Is it time to cash in on your skills?

Entrepreneurs are compulsive learners.
In the early days, it is an unfair advantage. Or even a requirement.

Entrepreneurship demands that we be all-terrains. We need to understand the different aspects of the business, from innovation to operation. The founder is responsible for turning the idea into a purchasable product.

Sometimes, injected capital allows her to outsource parts of the process, but the responsibility remains hers.

But more often than not, bootstrapped founders must adapt and learn how to do a bit of everything themselves—design, coding or manufacturing, selling, after-sale, and customer support. The game is to be as good as possible in as many of these areas as possible.

By doing it day in and day out, for months or years, entrepreneurs become multi-specialists. They can pretend to hold many traditional positions in a typical company.

In addition to these skills, entrepreneurs develop meta-skills, such as a good understanding of the production process as a whole and, more importantly, the capacity to solve all kinds of problems in uncertain environments.

The repeated confrontation with problems gives entrepreneurs a unique relationship with them. First, they tend to consider challenges as "business as usual" and keep cool in the face of them. Second, they recognize both problem patterns and approaches to solving problems.

Most businesses fail or never survive past a few years. Even companies with revenue can shut down due to a lack of sufficient growth.

Depending on your life season, your risk threshold might be super high, super low, or somewhere between.

It's time to think about it.

Failure to reassess where your risk tolerance lies puts you at risk of taking too much risk, given your current situation.

Your risk tolerance should be a key factor in determining your next move.

If your risk tolerance has decreased significantly, it might be time to really consider consolidation. You need to ask yourself: Given my risk appetite and what I've learned, what next endeavor makes the most sense for me?

The answer may or may not be to start a new business. It may be time to cash in on all these outstanding abilities you have developed.

You have the ingredients. Now bake the freaking cake!

To some, it will mean going into consulting (oh no! not the c-word!) or finding a well-paying job. Entrepreneurial profiles are attractive to interesting companies.

Regularly assessing your situation is part of our job as entrepreneurs. Otherwise, we might ruin our lives, stuck in a high-risk context because of sheer habit.