Do you have EWS?
It may be contagious. It doesn't discriminate based on where you come from or what you look like. And it has side effects that others around you will notice. Symptoms of EWS may include but are not limited to:
1. Unable to stop working even when it's five o'clock
2. Forgetting what family and/or friends look like at times due to lack of
interactions
3. Hugely productive amounts of work produced
4. Health deterioration (this may not appear immediately)
5. Belief in the potential for great wealth
6. Desire to change the world, business paradigm or similar
7. Obsessing on some idea or work effort beyond what "normal" people would
8. Hobbies also happen to be work related
9. Belief the work practiced is an "art" not a science or easily duplicated activity
10. Strong sense of self (maybe too strong at times)
11. Money is a motivator but not "the" motivator
12. Boredom from normal job activities is intolerable (others might enjoy just surfing the web or instant messaging their friends during the downtime)
13. Not discouraged from failure and embraces business risks
14. No desire to be "cured" of this affliction
Do you recognize any of these symptoms in yourself or others you love?
Now, this may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I know how intoxicating being an entrepreneur can be and feeling like the world is about potential and how you may change it. Not every entrepreneur has all of the above "symptoms" - in fact many of the very best entrepreneurs do things that are net positive for the world and others even if they have a strong sense of self. Think about how Bill Gates has changed his public persona from entrepreneur extraordinaire to philanthropist.
One of the trade-offs an entrepreneur makes is you trade time now for time in the future. How can that work you say? The theory goes as follows:
You work incredibly hard, harder than any worker bee could possibly want to work to get a salary and in exchange for all that hard work, you have the chance to make more money than you will spend even if you never work again at some future but not too far off date.
Thus, you essentially are trying to compress more work into less time so that you can do whatever it is you want to do in the future, expanding your potential leisure time. Strangely, for some that end up making enough money to "retire early," they still end up working that hard again because they are addicted to the challenges and the chance for rewards. Again, that is part of the syndrome.
I'm not going to be a good example of someone who has beat this syndrome. I tend to enjoy my work much more than treating it just as a means to have a salary. It is an expression of my skills at a craft from many points of view. I also don't have any set limitations for myself where I feel "that's not my job." I've setup 401k and healthcare plans to payroll plans to accounting systems and managed all levels of personnel.
Since I have a software and systems engineering background, I have programmed frameworks and applications to designed scalable systems for products and consulting efforts. And of course, as a founder, I manage risk at the company by determining how to invest and capitalize efforts and handle cash flow and business strategy and operations. Being someone who just wants to work harder has meant that I know how to do a lot more than most non-entrepreneurs will get exposed to and that has made the work more enriching. In fact, I would probably be bored at most jobs that didn't require a multitude of these kind of challenges and tasks.
Entrepreneurs don't have to have all the skills I mentioned above to be successful and while some will have been exposed to many more, everyone will be different. But you will likely have to be willing to learn areas that are out of your comfort zone and work long hours to accomplish what needs to be done in the shortened time-frame.
If you feel like you have some of the characteristics I mentioned above, it is likely you are or have the potential to be an entrepreneur. Just remember that working hard doesn't equate with being successful and that success is always a self-defined state. If you don't feel compelled to work long hours or change the world, you can be just as successful as anyone that does because your success is what you define it as. But for those that have the symptoms mentioned above, the good news is that you are not alone and that others will be there for the journey if you remember to reach out to them.
