If there's one thing K.P. Reddy has plenty of, it's entrepreneurial experience---the good and the bad.
The founder of several successful startups, a lead investor in the Atlanta Tech ecosystem and the architect behind BuiltTech Labs, an incubator for startups in the architecture, engineering and construction industry, Reddy offers the experiences behind his success and failures over nearly 25 years in a new book.
His first literature debut "What You Know About Startups Is Wrong: How to Navigate Entrepreneurial Urban Legends That Threaten Your Relationships, Your Health, Your Finances, and Your Career" released earlier this year details the challenges entrepreneurs face during the launch of their startups and what mistakes they can avoid. Reddy calls it "the anti-startup hustling book."
"This idea that everyone’s being told to hustle harder, wake and grind, I saw this hashtag #startuplife, and it's people chugging Red Bull and doing all this other stuff...The thing I’ve realized in my career, once you’re an entrepreneur, you’re not going back," he said. "Even if you do have exits, a true entrepreneur is never going to sit on the bench. You may sell your company for a billion dollars but you’re going to try to build another company for $2 billion, that’s just nature of what we do and so really tapping into this idea that once you choose to be an entrepreneur, it’s more of a lifestyle choice...It's kind of telling people to slow down, be deliberate and know that you’re in it for the long haul."
What started as a personal project to journal his life for his children, turned into an expose of Reddy's lessons as an entrepreneur; he keeps negative experiences focused on himself and positive experiences on the people in his life. Details of how his hustling lifestyle contributed to his divorce and even a near-death experience are woven throughout the guide.
"I passed out on a plane and had to be resuscitated," he said. "And it’s all in the name of hustling to that next exit, hustling to that next milestone and living my life that way."
Reddy said he wants entrepreneurs to stay focused on the big picture, despite the rise of "Shark Tank culture," as he likes to call it, where everyone wants to start their own business. The general attitude among startups, he said, is if you're not killing yourself, you're not working hard enough. Instead, Reddy asks entrepreneurs to question why they should work on something and what's the best way to accomplish their goals.
"Part of the mission of the book was if you’re a corporate (employee) or a person working a job and you’re thinking about doing a startup, please read my book first before you make that decision and please make your significant other person read it, too," he said. "Because I learned this the hard way, your significant other or your parents will be supportive of anything you do. They’re never going to say, 'No, you’re too stupid to have your own company...they’re always going to be super encouraging of anything you do, until you second mortgage the house...It’s tough stuff and I think there’s a lot of people jumping into that maybe should rethink it before they do it."
The no. 1 mistake Reddy said he sees entrepreneurs make is getting attached to their startup. At BuiltTech Labs, for several companies in the early stages of the incubator, Reddy said he refuses to allow the founders to name their company to avoid establishing a personal connection to it. Entrepreneurs, he said, should focus on treating their startup like a project and work on developing and cultivating lasting relationships that will survive beyond their business.
"If you lose your personal support system and your relationships every time you do another project, you’ll never get anywhere," he said. "You’ll never be happy."
More than anything, Reddy said he wants business owners to give themselves permission to take a break, to not work all weekend and focus on the grand scheme of life. The greatest lesson he said he's learned from his mistakes is how easily the stress can cause irrevocable events, even ones that can end your life.
"It can be life and death," he said. "It can ruin the rest of your life. It’s seems like this far-fetched thing...(but) it happens fast."
"What You Know About Startups Is Wrong: How to Navigate Entrepreneurial Urban Legends That Threaten Your Relationships, Your Health, Your Finances, and Your Career," is available at Amazon for $15.00 per paperback or $9.99 for a Kindle edition.
