Social media is great for selling us on a dream, especially when you see influencers that you admire with those #bestboss coffee mugs — that’s enough to make most of us daydream of how great we could be as a boss! And admittedly, days off whenever you want them, no one to tell you you’re doing it wrong, no micromanaging, etc, are all attractive qualities of owning your own company — but the reality of it is that operating an organization — whatever it may be — is not always as glamorous as social media makes it look, and for every upside there are probably twice as many downsides.

Let’s think about it. Sure, you can take a day off whenever you want to without repercussions from upper management, but here are two downsides to that: you don’t have the security of PTO unless you specifically budgeted for it, and if you’re off, who’s doing your job? How is work getting done? If you didn’t plan for someone else to pick up the slack, well, you might as well be putting your business on hold — and you know what that means, no money.

What about the luxury of having no manager above you? Sure, you don’t have to worry about your manager not liking you or even firing you, but now you also have no one else to look up to for advice when something goes wrong — or even blame for when things go awry!

There’s a reason why most businesses fail within the first couple of years of startup.

“Data from the BLS shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more,” Investopedia notes in this article.

Often, new businesses fail not because they aren’t “good enough” but because they didn’t meet the entrepreneur’s expectations — however, any good entrepreneur will tell you that failing and being able to bounce back with another idea is just part of running a business. Elon Musk says “your will is the most accurate way to predict the future,” and considering who he is, we like to think he knows what he’s talking about.

Now, before you get totally discouraged, while yes health insurance, PTO and a steady paycheck are a couple of the upsides to working a standard 9-5 employed job, that doesn’t mean being a business owner is all bad either.

Many people get into business for the wrong reasons and with the wrong expectations. There is a greater risk with owning a business, but of course, that means the rewards are greater too if you put in the work and effort to make it happen. By being a business owner you have the potential to move up in the company nearly indefinitely, cut your own paychecks, and obviously, you make the decisions!

Businesses don’t often grow to be great by chance and as stated above, owning and operating a business isn’t quite as glamourous as it’s made to seem on social media, but clearly, it has a lot of upsides too or else people wouldn’t do it (and more importantly, stick to it.)

Running a company is undoubtedly a lot of hard work that requires unwavering perseverance through the good and bad (and there’s sometimes a lot of it), but it’s not too unlike investing in a house. It will require a lot of time and probably even money upfront, but if you can manage to stick to it for many years, by the time you’re ready to retire or let it go you may just be able to sell it for a considerable amount of cash. Or, rather, you may choose to pass the business down to your children — something you can’t do with a degree.

Many prominent families in the US, such as the Rockefellers, are proof that business ownership can set your family up for generations of continued success.

Whether starting and maintaining a business is right for you is truly a personal choice; 9-5s offer a relatively steady income, but is steady and comfortable all your made for? That’s for you to decide. My best advice for anyone looking to start a business is to pursue what you are most passionate about and stick through it for better or worse, and perhaps most importantly, stop comparing yourself to what you see on social media.