Bizolver

There’s a lot of truth in what Steven Bartlett says in this post for most entrepreneurs.

this is probably an unexpected opinion coming from me... entrepreneurship is over-sold and self-awareness is under-sold 👇🏾

The not so popular truth is, most people would be happier with a good salary than a successful startup.

But social media continues to push a generation to optimise for lives they don't actually want.

Entrepreneurs like me get a lot of likes and followers when we tell people to quit their jobs and chase their dreams.

But here is the context that we nearly always miss👇🏾

Entrepreneurship can be really really boring - you will have to do things you do not enjoy.

You will deal with big, hard, stressful problems, every day - including bank holidays, christmas and any other time off - for years.

If you're lucky enough to be successful, the problems will get bigger, not smaller.

You will not have one boss. You will have hundreds - every customer, every investor, every employee. You will answer to them 24/7.

You will probably work 3x the hours you do now, have 10x the stress and a tiny probability of significant success.

A recent survey found 87.7% of founders deal with at least mental health issues. That's not a bug. It's a feature of entrepreneurship.

You'll see your kids less. You'll probably earn less (for years, maybe forever).

You will probably pay yourself last and as little as possible.

You'll struggle to switch off. Forever. Your phone will probably become a prison.

And here's the punchline: If you succeed, it all gets harder.

More money = more complexity. More growth = more anxiety. More success = more people depending on you.

In life, when you find yourself following someone else's playbook, you are at risk of winning someone else's prizes. All I'm saying is be intentional.

I'm not AGAINST entrepreneurship, I'm FOR self-awareness.

Truth "wealth" is probably👇🏾

✅ Knowing what game you want to play and why
✅ Having the courage not to play other people's games
✅ Understanding your real strengths and weaknesses
✅ Designing within them, not against them

Happiness is not about the structure, the social media post or the story.

Happiness is about alignment. Building a life that's aligned to whoever you are!

This does the beg the question, why do I do it?

If I'm honest, the answer is probably....I don't know.

It's probably some blend of lower t trauma, my inability to fit inside normal structures like school and conventional work-places (I was fired a few times), my adhd brain that makes working on something for 14 straight hours feel like 7 minutes and some childhood self-esteem issues.

Whatever the reason, this is who I am and what works for me.

This is the weird way I make myself happy and fulfilled.

To someone that is not me, it would probably feel like torture.

And to me, their life would probably feel like torture.

And that’s the thing… when you create a life that feels like home to you, it will probably look like hell to tourists.

Please know what you are not!

Wrapping up 2025 with the Navigating Change: Ethical Responsibilities in the Digital Age course via CPHR - CRHA

The course covers the basics of artificial intelligence and digital transformation in organizations. Although it was nothing new for me, I was glad to see my fellow CPHR colleagues across Canada getting up to speed on this topic.

Since Bizolver’s inception it has been dedicated to helping business and educational institutions be aware of and prepare for the digital transformation. It was obvious to me from my work at Xerox and Connetik Interactive that digital was an unavoidable revolution. It got a bit of a slow start but has picked up speed and growing ever faster.

Going into 2026 organizations would be wise to get their house in order in at least the following ways:

• Get your standard operating procedures updated and cleaned up.

• Tweak and update your policy manuals to be ready and resilient for change, especially regarding privacy, security and all things related to digital (which will pretty much eventually be most things).

• Hire and develop your people to be adaptive and motivated for change. They need to be willing to be trained on how to implement and use technologies as they are introduced to the organization.

There’s a lot more to consider but those are some of the takeaways from the course.