There's No Reason in 2016 to Do What you Hate

When most people think of early entrepreneurs, they often think of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. However, entrepreneurs have been around much longer than just the past half of a century. Entrepreneurship has been around since the beginning of time. How else would so many of the world’s largest, oldest businesses have ever started? They all were created by entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs have been around for years, but the business seems more prominent today than ever. According to Forbes, there are more entrepreneurs in the United States today than there were just 15 years, the peak of the dot.com bubble. While the total number of entrepreneurs makes up less than 0.01% of the total population, it’s clear that entrepreneurship is more popular in the past five years than it ever has been – at least in US history.

There are plenty of reasons for this. One of them is the high value placed on startups by investors. It seems like there’s a startup achieving something new and impressive every day. These startups are so impressive that they receive an incredible amount of funding from investors. These investments only go to facilitate the ease of becoming an entrepreneur.

Lastly, another huge benefit to today’s entrepreneurs is that current costs for entry is incredibly low. Entrepreneurs can create super-cheap websites, use social media as a medium for marketing and ultimately build the base of a successful business until they have the money, and market share, to expand into larger endeavors.

So with this being perhaps the greatest era for entrepreneurs, what are the reasons for you to put off your goals of entrepreneurship? The answer: there are none.

Internet of Things

To understand why entrepreneurship is so much more successful today than it ever was, look no further than the internet of things. The more connected everything becomes, the more opportunities we have to create groundbreaking ideas. Someday, everything will be connected to the internet. Until that happens, there will always be room for entrepreneurs to help create the next big step.

The growing size of the internet of things expands the way we can think creatively. Who would have thought that thirty years ago that some of the most successful new businesses were places where people could connect from across computers? The advent of social media came from an idea, and that idea would have never existed without the internet.

For modern startups, embracing the internet of things is a way to create the next multimillion-dollar startup. Companies like Snapchat are taking social media to the extreme, focusing almost exclusively on visual media sharing. Other apps like Venmo are reconstructing the way we view modern banking – to the point that major banks are devising ways to prevent Venmo from absorbing all their potential deposits.

The bigger the internet of things gets, the more opportunities we, as entrepreneurs, have. Each major breakthrough in business will open up the doors for numerous other businesses. The rise of Facebook and Twitter has gone to create the role of social media manager, a position which never would have existed without the internet. Digital marketing, a field where I’ve had success, relies on connectivity.

For entrepreneurs, this could be the greatest single era to start a business. If you’re one of those people that hates their jobs and dreams of quitting and starting a business, then now is the time. Some people, such as AOL founder Steve Case, believe that entrepreneurship is only going to get tougher from here on out. While Case could be wrong, it’s hard to imagine it becoming any easier to switch into the entrepreneurial field than it is today.

Modern Entrepreneurship

Today’s world has a position for any passion. People who have been adept at social commentary can now make a living as a YouTube star, and live streaming has only helped develop competitive video gaming into a million-dollar industry.

Literally anything is possible in today’s day and age when it comes to being an entrepreneur. So, if anybody can create a business today, statistically one of the greatest eras for entrepreneurs, then what’s stopping you?

If you’ve ever wanted to be an entrepreneur, there’s no excuse for not being one now. This is the perfect time to enter the entrepreneurial field. Modern entrepreneurs aren’t attacking each other, either – entrepreneurial collaboration is proven to breed more success than cutthroat competition. You could easily work with other would-be entrepreneurs toward a common goal without losing sight of your original goal.

The vast size of the internet also gives us immediate access to any type of information. Even if you aren’t interested in becoming an entrepreneur, you can still easily find something that fits you. There’s no reason to be doing a job you hate – you can jump into another job seamlessly.

This is something that millennials understand better than others. Millennials are less likely to stay with their first employer than any other generation has ever been. Because of this, businesses are now expecting employees to stay for just a couple of years. If you don’t like your job, then leave it – there are people that understand if you want to move jobs. If millennials are moving around until they find something they like, then anybody can.

My advice to those of you who hate your job: quit. There are myriad options out there. You don’t have to settle for anything less than what you want. If you have the drive and you commit yourself, you can land the job you want or star the business you’ve dreamed up. It’s never been more easily achievable than it is today, so go do it.