Opinion: You can live like an entrepreneur this weekend

There are a multitude of enticing reasons to consider becoming an entrepreneur. Maybe it’s the liberty of being your own boss, the reward when you “hit it big,” or the recognition for your accomplishments.

But being an entrepreneur isn’t what you think it is. It requires sacrifice, discipline, intelligence – and a whole lot of faking it. That’s right, faking it. What if you learned the same entrepreneur that started Microsoft in their dorm room or Amazon in their garage, actually faked it until they found people to help?

Every enterprise starts with one person, and for a while, that person must perform every role the business needs. This is why entrepreneurs live by the phrase “fake it, till you make it.”

When decisive means productive, and the entrepreneur doesn’t know the right choice, they must confidently fake it. Entrepreneurs first imitate confidence, and as success happens, it turns to real confidence. As the business grows, they may find others that help them fake it better, until eventually they make it.

Hackers, hustlers and designers
The beauty of building a successful enterprise is that it necessitates many different people, with essential and varying skill sets. This is why successful ventures are often built on the relationship of two or three contrasting co-founders: Google’s Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, or Napster’s Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. All of these men were brilliant entrepreneurs, and each has a different skill set.

In Web/mobile startups, the co-founding team often consists of three distinct and complementary individuals: hackers (developers), hustlers (business/marketing) and designers (creative). Fortunately, the brains behind the original concept can be any of the three, they just need to take the first step: get the idea out there.

Today, ideas are flowing like never before. Thanks to healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems, entrepreneurs have a lower barrier to entry and more resources to develop ideas. Local co-working spaces, such as Originate and The Creative Foundry, help fellow entrepreneurs feed off one another, and business incubators at The eFactory downtown and the Hefner Enterprise Center in Ozark provide low-cost office space combined with mentorship and essential resources to help early stage entrepreneurs get their feet underneath them.

So you want to be an entrepreneur?
For those who desire to experience entrepreneurship, global organizations such as Startup Weekend enable anyone to try their hand at it.

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour event, which kicks off with dinner tonight. Shortly after, all participants are encouraged to give a 60-second pitch to the crowd about the startup they want to create. At the end of their pitch, they identify the individuals they need to help them make it a reality (a hacker, hustler, designer, etc). When all the pitches are done, participants vote on the top ideas and form teams according to which idea they believe in.

Then magic begins to happen. Within minutes, tables are crammed together and makeshift offices are brought to life with walls lined with Post-it notes, whiteboards and business canvases. Teams are given resources, coaches and mentorship from the region’s top entrepreneurs to help develop their ideas.

The goal is for teams to refine their idea into a minimally viable product by Sunday evening, when they’ll give a 5-minute pitch to a panel of judges from successful startups. Winners receive in-kind donations such as law packages for company formation, three months’ rent at a co-working space to help kick off their company, and gift cards to keep them caffeinated.

Perhaps you have a great idea, but you need to refine it further with a team. You might be looking for a co-founder, or you might want to create something without restriction and experience what it is like to be an entrepreneur.

Finally, you have a chance. All you have to do is fake it.

Chad Carleton works in operations for startup CellARide LLC and is an organizer for 1 Million Cups in Springfield. He can be reached at chad@cellaride.com.