Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Serial entrepreneur, investor and Managing Partner at Prehype, Henrik Werdelin believes that making the same mistakes as others have is a waste of time. Therefore, he is passing on some of his best learnings here in this article.

“It suddenly hit me; I had been working for 15 years and according to the data I will live to be 100. I was not even a third through my career. But most advice given to entrepreneurs is about how to start a business – not how to run their career,” explains Henrik Werdelin, who has entrepreneurship in his bloodstream and could not imagine working in any other field.

-But how do you plan your career as an entrepreneur? Most companies have business coaches and employee development evaluations, but what do we have as entrepreneurs?

”We are just running around, showing people our latest website or app and hoping that they will buy, use or invest in it,” Henrik Werdelin laughs, but finds a serious face.

”I have worked pretty hard and feel that I have validated my entrepreneurial competencies to a point where I can talk about some of the things, that are difficult to talk about for first time entrepreneurs.”

According to Henrik Werdelin, many fall in love with the startup scene and the concept of being a founder without thinking too hard about what such a career decision will entail. Entrepreneurship is one long and often hard journey – even when you are successful.  It is easy to take on a lot of personal and emotional responsibility.

”It will not be as hectic as last time,” you tell your girlfriend, “the options will be worth something,” you tell the employees, “I have a plan for that, you convince the investors” and then you sit on your own at night and think, “how the hell do I grow this business and deliver the dream I have sold people?”

Henrik Werdelin believes that entrepreneurs are rarely exposed to tools that can help with those issues and generally, too many entrepreneurs are taking large unnecessary personal risks.

”I have a quite analytical approach myself. There is a smart way of being an entrepreneur and starting a business,” says Henrik Werdelin.

Five tips for the entrepreneur

Werdelin has five pieces of advice he wishes someone had told him 20 years ago.

Long term planning for entrepreneurs is hard, which makes it even more important to keep a range of options open at all times. Creating optionality is at the core of these five tips if you are planning a long career as an entrepreneur.

1. Make room to breathe in-between startups

Most entrepreneurs run very quickly from one startup to the next. Space them out a bit. Its okay not to know what you are doing if your startup is not working out – give yourself time to dust off the rubble.

2. Join a startup suited for your life

Choose a startup or problem to solve that fit what risk profile you have in your life at the moment. Some startup ideas are well suited for 20-year-olds that still live at home, some are better if you are 40 with two kids.

3. Be ambitious and have ambitious people around you

Be intellectually ambitious with the people you gather around you. Often picking the people around you – is more important than the idea you have for your startup. Finding smart people who share your values is key to a sane and successful life as an entrepreneur.

4. Plan for long term – be nice

It is a long game; you might have to work until you are 80. So you need to plan accordingly. Be mindful of titles and projects that you engage with. Will they be useful even if they do not work out?

Long term planning includes thinking about how you treat other people (hint: as you will meet them many times), how you need to keep in shape (you cannot afford being ill when you are a founder), and keeping your integrity as your ‘name’ is what you will be fundraising on.

In short; Stay friendly and be nice to people, do not slam the door when you leave companies or partnerships.

5. Deal with the anxieties

Find ways to deal with the anxiety of being an entrepreneur. When you have told you investors, staff, friends and yourself all the amazing things that you will you do, you will need to find methods to dealing with that pressure. There are different methods for coping with this. One is to exchange thoughts and feelings with fellow entrepreneurs (co-founders are great to off-load some of the emotional responsibility).

You can also try to find ways to accept that there are many highs and lows (mindfulness apps are one Henrik Werdelins latest tools). And find ways of working on problems that are meaningful so that it is easier to accept that its hard.