It's hype to be an entrepreneur. Or so they want you to believe.

And, here we go again... suddenly, the answer to all of our problems appears to be easy: Just quit your boring job, start up a business and live to be an entrepreneur. Better yet: Don't call it a business. Call it a start-up. And, of course, don't forget to put that on your LinkedIn profile. And, then, be prepared to became the next billionaire.

Of course it is NOT that easy. But that's what some so called "entrepreneur coaches (?)" want you to believe. The dark truth is that there is nothing glamorous about being an entrepreneur. Creating a successful start-up today is more difficult than ever. More than 30% of the newly created business don't survive their first year. And, out of the 70% that does, 50% doesn't make it to 5 years of age. Finally, from the ones that make it, the vast majority will not be able to generate an yearly revenue beyond a million. Sometimes, you can't even match what you made before, as an employee. Yes, even if you work your arse off.

It's easy to see that if we make a simple analogy: Let's say you quit your job because someone told you that writing books is what is hype nowadays. After all, they overwhelm you with successful examples, such as the billionaire writer of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling. You get motivated and you think "How hard can it be? I used to write a lot on my school days... And I can do it from home, or at the park, or in a Starbucks! Well, that's settled! I am going to be a writer!". Chances are you have forgotten a few details... for example, you have no idea about writing books. Or about the people who buy them. Or about anything on this industry, for that matter. Basically, you have no skills to succeed in that. But, of course, you go and do it anyways - you are over-motivated. So, let's even say you managed to get published. In the end, you realise you sold about 100 books over a year. Only then, you start asking yourself what went wrong. But now, it is too late.

Harry Potter is the Facebook of books. A Unicorn. It's a one in a billion thing. Harry Potter's success was not merely luck... there were lots of planing, studying, and time involved. Same as with the successful tech start-ups that became multi-billion dollar enterprises. Facebook, Uber, AirBnB, to mention a few. They did not became giants out of the blue. Sacrifices were made - sometimes, huge ones.

I am writing this because I have seen my share of good people quiting their jobs to start a venture without any planing or further consideration. And, unfortunately, as expected, they failed and became frustrated. They became statistics. And they loose all of their motivation to understand where they failed so they could give it another shot. All because some magazine or newspaper, from time to time, prints the top 10 tips from "successful" gurus about how to start your own business, become your own boss and make tons of money. Funny enough, most of those gurus haven't started their own successful ventures. Basically, they tell you how to do something they have never done. We call them "Stage Entrepreneurs".

Motivation is important, of course. But it is far from being everything. Specially if you are planing on a Tech Start-up. If you manage to create a business that survives 5 years or more, you can consider yourself a winner, already. Whether or not it will be the next unicorn, well... that's another story. Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean you are a billionaire. Or even a millionaire. It means a lot of hard work and time away from your loved ones so that, some day, (hopefully) you could harvest the results of this commitment.

Start a business, by all means. But do it because you know your stuff, because you really believe in it and because you have true passion about the subject, and not because someone else told you this is the shortest path to success. It is not.