“Maybe It’s Time for Plan C.”: This is a great article from the New York Times that talks about Rona Economou and her failed attempt at a chocolate making business along with examples of some others who were making big bucks at their jobs and decided to quit to go the entrepreneurship route for the simple joys of freedom and fulfillment.

Take Mary Lee Harrington who was a 32-year-old St. Louis native who gave up her $250,000 job at a white shoe law firm in London to pursue her passion as a wedding planner. After some time, working long hours and charging less to get her business off the ground, she found it too stressful and not financially rewarding at all. She found out the hard way that when you’re the own boss, your workday actually is never over.

So I really think the lesson from this is that a majority of new businesses do not succeed because the business owner did not have a great plan for initiating and expanding the business. It’s not enough to have an idea, you must also have the patience to start small, test your ideas and techniques all the time, and make sure that you can actually get some revenue going before going all in.

I think a key takeaway from this New York Times article is that it is not a lack of effort or motivation, but the ability to find a lucrative business idea and then carry on from that all important first step. So next time avoid spending all your money and also your precious time on a startup and just be able to do what you can in your free time and grow your business in a large scale when you feel the time is right.