Plane, Helicopter and Street Views on Entrepreneurship

Depending on the view, entrepreneurship looks different, very different.

1. View from a plane: Very smooth
Like many things in life, entrepreneurship is quite complex but from far away (such as a view from the plane) it looks smooth and simple.

2. View from a helicopter: Colorful and Exciting
From a reasonable distance, entrepreneurship looks more colorful and exciting. Roads look packed but you don’t experience the traffic jams from a helicopter. So, unless you can put yourself in the shoes of someone on the ground, the helicopter view is misleading. Many times it seems like you can navigate easily on the street – you just have to decide when to get down to the ground.

3. Street View: Realistic
If you are on the street (in other words, you are an entrepreneur) you get to see the reality – in action.

If you are looking at entrepreneurship from a plane and want to stay that way, there is no change required. You are probably happy with your job or your current situation and there is no need to change. The problem comes when you are the one with the helicopter view. You are interested enough to enter the world of entrepreneurship but not taken enough measures to get down to the ground. On one end, you might have a very naive view of the street view and the other end, you may be afraid of the street view. Or, you may be somewhere in-between. In any case, you end up spending a lot of time on the fence (er.. helicopter, I must say)

A Better Option: Proxy Approach

One option to consider is to take the proxy approach. While you may not want to get down to the street yet, you can very well choose to help someone on the street. An entrepreneur on the street is ALWAYS looking for “good help” and you can extrend your helping hand without expecting anything in return.

Why nothing in return?

Two reasons:

  1. The entrepreneur may not have the resources to adequately compensate you. He or she also has to reserve any payouts to someone who might offer even bigger help than you do. It’s all relative.
  2. You are anyway getting compensated by the up-close-and-personal view (or the street view) of entrepreneurship. So it’s a win-win relationship right from the get go.

Good luck!

Photo Courtesy: shareski on Flickr