He is everywhere.

Doesn't matter which blog you are reading, which big publication you are visiting, he is everywhere.

He is continuously putting efforts to get featured on big blogs as a guest author, he always says yes to interviews, he is in every roundup, people talk about him in their blog posts.

With time he has created such a big brand for himself that people treat him as one of the best content marketing ninja on the planet.

#15. We Handle People

Handling people is a tiresome and hectic process.

You have to take care everyone, meet their demands, and keep on checking their work quality.

A good human asset of today can leave your company anytime, and it can be a major setback for you.

So you have to be active to talk with them, to listen to their problems, to understand their needs and to fulfil their dreams.

Finding right people to work with you is another big task.

This word “Entrepreneur” has bitten so many newbies that they don't want to work for anyone. They want to become their own boss.

So who would be the employees?

So being an entrepreneur, it's one of the toughest task to manage people.

Final Words..

Although I talked about some of the negative factors about Entrepreneurship here, but this is also the fact that Entrepreneurs are the people who rule the world.

They keep on putting their best efforts to make this world a better place.

If becoming an Entrepreneur was so easy, then everyone would become.

I feel proud to say that I am an Entrepreneur now. I have more than 20 people working with me now, and I am the owner of 3 internet marketing firms.

Things will grow much bigger in the upcoming years, and I am 100% ready to play the bigger and toughest games.

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Hi! I am Kulwant Nagi. I created this blog in 2011 with the vision to help new bloggers. I created Affiliate Booster Plugin to help affiliate marketers get more CTR and sale.

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93 Comments

  1. Hello Kulwant Nagi sir,

    This is really awesome post I feel happy to read this awesome article thanks for sharing

    Reply

  2. Your all points are true.

    I would like to add one more line:

    It hurts when people ask you do their project for free.

    By the way Great Article.

    Thanks for this epic shit 😉 .

    Reply

  3. Hi Kulwant,

    Each and every point you have written here I can correlate them with me. In last 6 years of my blogging career I have achieved many things but also sacrifices my health, relations and fun.

    Thanks for writing this post and letting the World know about the sacrifices that we entrepreneurs do.

    Reply

  4. Wow Kulwant it was an awesome Article on Entrepreneurship.
    You really put your heart out while writing these type of articles, keep writing-keep motivating. 🙂

    Reply

  6. Really a bitter truth you speak about here. To be successful one has to make so many sacrifices in lot of terms. Only then we can achieve success. Really great words for the people like me who want to become an enterprenuer and ready to make all sacrifices you mentioned. Cheers Bro….

    Reply

  7. What a nice piece of article kulwant sir, you have covered every little thing.

    and irony is that i called myself as entreprenur and ceo of a blog on wordpress(subdomain) few years back. without taking any risk and without any new idea one cannt be a true entreprenur.

    thanks for this post.

    Reply

  8. Wow, First time on internet i read true story about an enterpreneur their experience , ups and down , their motivation Well done. Mr. Nagi

    I must say your articulation style is very effective. which can easly achive their goal.

    Thanks
    Sanjay Upadhyay

    Reply

  9. Hi Nagi,

    Thanks for writing an amazing post and yes, I 100% agree with the viewpoints on being an entrepreneur.

    When we work online, people never the understand our profession, dedication and time that we need to spend in performing the multiple tasks and learning the new things on a daily basis.

    Of course, we need to stay with the optimistic thoughts when we do experiments. You are very exact that we face a lot of frustrations.

    Thanks for the amazing write-up, have a good day, every day!

    Reply

  10. Sir thanks a lot for sharing this article ….it will be very helpful many can learn from your experience ..for eg point 1 health issues most of new blogger do this they contiously sit for a long time..and do not stop until they face a serious issues

    Reply

  11. hi,

    you are right. every webmaster think he/she is Entrepreneur. but no one is entrepreneur before lot of earning money.
    hardwork also matters but without money your hardwork is total zero.
    Patience is other thing.
    some people working from last 2 or 3 years and earning only 15k INR. and they think they are Entrepreneur.

    Entrepreneur means u have a team, u earning lot of money like you.

    Thanks (sorry for my english)

    Reply

  12. Hi Kulwant,

    Great insight on being an entrepreneur. You pointed out the best keypoints here.

    Thanks
    shajeer

    Reply

  14. I agree, a lot of bloggers don’t take care of their health and in turn get ill. Sitting for 10-15 hours is killing our generation.

    I remember Leo Babauta, owner of Zenhabits once took up a challenge not to sit for more than 30 minutes. He did that for a month and he said his health for getting better.

    I hope we could take care of our healths.

    Thanks for sharing your story. 🙂

    Reply

  15. Actually I am newbie to blogging that’s why I am looking for a such kind help. My aim is to earn lot of money and also make myself popular as a entrepreneur. Thanks for your help especially you help me a lot with this article.

    Reply

  16. Very aptly….Can’t help but relate myself with every point you mentioned here. Life can be really frustrating for an Entrepreneur. But we must keep ourselves going.

    Reply

  17. All points are valid and true. Facing the similar kind of situation, for me the biggest problem is to do hell lots of different things that I don’t know. I have to practically doing everytask in any company and learning every bit of it.

    Reply

  18. Hello, Kulwant!
    You’ve mentioned very appropriate points in the article. It’s really a hard journey from dead broke to being a successful entrepreneur.
    We’ve seen you growing in front of us. It might seem unreal for a moment, but you actually did it.
    Have to make a lot of sacrifices and the one which every entrepreneur does is health sacrifice which is actually not good but it’s all worth it if you can back it up.
    Handling people that sounds pretty much familiar to me. It’s hard to explain to them that whatever we are doing is legal and worth it.
    I really enjoyed reading the article. Most of the points are familiar to me, but I know it’s all worth it. Keep the great work up!

    Reply

    1. This journey is one of the most unexpected journeys in the world. You don’t know where you are going to head when you are on the path. But it’s worth traveling.

      It asks for your blood and sweat, so only few people survive in this battlefield.

      I have personally lost a big part of my health in this never ending race. But now I have enough time and money to gain it back, so I am working on it.

      Glad to see you here, Deepak. Keep visiting Blogging Cage. 🙂

      Reply

  19. This article resonates with me a lot. I come a teaching background where I received a paycheck at the end of each month. Now that I’m trying to build my blog into into a business, I find that I don’t have time read for leisure much, go out and shoot photos, or just relax and watch a movie. Oh, I have my down times for rest, but most of my day and night centers on building my blogging business. Hopefully things will get a little easier in the next few years.

    Reply

  20. Hey Kulwant!!

    Awesome write-up. Completely agree with your take on an entrepreneur’s life.

    Being an entrepreneur is easier said than done. To someone watching from far, our life might seem too easy. We are our own boss, have our own working schedule, make a hell lot of more money.

    But when one dwells in, that’s when he/she realizes how tough and tiring our journey is. That’s when they get the idea that entrepreneurship is not a bed of roses. We face our shares of difficulties, fight them and emerge as a winner!!

    Again, absolutely loved the post. Keep up the good work. 🙂

    Reply

  22. Sir I read your article, it’s very nice and content is very true. I am new in blogging, I started my own blog and doing my best but still not getting response sir, I read your all article and also I read all effective question on your fb page blogging cage. Sir you are doing best for our new baby in blogging. Thanks for your all advice for new blogger sir.

    Reply

  23. Entrepreneurship has always been a part of Blogging and IM. You have definitely included the points which come across in the phase.

    Great article Kulwant!

    Reply

  25. Hi.
    Just one word for you. It’s an outstanding post. I have followed almost all of your posts and it’s really one of the most informative ones. Actually I have visited so many sites which are writing about being an entrepreneur but never found anything like this.
    Thanks for this article.

    Reply

  26. Hello sir
    Really they’re bitter truths. But the period that’s spent after those bitter experiences will really be amazing.

    Thank you for putting up all such facts
    Regards
    Basharath

    Reply

  27. Nice article Mr Nagi. It rings true because you have drawn from your personal experience. I agree you can’t be a blue blood entrepreneur until you taste the bitter dregs of failure. But one more thing that enterpreuners are masters of is balancing all the various and conflicting aspects of our strange but fulfilling line of work. Keep hacking away! Regards

    Reply

  28. Again a block bluster ….

    I am very happy to know the qualities of an enterpreneur, here each point relates to bloggers habit. And yes you talked about Neil Patel, he is everywhere and very humble. I took his interview in just a single request….i never thought of this.

    Thanks for the great article.

    Reply

  29. what a great article, reading this clearly remind me of who we are and the nature of our job as bloggers and motivated me the more

    Reply

  30. Awesome post Kulwant! It resonates with my situation. Things are hard at the beginning for every aspiring entrepreneur when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. You are not even sure the light really exists!

    But I guess we enjoy taking risks and examples like yours are there to motivate us and keep us on track.

    Reply

  31. Each and every point u have mentioned is fact in real time we are facing it , And my problem is i will get struck up half the way and loose interest , And overall very informative article

    Reply

  32. So true, road to entrepreneurship needs a lots of efforts, dedication, smart work and strategies. Thanks for sharing your experience. Its so inspiring.

    Reply

  33. Hello Kulwant,
    This is really wonderful post, moreover all important points are covered here. Yha we waste lots of money especially this is required to do lots of new experiments.

    Reply

  34. amazing.. 🙂 i am new reader of your blog. your tips are greatly appreciated. your guidance will save lots of research activities. sometimes my mother says to me why you have choose field like this. she start bombarding on me like you are having problem of back, eyes etc. 😀 you are losing more instead of getting more. later, i have focused on my health. nowadays, i am spending at least 1 hr for exercise & yoga. this boost my energy & saves me from pain. i think everyone should spend time for exercise. thank you very much for creating wonderful blog.

    Reply

    1. Welcome at Blogging Cage. 🙂

      Yeah, health should be our prime focus, doesn’t matter where you are and what you are doing in your life. Because every activity we do is directly related with our health. If we have any issue in the body, we cannot concentrate on the work, which ultimately leads to failure.

      So I am never ever going to repeat this mistake of neglecting the health.

      Good luck for your journey. 🙂

      Reply

  35. Hi.
    Just one word for you. It’s an outstanding post. I have followed almost all of your posts and it’s really one of the most informative ones. Actually, I have visited so many sites which are writing about being an entrepreneur but never found anything like this.
    Thanks for this article.

    Reply

  37. Hey Kulwant,

    Have you read the book essentialism? I was used to a lot of stuff myself, but after reading it, I’m starting to outsource it. It also impacts us to get some free time, and we can focus on better stuff.

    I guess balance should be maintained in health, living in the present, etc.

    You can update the article with the necessary actions to became a better version.

    Cheers
    Suresh

    Reply

    1. Hi Suresh,

      Good to see you here. That book is in my library but I never got the time to read it. For sure going to read it next after finishing “The 10X Rule.”

      I can plan a new article around that topic. 😉

      Thanks for being here.

      Reply

  38. Hey, Kulwant this is quite educational and motivational one.
    I am hustling from last five year, and I remember the days when I started by web hosting startup I use struggle a lot to get one new customer on board. Now I have sold my company and moving towards a Digital Marketing space; I am enjoying my bootstrapping once again.
    You wrote many valuable points in this artcile which reminds me to work more hard to achive my goals this year.
    Thanks Kulwant!

    Cheers!
    Danish

    Reply

    1. Yeah man, I missed your first 2-3 years, but after connecting with you from last 2 years, all I can say is, you know your business very well.

      You take calculated risks and always be ready to hustle.

      Glad to hear that my article was good enough to take you back in your hustling time.

      Thanks for being here. 🙂

      Reply

  39. Becoming a successful entrepreneur isn’t an easy feat. It takes time, dedication, and above all, persistence. You are going to have to make sacrifices. You’re going to go through ups and downs.

    Reply

  40. Hello sir,

    All you mentioned facts are dam true. I feel all the facts and experienced they effect for one time.

    Superb article sir, the experience in your brought a feel in this article.

    Keep going sir, we follow you as your are my inspiration.

    Reply

  41. My Lips became Numb! Goosebumps!
    …no words to say.

    Amazingly Plotted The Real Pathways.

    This is so insane, And the actual that made me think,
    “…How horrific the things in their back-end”, which looks Fragile for the viewer:

    After reading this post, I can see the “Sorrow Behind Neil’s CTA Smile…”

    This article has driven the takeaways towards the “Entrepreneurship” that someone might have felt ever!

    Thank You, Sir!

    Reply

  42. Nice post. Your experience is worth for us. As we are also experiencing many problems in Blogging but still your articles always gives us a new direction to work on our blog and making something different. Thanks​ Alot Kulwant Nagi bro for making bloggingcage for us and also sharing your experience with us. You always give us a new way to write and progress. I really appreciate your work.

    Reply

  44. Every point you mentioned is 100% true. I am not an entrepreneur but I can relate some of the points with my life. Friends, family, eyes, are some of things which are facing negative impact.
    I have seen you working on your MacBook. Sometimes, I asked question to myself, can I work with this intensity and dedication like you do? Then your world tours, income reports gave me answer. HELL YES. I have to work at any cost.
    Thanks for the post and being my mentor. Keep growing.

    Reply

  45. Here is my view :
    Your post is wonderful for Bloggers or Web Entrepreneurs but not for true for all Entrepreneurs.

    Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Azim Premji, Sunil Mittal etc. all are Entrepreneurs they don’t work on 15 hours on computer.

    Many Entrepreneur do offline business, they aren’t writer and designer.

    In my opinion to some extent these are Harsh truth more about Blogging not Entrepreneurship.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your inputs.

      I would better recommend you to read the stories of these successful personalities which you have listed here. They used to work 15+ hours a day in their starting day of the journey.

      I shared my thoughts. 🙂

      Thanks again for stopping by and dropping your comment.

      Reply

  46. This is not a blog post! This my turning point am learned a lot of here thank Q Kulwant Nagi bro… am too become a real entrepreneur in future once more thanks a lot.I know you feel and write. Keep write up your precious words….

    Reply

  47. I can’t express my feelings in words, after reading this amazing article. I thought myself as an Entrepreneur but that was a big mistake of life. Finally, after reading this post I can decide where I’ll be in next five years.

    Reply

  48. I agree with Sacrificing the fun. But I believe that “Entrepreneurs don’t experience the fun their colleagues are experiencing today but he will be the one to experience all the riches his colleagues are wishing they have worked for in the past”.

    So keep blogging forward!

    All the Best.

    Reply

  49. Inspirational article…!!!! Well to achieve big any field you have to sacrifice something and this manyfolds for a entrepreneur.

    Reply

  50. Great article and you inspired me for such a thing… I have a small business but after reading this I know that I am also a entrepreneur. 🙂

    Reply

  51. Hey Kulwant,

    I really liked your sentence health is wealth but people are careless when it comes to matter of their business. Most of people are going in the opposite direction. Entrepreneur require sets of best possible skills and hard working but people when selective to choose this pattern – commonly seen they are loosing their health quality.

    Entrepreneur life are mostly very busy from that reason they didn’t provide much time to their family as result may be conflict in personal reltionships. Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience with us.

    With best wishes,

    Amar kumar

    Reply

  52. Hi Kulwant,

    Your story is quite similar to my story in the beginning…I am also a fake entrepreneur now and hesitate to take big decision….my health especially my eyes are affected every day due to long hours of work in laptop…but still I enjoy what I am doing…you have really captured all the difficulties for being an entrepreneur… hope I will someday become a true entrepreneur like You…..!!

    Thanks,
    Arvind

    Reply

  53. Being an Entrepreneur is the toughest thing to me. even I own a business and I have faced all these problems. I thought only I am facing these type of problems but after reading this post I learnt that each and every entrepreneur is facing such issues.

    Reply

  54. Thanks Kulwant, this article is inspiring but also a reminder that an entrepreneur is a breed like no other and we aren’t alone!

    Reply

  56. Your all points are true.

    I would like to add one more line:

    It hurts when people ask you to do their project for free.

    By the way Great Article. thanks, sir your are awesome!

    Reply

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