Starting a startup feels like playing golf in a hurricane. What should entrepreneurs expect at the start? The reality is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. A successful business typically takes 10- or 15-years to build. Many founders step into entrepreneurship with rose-colored glasses, but harsh realities await them behind the curtain.
Entrepreneurial success follows a power-law distribution, and rare, high-impact events control everything. The path to startup success resembles a roller coaster filled with unexpected turns and drops. Adequate funding becomes the life-blood of launching and running a business. A solid business idea might drive you forward, but execution needs more than passion and creativity.
The truth surprises most entrepreneurs - building a business means working six days a week with 12+ hour days. This level of dedication shows why a long-term vision accelerates sustained growth. Each entrepreneur faces multiple challenges, not just one. Bask Health provides business owners with the knowledge they need to deliver high-quality patient care while managing entrepreneurial challenges.
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Key Takeaways
- Validate first: talk to 10–15 ideal customers; pre-sell or take deposits before you build.
- Fastest cash: bookkeeping, cleaning, tutoring/test prep, and VA packages beat slow e-comm ramps.
- Digital scale: affiliate content, online courses, and micro-agencies grow without matching costs.
- Pricing - hours: productize services (tiers/retainers); lead with outcomes, not time.
- Lean stack: domain + one-page site, Stripe/PayPal, calendar, CRM/spreadsheet.
- 30-day plan: Week 1 interviews + offer; Week 2 landing page; Week 3 book 3–5 paid clients; Week 4 refine & upsell.
- Risk control: simple entity (LLC/sole prop), separate bank, basic contract + invoicing on day one.
- Bonus growth lane: telehealth and remote care models ride a long-term demand curve with lower overhead.
The reality of hard work and long hours
Every entrepreneur faces a reality check: your business will just need almost every waking moment. Studies show productivity drops sharply after 50 hours. Many founders work 60+ hours weekly, and 100-hour workweeks aren't rare.
Wearing multiple hats in the early stages
Starting a business transforms you into a jack-of-all-trades overnight. Most entrepreneurs start with no employees and must handle every aspect of their operation. Your focus and energy drain as you switch between the roles of CEO, product manager, sales lead, and HR director.
My experience launching a media company involved juggling writing, editing, marketing, investor relationships, and client dealings. One founder noted, "Multitasking comes naturally to the present generation entrepreneurs as they are taught multitasking abilities in this ever-changing tech-savvy world".
Despite that, this approach has serious drawbacks. Your brain undergoes two changes—goal shifting and rule activation—each time you switch tasks. This can eat away 40% of your productivity. Your brain takes time to catch up with different mental modes when you move from reviewing marketing strategy to analyzing last quarter's spending.
Balancing personal life and business demands
Entrepreneurs typically spend 9 hours on their startup, 8 hours on their regular job, 3 hours with family, and 2 hours lost to distractions. Personal time becomes almost non-existent.
"The entrepreneur life is 24/7, and I don't really separate work and personal. It has all just merged into one," explains one business owner. But sustainable success requires boundaries. You need specific hours for both work and personal time to avoid burnout.
Setting clear milestones and pursuing them relentlessly works well. Sacrifices become inevitable during intense phases, yet dedicated family time remains vital.
Why passion alone isn't enough
At Bask Health, we see founders who are enthusiastic but lack practical foundations. Passion catalyzes growth but falls short without strategy and execution.
The entrepreneurial trip demands blood, sweat, and tears—passion might accelerate early growth, but it becomes a distraction if you focus only on exciting tasks. You still need to handle critical operations like accounting, payroll, and legal compliance, whatever your feelings about them.
One expert points out, "If you're passionate about something that doesn't provide value to other people, you don't have a business. You have a costly hobby". Passion serves as fuel—skill drives success.
Success is uncertain, and the path is unpredictable
Uncertainty walks hand in hand with every entrepreneur. Yes, it is a harsh reality that around 90% of startups fail. This creates a skewed picture where success appears more achievable than it really is.
Why overnight success is a myth
"Overnight success" contradicts itself. People often label sudden achievements as the market's recognition of value that grew quietly for years. Each seemingly quick rise has a story of patience and dedication that rarely makes news headlines. Steve Jobs believed perseverance made up more than half the difference between successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.
How randomness shapes outcomes
Forces beyond our control shape entrepreneurial trips. Research shows the significant role of chance, luck, and other random factors in determining professional wins or losses. A talented person has better odds of success than someone with moderate gifts because they know how to make the most of chances. The statistics tell a different story, though - people with moderate talent hold more top positions simply because there are many more of them.
To cite an instance, see these facts:
- Your last name's first letter affects your chances of getting tenure at top departments
- The odds of getting cancer (which can derail a career) mostly come down to plain bad luck
- The time and place where you were born explain about half of the world's income differences
Building stamina for the long haul
Our team at Bask Health knows that running a business needs emotional endurance like a marathon runner. A SAS poll reveals 97% of executives think resilience matters most, but only 47% believe their companies show true resilience. Business leaders tap into "surge capacity" - emergency energy for short crises - but this energy runs out when stress never ends.
Smart entrepreneurs learn from their setbacks and keep their eyes on long-term goals despite daily hurdles. Any promise of "overnight success" is nothing but snake oil. Real entrepreneurs accept this truth. They build strong support networks, develop self-awareness, and accept new ideas to prepare for an unpredictable future ahead.
You can’t do it alone: the myth of the solo founder
The image of a lone genius entrepreneur building an empire by themselves is mostly a myth. Successful entrepreneurs know they need a strong team - not just themselves trying to handle everything.
The importance of a support system
Entrepreneurs can't thrive without emotional and professional support networks. Family and friends help maintain stability during tough times, while mentors and advisors provide guidance. Entrepreneurs who lack this support structure often face burnout.
Why collaboration beats lone genius
Research proves that teams with multiple founders have substantially better success rates. Companies with two founders attract 30% more investment capital, grow their customer base 3x faster, and scale more sustainably than solo ventures. Teams with diverse founding teams show 35% better results than those without diversity.
Delegation and team trust
Delegation challenges many entrepreneurs, yet it drives growth. When you trust others with key responsibilities, you can focus on steering the company's direction.
Through collaboration with Bask Health, we've witnessed how telehealth entrepreneurs who build strong teams achieve better results than those who try to manage everything alone. The best founders recognize their limits and look for people with complementary skills.
Note that needing others isn't a sign of weakness - it's just reality. No business has ever truly succeeded alone.
How Bask Health supports new entrepreneurs
Building a successful telehealth business needs the right tools, support, and mutually beneficial alliances. Bask Health has created a platform that helps entrepreneurs tackle unique challenges in the healthcare space.
Tools and resources for startup founders
Our platform removes technical roadblocks that often hold back telehealth founders. We've built a complete software system that lets entrepreneurs create digital health experiences at enterprise scale without any coding knowledge. Traditional approaches take months to implement, but our no-code solutions help you launch nationwide telehealth businesses within days.
You can create asynchronous telehealth questionnaires as easily as setting up an online store with our drag-and-drop builder. On top of that, our customizable white-label solution lets you brand the platform as your own. You'll have complete freedom to customize features and design based on your business needs.
Community and mentorship opportunities
A strong community plays a vital role in entrepreneurial success. Research shows entrepreneurs with mentors are 5× more likely to launch, grow, and keep their businesses running. Members of professional communities often share their wins and explain how they achieved them.
We connect telehealth founders with resources through mutually beneficial alliances that help them understand regulatory requirements and develop their business. Research backs our approach, showing that long-term business success comes from building a core group of supportive people.
Why choosing the right partner matters
Picking the right business partner ranks among the most crucial decisions entrepreneurs make - it directly affects their growth and stability. Look beyond shared goals to evaluate whether skills, reputation, and communication styles align.
Trust forms the cornerstone of any successful partnership. Without it, chances of success drop significantly. Our platform data show that entrepreneurs who team up with partners with complementary strengths build more eco-friendly telehealth businesses than solo ventures.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship stands as one of the most challenging yet rewarding paths anyone can choose. The experience needs realistic expectations right from the start. Most successful businesses take a decade or more to reach their full potential, so patience becomes just as important as innovation. Hard work is just the beginning - you'll likely put in 60+ hours every week.
Raw passion won't keep a business going through tough times. Successful entrepreneurs blend that original spark with practical skills, strategic thinking, and knowing how to execute day after day. The idea of a solo founder needs to be put to rest. No entrepreneur makes it completely alone, and those who build strong teams perform better than lone wolves.
Luck and chance play a bigger role than most people admit. Your talent improves the odds, but countless outside factors beyond your control shape the outcome. This uncertainty makes resilience and adaptability must-have qualities.
Our team at Bask Health knows these realities firsthand. Our platform helps telehealth entrepreneurs navigate these challenges. We provide both the tech backbone and community support they need. The entrepreneurs who succeed are those who see their business clearly. They know what lies ahead and build systems and partnerships that increase the impact of their vision.
Starting a business feels like playing golf in a hurricane. But entrepreneurs can weather the storm with good preparation, support, and realistic expectations. The path might take unexpected turns, but those who stay flexible and work with talented partners find their way. Entrepreneurship asks for everything you've got—and then some more. Yet for those ready to take this path, few experiences offer such growth and fulfillment.
References
- Shopify. (n.d.). What must an entrepreneur assume when starting a business? Retrieved December 3, 2025, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-must-an-entrepreneur-assume-when-starting-a-business
- Kakko, A. (n.d.). The illusion of startup success recipe: Unraveling myths, embracing reality. LinkedIn. Retrieved December 3, 2025, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/illusion-startup-success-recipe-unraveling-myths-embracing-aki-kakko-mmiqf
- Sky’s the Limit. (n.d.). Entrepreneurs. Retrieved December 3, 2025, from https://www.skysthelimit.org/entrepreneurs
