Entrepreneur Porn

Storytelling is a big part of most cultures, and the stories told about entrepreneurs are particularly powerful: the idea of the lone striver relentlessly pursuing his or her dream.


But I believe that the stories we’re telling especially in our media, does more harm than good.

I’ve heard this story more times than I can count. At conferences, Chamber of Commerce meetings, in media articles, and in university theses. The tale is a breathless view of creating and running a business: Tireless, ambitious of mostly young people who throw everything into a tech startup, spending sleepless nights at the office and filling their days with pitches and travel, until they finally arrive at fame and fortune.

These narratives, spread and amplified by social media, become almost inescapable – and are believed to be the only way to find wealth and happiness as an entrepreneur.

The trouble is, it isn’t true. These tales present an extreme, and highly unrealistic view of business that amounts to “entrepreneurship porn”.

But what, you might say, is wrong with aiming high? What’s wrong with offering myths for everybody to aspire to?

I believe that the stories set would-be entrepreneurs expectations unreasonably high, such that they feel like failures even if their businesses only become moderately successful. What’s more, people feel they must subordinate real life to work life, spending day and night on the job and ignoring their family so they can keep up with their peers. And they feel embarrassed if they’re not becoming the Next Big Thing.

Those stories ignore the reality of entrepreneurship: The overwhelming majority of business founders are never going to be Elon Musk or Richard Branson. And that’s just fine—because people can be happy running a modest business that lets them lead fulfilling lives and provides a small number of jobs for local families.

According to a 2015 article on Inc.com there were 27 million entrepreneurs/business owners in the US. CNBC says that there are 10.4 million, millionaires in the US today, of which only 6% or just over 600,000 are entrepreneurs. So on average an entrepreneur has a 2.3% chance (slightly more than 1 in 50) of becoming a millionaire.

So we’re selling a dream with real and damaging effects on our institutions and on people’s lives. It’s time for smart people to stop mortgaging their futures in pursuit of fantasies of super-success. I know it seems odd to say that stories of success can do harm, that an obsession with what seems to be the entrepreneurial dream could possibly be a negative thing. But it is, and in all sorts of ways.

For starters, entrepreneurship porn creates a culture of constant comparisons, where business founders share their achievements with each other, and posture to land press coverage and become a big presence on social media. If you don’t match up, you feel inadequate.

Small-business owners who don’t grow beyond their community, or don’t devote their time to promoting themselves online, will not get accolades. You won’t be featured in magazines nor invited to give keynote speeches for enjoying your life and getting plenty of sleep. Even worse, everyone in your life, from your accountant to your graphic designer to maybe even your spouse, may question your strategy. You might find yourself questioning your strategy, too. But a small, profitable business that provides good jobs IS something to be proud of. We can’t forget that.

Entrepreneurship porn also demands that people consistently prioritize their startups over their family. That means many who leave corporate work and start businesses in hopes of achieving better work/life balance feel like they are lesser than the all-star, always-on entrepreneurs.

Many older, successful entrepreneurs deeply regret the lost time with their family. “I wish I’d spent more time at work” said no one on their deathbed.
Time is finite. If we only tell business biographies of entrepreneurs who sacrifice all their personal time, then valuable time for an entrepreneur can only mean one thing: working. Our role models in business cannot simply be those who focus only on work and success.

The entrepreneur myth also magnifies innovation and disruption, which can obviously be good thing, providing a lot of important tools, for business and consumers. But all too often, we celebrate disruption and innovation at the expense of what are seen as more mundane businesses.

But those are what most people run, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The businesses that make headlines are, in fact, a tiny fraction of the whole—and the ones that ultimately keep the country humming. These are the businesses we deal with every day in our communities, like grocery stores, restaurants and contractors.

So what, if anything, can we take away from all this? We CAN (and should) have control over how we build our businesses. We can do it on our terms. Don’t get swayed by entrepreneurship porn. And don’t let a few ultra “successful” entrepreneurs be your model for success. You can define your own model for success, and then just follow it.

Let’s tell that story. If you are currently suffering from (an entrepreneurship) porn addiction, give Simon a call at (440) 385-6737 to discuss how you might seek a cure.