Is the pressure of Instagram stopping new female entrepreneurs?
The impossible benchmark that Instagram sets isn’t just detrimental to body-image and life satisfaction levels, it also creates an impossible benchmark (or a self-confidence sap) for budding entrepreneurs.
Had I seen these posts in 2009, whilst working from a 5 year old laptop at my kitchen table with a cup of instant coffee and no one but the Loose Women to listen to, I think I would have felt too much like a failure and have given up before I had even got started.
Self-belief keeps you going
Setting up a business is incredibly hard, unglamorous, unrewarding and quite honestly a lonely place to be, sometimes the only thing that keeps you going is your own self-belief and anything which erodes that for young entrepreneurs is a dangerous thing
Dragon’s Den is different
This may seem like a strange viewpoint for someone who has a certain level of fame from successfully gaining funding on Dragon’s Den.
The key difference in my opinion is that Dragon’s Den was about enabling a dream, not showcasing an illusion. It’s taken me the best part of two years to admit this to myself, let alone publicly but Instagram makes me feel inferior about my life and how I run my business.
Pressure to conform
There are many examples of famous introverts who are mega-successful entrepreneurs but for women in business pressure seems to be growing to have a ‘social media profile’ and conform to this ‘perfect life’ template.
If you are setting up a business try to remember that often behind most glossy Instagram photos, is a stressed out, tired, quite often isolated entrepreneur trying to make every last penny count whilst keeping a brave and smiley face on for everyone else to see and don’t let that illusion stop you from following your dream.