The Truth Is, You're Better Off Not Telling People Close to You That You're About to Start a Business

Starting a business means steering a business yourself.
In other words, even more than pursuing your ideals, you are required to minimize and avoid risk.

So, what kinds of "risk" are there?

Many people probably worry about running out of cash.
And if you run it with others, you might also worry about falling out with your partners or being deceived.

But there is an even bigger risk than those.
It is the dream killer.

The entrepreneur's great enemy: the dream killer

Dream killers are often not total strangers but people quite close to you.
Friends, coworkers, and family (especially parents, partners, and spouses), for example.

They are mostly like this:

• Their mindset is shaped by Japan's brainwashing education (no hope of change)
• They are fundamentally information-poor (TV and newspapers are their sources; online, they care about comment sections, etc.)
• Their money literacy is frighteningly low (saving is a virtue, faith in the pension myth, no resistance to mortgages, etc.)
• They see making money as dirty (grumbling enviously at news of rich lists, etc.)
• Their view of work is outdated (working by the sweat of your brow, putting the company first no matter what, etc.)
• Their view of life is outdated (owning a home is everything, frugality, luxury is the enemy, etc.)
• Their view of the future is outdated (worship of academic credentials, worship of big companies, lifetime employment, living on a pension in old age, etc.)

As you may have noticed, all of these are spectacularly wrong.

A while ago they may have been hard to notice, but now that the end of Heisei and of the 2010s is in sight and conventional wisdom is being overturned almost daily, driven mainly by technology, these mistakes are only becoming more obvious.

People who intend to start a business have the power to change themselves, so they take action. However, because dream killers are still brainwashed and by nature can't grow, you look like you've gone mad to them, and they try to stop your actions with ferocious force. And they're stopping you because they sincerely believe it's for your own good.

Dream killers will probably get in your way when you decide to aim for starting a business, and when your life begins to change as your business gets on track.

It's often said that you are the average (in personality and in income) of the five people closest to you.
When you move to a higher level, you fall out of harmony with those around you.

Don't let dream killers know you're starting a business

Now, on to the title.

Resistance from those around you when your business gets on track is unavoidable, but I strongly recommend keeping "I'm about to start a business" to yourself as much as you can.

That's because they will plant the idea of "quit" in your head over and over, in every way possible, and eventually you'll really start to feel you'd better quit.

When I started my business, I had no spouse or partner I spent much time with (and of course no children). When I quit my company, all I said was "There's something else I want to do." My parents and family live far away, and I've arranged things so we hardly ever talk about work.

My mother has strong dream-killer tendencies, so I tell her "only the established facts" and keep contact to a minimum (as of writing this, she probably still thinks I'm a company employee).

Also, from around the time before I started my business, my old friends mysteriously drifted away, and I naturally shifted to interacting with people in the several entrepreneur communities I belong to. I had been ruthlessly cutting off dream-killer friends — or rather, energy-vampire acquaintances and friends — so there was no particular impact there either.

Countermeasure: build cash flow with a side business

I was unencumbered, so it was fine for me, but if you have a family, or your company thinks nothing of holding you back from resigning, it may be tough. In that case, it's important to quietly start with a side business and build cash flow that exceeds your main job (it seems better to keep the side business hidden when you start it and while you're doing it, too).

That way, the sense of security makes it harder for the dream killers' words to get into your head, and the persuasive power of cash works more easily on those you share your life with, such as family and partners.

Conversely, if even your family or partner won't understand, you may end up separating, but you'll probably need to be prepared to accept that as unavoidable.

If you have their trust and actual cash flow to show for it, I'm sure they will understand. But if you can't hold out hope for that, you could say it's better not to start a business in the first place.