Entrepreneurship addiction not to be mistaken with work addiction, there is a field of study around the concept of addiction to starting businesses. This compulsion to create and grow new ventures (serial entrepreneurship) has been compared to other behavioral addictions such as gambling. For those of you who are not familiar with gambling addiction, it’s characterized by a hunger for the chase and the rush of the risk, and less about actually winning or losing. This obsession destroys the very last scrap of financial security, traumatizing and destroying their families as they were once traumatized by the same or other compulsive behavior in their home.
Here are ways you can address your entrepreneurship addiction:
- Take it ‘one day at a time, and ‘one business at a time’
- Prioritize businesses in which you’ve already invested time and money
- Be realistic about the amount of time that you can invest in new ventures
- Learn to say No – VCs look at businesses trying to first prove why it won’t work before they invest, and so should you
- Create a list of business that you’ve worked on and what happened
- Scrutinize your decision making in other businesses and look for the painful feelings and fears that might be influencing your actions
- Consider the possibility that you may be fabulous at starting businesses, but not as strong at taking them to scale.
- Identify strategies and metrics for when to exit the business
