Read the full transcript of Mark Leruste’s talk titled “What They Don’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship” at TEDxCardiff 2017 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
MARK LERUSTE: At TEDx, about to give a killer talk. If only they could see me now. Next up, Oprah. Hashtag living the dream. Hashtag winning.
Hashtag crushing it. How could I forget? My life is amazing. I wake up at five AM every day with a big smile on my face. And that’s without an alarm clock. And you know why?
Because my passion wakes me. You see? After an hour of power yoga, I hop in a cold shower where I visualize my goals before I jump on a podcast and green a green smoothie. That’s before most of you have even had time to scroll through your first social media feed. Yes.
Unlike you, I have the freedom to decide how I spend my days. I go on holiday when I want, where I want, and for how long I want. But you already know that because you obviously follow me on Instagram. You see, success is my first, last, and middle name. Yes.
You’ve guessed it. I’m an entrepreneur, and I’m living the dream. It’s funny because it almost sounds true. And it makes me wonder, who is that guy? Well, that’s me. At least that’s what you would think if you looked at my social media feed.
The Rise of the Superstar Entrepreneur
You see, we’re currently riding a wave where entrepreneurship is hip. And like any fad, when it doesn’t go to plan, it’s really easy to put up a brave face, keep up appearances and pretend like you’re successful even if you have no idea what you’re doing. But when did it become cool to become an entrepreneur? In fact, who here runs a business? Do you feel cool?
Because I don’t know about you, but I do not feel cool. In fact, most of the time, I feel lonely. I worry. I stress about money on a daily basis. And this was so not meant to be the plan.
You see, about a year ago, almost to the day, I quit a job after spending a decade working across the corporate sector, the non for profit and the charity sector, thinking that if I quit my job, everything I ever dreamed for in life would come true. Because obviously being your own boss means that you have the flexibility, freedom and success is bottomless. But it wasn’t the case. You see, maybe what it looks like on the outside through all my podcasts and YouTube videos, it looks like I’m having a ball of a time. But I actually spend eighty percent of my time staring nothing but a screen.
And sometimes, I don’t even bother leaving the flat or wash. But don’t tell my girlfriend that because she thinks I do. And this this got me thinking. It’s it’s the same thing that when my friends call me up and say, “Hey, Marj, you want to catch up for a beer?” And I say, “I’m sorry. I’ve got other plans. I’m busy.” But I’m not busy. I’m just really, really worried about how my business is actually doing, and so I feel like I can’t share that. And this is something that I’ve seen over and over again.
The Lonely Journey of Entrepreneurship
So I’m the host of the most unpronounceable podcast ever known to mankind. As dyslexic, I could have picked a better name, The Unconventionalists. And effectively what it is, I get to speak to a whole bunch of really exciting people from all walks of life who’ve experienced different levels of success. And let me tell you this, it doesn’t matter if you’re a one man band or if you’re a business with one thousand employees, if you have one hundred followers or if you have one million, the resounding feeling is how tough the journey is and how lonely it can sometimes feel. Now if you look at the statistics, it’s pretty scary.
Out of the five point five million businesses in the UK, seventy six percent of them were started by people who employ no one but themselves. So it’s a pretty lonesome journey, to say the least, for almost three quarters of us. And yet we feel like we can’t open up and talk about it because we’ve made up that tears don’t sell. And so we live with this dirty little secret, except this secret is something that everyone who’s ever started a business knows oh too well. And I started thinking, if you look at the statistics and you look at company house data, it looks like actually in twenty sixteen, it was another record breaking year of seventy five new businesses every single hour.
That’s insane. Bloomberg says that actually eight out of ten entrepreneurs fail within the first eighteen months. And there was a study by the Professor Michael Freeman from the University of California that basically studied the link between entrepreneurship and mental health issues. And he found that one in three entrepreneurs experiences depression. When the hell did entrepreneurship become trendy?
Especially when you look twenty years ago and it was basically a bunch of geeky guys living in a box staring at a screen? Well, you see, when I quit Movember, I thought that everything was going to come to me. I could have never imagined that after spending four years in a dream job as country manager raising two point eight million euros for Men’s Health, hobnobbing with celebrities, being interviewed on national television, and being part of an incredible team, all that to start my own business would be so tough and lonely. So when my friends and family ask me, “So how are things going?” I smile, I grind my teeth, and I say, “Great.”
When really what I want to say is, “This is the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m really struggling.” And if you can relate to this situation, I want you to know that actually being vulnerable and telling your friends that you’re hurting is the best way for them to know you need help.
And I know that’s scary. But instead, I’ve been guilty of putting up a mask and feeding the myth that being an entrepreneur and living the entrepreneurial lifestyle is a lifestyle we should all aspire to.
The Disconnect Between Work and Purpose
And that got me thinking, surely there must be a reason why so many people are thinking about starting their business. Well, I think, this is my opinion, that because of the thanks to the rise of the superstar entrepreneur, including Elon Musk, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs, the rise of the superstar entrepreneur has given birth to the new aspiring celebrity of the twenty first century. Social media and front cover magazines have labeled it. They make it sound sexy and they make it sound cool. And you know what it is?
It feeds into our need to be recognized, to be famous, to be rich. But is the allure of being an entrepreneur for the chase of fame and fortune really all there is to it? No. It goes deeper than that. Consider the Gallup study that found that eighty seven percent of workers worldwide feel emotionally disengaged from the work they do.
And as a self proclaimed millennial, we’ve got a bit of a pickle, especially when you know that millennials are the most purpose driven generation in decades. So there’s no denying that we’re currently facing a crisis at work when it comes down to finding purpose. Take a look at this mythical ad of a dream job. And for those of you at the back who can’t read it, “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return, doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”
Would you apply to that ad? Well, according to the book, The Hundred Greatest Advertisements, five thousand men responded to Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ad ahead of his third expedition to the South Pole Endurance in the early 1900s. Five thousand people. And you know what else this ad could apply to? You’ve guessed it.
Pretty much any startup or any new business or any bold idea you come across. Because the way that he sorted out these five thousand applicants was by putting them either in mad, hopeless, or possible. And if you’ve ever tried anything bold in life, you’ll know what I mean when I say it’s very difficult to know in which category you come across. So the question becomes, why would thousands of people want to join Sir Shackleton down to South Pole? And wouldn’t this still be applied today?
The Quest for Purpose
And if you think it wouldn’t, think again. Mars One, a controversial Dutch company, announced in twenty thirteen that its mission was to establish a permanent human settlement en mass in twenty twenty three. Two men and two women would readily be sent and then four more would follow every two years. The catch? There is no return expected to planet Earth.
Labeled as the one way ticket to humankind’s biggest adventure, more than two hundred thousand people registered their interest in twenty thirteen. That’s insane. So actually, why would people join Sir Shackleton one hundred years ago? And the reason why hundreds of thousands of people are willing to leave everything behind to join history to the chase for Mars is the same reason why so many people are attracted to the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. It’s a deeper yearning for a sense of purpose.
Now Professor Steve Taylor, the senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, said that not having a sense of purpose makes us more vulnerable to anxiety, boredom, and depression. Because baked in every single human brain from our ancestors fighting our saber tooth tigers to us wrestling a really bad Wi Fi connection, we all have a desire for purpose. It’s our thirst for a mission. It’s our yearning for a quest and to fulfill it. Psychology Science even went as far as saying that having a sense of purpose gives you a much better chance of having a longer life than pretty much anything else.
So your life depends on it. It’s a bit of pressure. Right? Well, that kind of pressure is exactly where we go wrong about finding your purpose. You see, what really bugs me is that people make up that when you talk about finding your your meaning of of being or your purpose, you’ve got to find the meaning of life. You’ve got to find the meaning of your life. And that’s a really big ask. The way I see it is that if it was a thorny issue for Aristotle, then I should probably keep it simple. And if you don’t know what a quest is and you don’t know what purpose is, look around you. They’re everywhere.
They’re in the books you read, in the stories you tell, in the movies you watch. I’ve been obsessed with this concept of quests and finding a quest. And I’ve spoken to hundreds of people who started theirs. And this is what I’ve learned. They come in all shapes and sizes. They’re not measured by how impactful they are, but rather how they make you feel when you think about them when you’re actively pursuing them. I want to give you an example of a really small quest, what I’ve come to label MicroQuest. Now, you see, a few years ago, I had this really stupid idea to see if I could start a drink startup in seven days with one hundred pounds. And this was while I still had a full time job, by the way. So I’d wake up at six a.m., do recipes.
I was traveling. Try and cross the border of Belgium with one kilo of protein powder in your bag. And the crazy thing is that I ended up working my butt off for seven days, went to a festival in the woods, and I sold all my plant based protein shakes. I made a whopping net profit of nine pounds. It was the happiest I’ve been.
Of course, I had no idea if it was going to work. But actually, when you look at it, I was trying to answer a deeper question. Is it possible to start a business in a week with one hundred pounds or less? Now I can’t tell you what your quest is, but I can tell you what it feels like in case you hear it knocking on your door. It’s something that for whatever reason is grabbing your curiosity even when you don’t want it to. Perhaps you’re thinking about it when you’re in the shower or maybe it’s something to do when you’re doing over the weekend. But I’d like to share with you another example. Take Lori Portka who for a year and a half decided to paint one hundred individual pieces of art to one hundred people in her life who meant something, from her husband to her hairdresser to the mechanic. Her quest was to express her gratitude through her art. And in the end, she brought all these people together in a really emotional exhibition in her hometown of North Carolina.
Conclusion
Now, you see, this yearning we have of having a quest, having a purpose, is at the heart of why so many people believe that starting a business is the only way to get that sense of freedom, adventure, and purpose. But it’s not. Of course, it can be. And admittedly, it has been for me. Yes, a year ago, when I quit my job to start my business, it’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
But it’s also been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. And this is what I’ve realized is that actually, you think you want to start a business, but what you’re actually looking for is a quest. You can find purpose and meaning working with an organization and you can find it on your free time and you can find it on the weekend. If you don’t know where to start, which tends to be the majority of everyone I speak to, trust the things that you’re curious about. Follow the things that you’re interested about.
Those are your breadcrumbs. Don’t dismiss them. They sometimes feel like there’s no way I could be interested in barbecues or violin. And next thing you know, they lead you to your quest. Those are the breadcrumbs.
Trust them. And if they scare you, that is so good. Because what scares us most is most often what we most need to do. Take Paul Graham, the cofounder of Y Combinator, the most sought after startup accelerator in the world, who said, “It seems in order to do really big things, you need to start by doing deceptively small things.” So whether your quest is an entrepreneurial one or not, I urge you to start today.
Don’t wait. Because if everyone had a purpose, no matter how small, the world would be a better place for us all. Thank you.
