I was on the phone with an admissions counselor for a graduate program in entrepreneurship, listening to her describe the quality of courses and professors and how this program would set me up for success.

But halfway through her pitch, I found myself asking “Is this true? Is more education the solution? Or is it delaying me from building the actual business now and learning through direct experience?”

That phone call made me realize I'd been doing this for months. I was searching everywhere for someone who would have all the answers.

When you start building a business, you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ve never done this before.

Building a business is overwhelmingly vague. You start with your idea of an end result but don’t know how to get there. In fact, there are endless paths you can take. How do you know which to choose?

I’ve considered getting that second master’s degree. And certificates. And online courses. I watched plenty of YouTube videos. I’ve read books about building a business. I’ve scrolled endlessly through social media. All in an attempt to learn how to do the thing.

Part of us is hoping that there is someone out there with the answer to our questions. The solutions to our problems. Someone who has seen it all, done it all, and is able to share that information with us so we can get to our desired result of a successful business (with less pain, struggle, and embarrassment).

Enter the Guru

There are countless people and services who offer solutions to ALL of our problems. They offer their “proven frameworks” which have “made them $X million.”

All you have to do is click here to pay.

And we fall for it because we’re conditioned to believe that a perfect solution exists in the first place. We ask a question and an expert gives us an answer. That summarizes the teacher/student dynamic in a nutshell.

This dynamic doesn’t translate to entrepreneurship where your specific market, timing, and resources don’t match the case study they’re selling you. When you’re building a company, you’re usually figuring out problems by yourself. It gets lonely and frustrating. The fear and anxiety creep in, making you ask yourself “What the hell am I even doing?”

The “advice industrial complex” exploits this gap.

You pay for “proven frameworks” for problems that don’t have standard solutions and opinions disguised as universal truths. The advice is too generic or irrelevant.

You’re still left with the original problem and no solution for it.

Three Truths About Learning Entrepreneurship

"Every successful founder you talk to says 'it depends' and 'under these circumstances.' If there were a money-printing formula, everyone would use it."

The Uncomfortable Truth

I’m glad I didn’t enroll in that graduate program. It was what I wanted at the time but not what I needed. What I needed was to start “figuring it out” and I did that by building my first business: ArtsyPetz.

Once you accept that you have to figure it out on your own, it’s freeing.

Community is about finding people who will help you build your capacity to make good decisions without incomplete information and without feeling completely alone. It’s not about finding another guru. It’s a mutual exchange with people who are also figuring it out.

The uncomfortable truth is that entrepreneurship is supposed to feel uncertain. That uncertainty isn't a bug you need to pay someone to fix. It's the crucible that transforms you from someone who doesn't know what they're doing into someone who can figure it out.