Entrepreneurship in Academia Is a Lonely Game

Here’s what nobody tells you.Building something truly differentis like flying a planewhile you are building it.When I first heard that in my PhD program,I did not fully get it.Now I do.Nobody really knows what to do.Nobody really knows the right course of action.There is no single correct answer.There are many plausible worlds.Many possible truths.And you have to pick one.Entrepreneurship research has said this for nearly 100 years.Entrepreneurs bear uncertainty.That is the job.And uncertainty feels awful.You will be embarrassed.You will think what you built is glorious.Others will roll their eyes.You will spend time.You will spend money.You will not have enough of either.People will judge from the sidelines.They will offer suggestions.They will not offer help.From the outside, it looks simple.From the inside, it feels torturous.Good science looks effortlesswhen you are not the one doing it.When you are in it, it is art.And art is painful.You will want to quit.You will think you are wrong.You will think everyone else must know something you do not.They do not.Most people never try.Of those who try, almost all quit.Because they thought there would be answers.There are never answers.There is just standing back upand doing it again.It is lonely.It is embarrassing.It is uncertain.And if you are building something new inside academia,this is the life you signed up for.That is my life with the R3ciprocity project.And I am still here.