You would love to believe it’s just a nightmare, but you’re served on a platter, wearing a half-torn suit due to the forks, in the middle of a table where your landlord, your current, past, and future employees, the government, wealthy and funded entrepreneurs, and the large multinationals who have access to your customers are dining. They feast and laugh behind your back while your family serves them, and the most important person in your family is the Chef, waiting in a corner of the table for the approval of the diners. A song called “This Time It Will Be Different” plays in the background.
The only thing that keeps you on the served platter is your own schizophrenia. “This time it will be different, this time you did a thousand and one things better than before, your day has finally come,” says the song’s lyrics. That day is an oasis for both you and any other person in your family who has been following your trajectory.
Almost a million spent! The funny thing is you would be a millionaire if you weren’t an entrepreneur.
The landlord asks for your head, claiming it’s the most delicious part of your body. A delicacy. Best served at the beginning of the month to ensure punctual boiling.
Your ideas are incredible, but there is always a factor you didn’t give enough attention to or that is simply out of your control: the market is not ready for your product, the competition does it for less, people are afraid to change the current status quo, you don’t have enough marketing and sales budget because all the money you had, and even the money you didn’t have, was spent developing the product.
When you are nothing but bones, this mongrel dog called Failure comes. It licks every piece of you, and the two of you try to dissect what went wrong this time, how much money you lost, and how long it will take to reincarnate and try again.
This painting is called “The Banquet” and it hangs in the brain of every entrepreneur.
Stélio Inácio The Entrepreneurial Experience