Entrepreneurs, by nature, are creative people who get their energy from testing their ideas out in the form of a business. However, few are actually successful. One of the fastest growing forms of work today is entrepreneurship - owning your own business. By 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor predicts that the number 1 employer will be “self.”

The following 10 myths of entrepreneurship were originally published in the National Business Employment Weekly:

Myth #1: This is as good a time as any. These people are in danger of “entrepreneurship by “default” due to low income, exhausted severance benefits, or other financial reason. More than 50% of new businesses fail within 5 years, according to Dun & Bradstreet - a sobering statistic for someone thinking of starting a business on a “whim.”

Myth #2: All I need is a good idea. An idea is a start - but the execution is also critical. The prospective entrepreneur must either have business skills to launch and manage a business, or bring other people onto the management team that do.

Myth #3: I can do whatever I want now. Building a successful business requires much more than an interest in doing so, and even more than technical skills. Research to determine whether an adequate market exists for the product or service and personal evaluation to see that the person has business skills must precede launch of the business.

Myth #4: I’ll be my own boss. Working at a corporation with that *!@#? boss might not have been all that great - but as a business owner, every one of your clients is your boss. Are you prepared for that?

Myth #5: I’ll regain my respect. Because a job loss is very visible to friends and family (not to mention business colleagues), some people launch a new business thinking it will restore their self-respect. But the daily rejection common to new businesses can take it away again as surely as starting the business may have restored it.

Myth #6: I’ll get rich. Well, maybe eventually…but it takes most businesses 2 years to break even. Can your cash flow sustain that kind of a drain until it does?

Myth #7: I can do it better. Building a better mousetrap, leveraging other products’ weaknesses, works sometimes…but it must be an improvement that customers recognize, value, and will pay for. And if the new company tries to cut costs while improving the item, quality may also suffer.

Myth #8: If I can manage someone else’s business, I can manage my own. What a difference it makes to be responsible for all of the tasks that need to be done in the business. Many new business owners find they need to make quite an adjustment to not having a copy machine, secretary, and conference room readily available, not to mention employees to whom to delegate responsibility.

Myth #9: I’ll have more time for my family. Nope - most entrepreneurs work more than 60 hours per week at first, and unless they plan carefully, will be unable to take an extended vacation until the business is firmly established.

Myth #10: I’ll have more security. Successful entrepreneurs are calculated risk-takers, but uninformed entrepreneurs start businesses to create security (perhaps in reaction to a particularly difficult layoff). Security simply doesn’t exist in most businesses during the start-up phase - though of course it usually increases in the future if the business survives the critical first 5 years.

Overcoming this faulty thinking requires a successful business person to focus on a limited number of ideas, find a sustainable work pace, build financial reserves, orient their work around profit rather than growth, and delegating.