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Motivation. Sometimes that's such a hard one that I don't even know where to begin. A lack of motivation almost always comes from fear. The classic fear of failure is true even of successful people, thus that succeed have merely overcome that fear at some point. That's not to say they haven't ever felt the fear of failure. What happens if you fail? Besides losing money, which you can earn back, the biggest cause is the embarrassment caused by failure. To be seen as a failure, or for people to know that you have tried something and failed is what holds many people back. "Get a real job" they will say, "don't do that it's too risky" they will tell you, but nothing would be achieved if entrepreneurs never overcame fear and shoot the dice.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer."

A quotation from one of my favourite books: Dune. Fear is what holds us back and overcoming it is what allows us to reach our potential. Embarrassment will need to be forgotten else we will never make it.

Overcoming fear in the various sorts, embarrassment is one and a fear of a lack of income is another, is only part of what it means to start your own venture. Having enough start up capital isn't necessarily easy, but having a lot of money to burn does't help if you have no income. You need sales in order to give yourself an income. With each sale comes experience and another paycheck. "But what if neither come?" you might say, I can't start up on my own if no one will buy from me. This is the start of the cycle of thoughts that prevents you from starting in the first place. This would then lead to your venture failing and hence the embarrassment as you have to confess to your friends that you failed.

But let's have another look at this: how many of your friends, or parents, or teachers, have ever ran their own business? Some might have but I'd wager that very few have ever done it. I think the stats support this: most people are workers rather than business owners or company founders. That isn't a problem. Not everyone has the desire to do their own business and that's absolutely fine. It took me a long time to realise, and accept, that people are motivated by different desires. I would howl to my parents that I couldn't understand why people weren't motivated or excited by a particular idea that I found irresistible.

I have to admit that I also like to play devil's advocate and wind things up a bit to provoke a reaction, I enjoy being creative and I feel the need to take the bull by the horns whenever I'm in a group situation. Not everyone is like that, again this took me a while to realise even though it was pointed out to me. My father once said (paraphrase) "some people are vanilla but you have to accept them, they will often be willing and able to do the work you don't want to do." As a person that is often malcontent with the need to be busy, combined with the creativity, I find that my attention is not held indefinitely. I need new situations and new challenges to keep me going. This comes back to my earlier article about building the right team. Those that seek out new challenges and new experiences probably fit the entrepreneurial mould even if they don't realise it.

What happens if you have the awkward realisation that you are one of those people? Get a desk job and get working? In all honesty I don't think this isn't a bad choice: working provides experience and money. Both are useful in starting up, but neither are necessary. Fear will sway you towards starting a normal job and staying there, never being able to take time off for fear of not getting paid. The fear of no income which results in thinking about how to cover your bills. If you time comes you need to sacrifice some money and probably any extravagances in your lifestyle. By necessity I've had to cut down on the meagre extravagances I once had as a PhD student. Being a PhD student often comes with a grant, something like a salary but it is roughly equivalent to full-time minimum wage. It isn't huge but it is certainly comfortable.

You must be willing to give up the any excess in order to realise your potential as an entrepreneur. Few entrepreneurs have it easy, or get lucky, on day one. To end on a positive note I will quote the CEO of Tullow Oil, I came across this today and was amused (in a good way), it should serve as an inspiration to overcome fear and that regardless of money or knowledge it is still possible to be a successful entrepreneur:

"It started in a small town called Tullow, about 35 miles south of Dublin, Ireland. In the 80s there were loads of companies starting off in the North Sea and Irish Celtic Sea. I was talking to a friend of mine in the bank one day and he was talking about small oil fields in Africa, which had been left behind by the majors and had no-one to work them. That is where the idea came from. I contacted another friend of mine in the World Bank who told me about a project in Senegal. They had some small gas fields that they were trying to get people to develop, so I setup Tullow Oil to rework those old fields. I knew nothing about the oil and gas industry at the time, which made it more challenging. No one thought Tullow would succeed because of my lack of knowledge of the industry, no major backers and I was starting a company in a country with no oil industry."

Aidan Heavey
Founder and Chief Executive Officer