So. So you are a young entrepreneur. Between 30 and 45 years old and with ambition and a drive to be free. Acting in freedom, making decisions in freedom and failing in freedom.
With the goal of financial freedom. For yourself and for your family that is still young or only in the planning.
My drive was the same, so many years ago. Every entrepreneur starts with those desires.
Freedom
On all fronts. Every talented enterprising employee also desires that. As an enterprising employee you can also achieve the status of freedom.
I spoke to hundreds, maybe thousands of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial employees. They all started out like you and me. And almost all of them got off to a flying start. So did I.
The first assignments, those fat invoices, the coveted promotion, that green horizon in the distance and those golden mountains around the corner.
“Look at me go.”
Are you there now? I think it's great. Enjoy your success.
Many before you have already reached those golden mountains. They live in villas and drive Teslas. Next to them a Porsche and a Mini JCW GP. They play golf or kitesurf, they dine at De Bokkedoorns and Parkheuvel, they fly to New York for a midweek. They have a second home in Italy and sometimes even a second wife, in addition to their first. A second family in addition to their first. I am a liberal so you won't hear me complaining about it.
They are cheered and admired, their lives are bling bling and blah blah.
But I know, dear young entrepreneur with ambition and a desire for freedom, that reality is often a little different.
The debt burden is high for many. The expenses too. The bank accounts are often emptier than empty. Loan after loan, fine after fine and threatened seizures. I am sorry to write this. I am sorry to tell you this.
Every day, dozens of companies go bankrupt. In times of crisis, that number rises to a hundred. Every bankruptcy is a personal and professional drama.
Worse than that, I find the situation of thousands of struggling entrepreneurs and their businesses. Surviving from invoice to invoice and from credit to credit. Postponement here, loan there, moving money around as if it were Lego blocks. The dentist bill just not for a while and the parental contribution to school is still voluntary.
In the meantime, they are holding up bravely and continue driving around in the Tesla and the Porsche.
The adventure of that time gradually becomes an evil monster that must be kept quiet at all costs.
Because it threatens to destroy the worlds of these entrepreneurs.
I tell you this, dear young entrepreneur or enterprising employee: Please do not look admiringly at that golden boy in that enviable car. Do not take that well-spoken wise guy with his golden watch as an example.
Don't be blinded by that thatched villa in the leafy Gooi. I'm not saying the bling bling and blah blah is faked. However:
You have to know that it is a facade.
There could be success underneath. That's possible. There could also be sadness underneath.
A great many companies and entrepreneurs, big boys with a leading position in the market, are all too often on the brink of the financial and business abyss.
Caught in debt and worries, they fight against their self-created monster.
I know the other side too. The modesty of the entrepreneurs who also reached the golden mountains, but remained the same people. No bling bling. No skiing in St. Moritz, Switzerland or Aspen, America, but to Sankt Anton, Tyrol. No second home in Cannes with a boat in the harbour without an engine – in the harbours of Cannes there are boats without engines, I swear that is true – but a house on Vlieland.
I know a really wealthy businessman – I will never mention his name anywhere – who is not recognized by anyone. You know his name, but not his face. There is nothing to see on him. He drove a Seat for a long time, until it was gone.
Does he do that on purpose? No. He understands that it shouldn't matter. Filthy rich or dirt poor:
It shouldn't matter.
For he stands in the stable middle. Untouchable in the changeability of life.
By the way, under the hood his Seat was the king of Seats. That much is true.
Good. Moderation is no guarantee for success and mountains of gold. But it does increase your chances.
Whatever you do, don't create a monster.
Stop in time.
Hans Ruinemans, boardroom monk