291 : Time
A Bit Better than Capital or Strength
No matter how much capital you have, the mistakes and lessons that come with building a business can only be learned through active participation. The real challenge isn’t just funding — it’s understanding human behavior in relation to your business and mastering the operational procedures that lead to success.
No matter how you look at it, once you start a business, you’re almost guaranteed to suffer losses while adjusting to these two factors. This is why business is less about having or lacking capital and more about strategy and staying power. It’s like holding up a crushing weight — you must not drop it, because if you do, it destroys you.
The advantage of time is that even those without surplus capital — if they have the guts to take risks, the resilience to endure setbacks, and the patience to iterate — can eventually figure out a working business model. And once that model is in place, the business can operate well enough to generate income, even while they sleep.
A common mistake people make is assuming they can start a business later in life after spending years in other career paths. They mistakenly believe running a business is as simple as executing pre-established procedures. The reality is, if you’ve worked a job, you’ve only learned to manage order — something already structured by someone else. But when you start your own business, you must confront chaos and create that order yourself.
The problem? The chaos you’ll face as a founder is nothing like the order you once managed. And whether you have a lot of money or very little, the suffering tied to entrepreneurship doesn’t discriminate — it all comes down to finding a working business model and understanding how people react to your market.
Strength and risk-taking are crucial. However, the more responsibilities you have — whether it’s family, age, or commitments — the less capacity you’ll have for risk. As you grow older, your fear of breaking things increases, and your willingness to take bold risks decreases. This is why time is a greater advantage than capital. There are windows in life when you can afford to take risks, and once those windows close, entrepreneurship becomes much harder.
So, if you’re considering entrepreneurship, start early. No amount of 9-to-5 experience will prepare you for the brutal challenges founders face. And the best time to start is when you have the least to lose.
