The business world is full of a lot of masking and pretence. One of the reasons that I like Kathleen Ndongmo is her non-nonsense approach to everything, including business.

This morning, she ran a tweet session on the Ten Lies that entrepreneurs Tell Themselves. And she told it as it is.

Miss Ndongmo does not blog, so here I am doing the honours on her behalf. What I have done here is copy and paste her tweets word for word, so as to keep the purity of her thoughts.

Having everything on one page like this should help digest those nuggets better.

Lie No 1: “We Have a Great Idea”: It’s hard for #entrepreneurs to look at their business concepts objectively.

Lie No 2: “We Don’t Have Any Competition” I haven’t yet run across a company without a competitor.

…Yet I’ve met plenty of #entrepreneurs who will state with a straight face “We don’t really have any competition”.

Bottom line: if you don’t think you have any competition, 99.9999% of the time you haven’t looked hard enough.

Lie No 3: “The Competition Sucks”: “We don’t have any competition” is d 1st stage of competition denial. The 2nd: that ur competition sucks.

That may be so but more often than not, this is simply an easy way of dismissing the risk posed by your competitors.

#Entrepreneurs don’t like to grapple with d notion that capable competitors with inferior offerings could still potentially eat their lunch.

Lie No 4: “If We Build It, They Will Come”: Marketing a new #business is hard. Getting customers is something entrepreneurs struggle with.

Instead of focusing on how to realistically acquire customers, many #entrepreneurs lie to themselves that marketing will take care of itself

Lie No 5: “Time Isn’t of the Essence”: #Entrepreneurs often think that their window of opportunity is far greater than it really is.

In reality, new businesses usually have a relatively short period of time to establish themselves.

Because the ‘business cycle’ will eventually catch up, every #entrepreneur needs to wake up every morning with a sense of urgency.

Lie No 6: “We’re in Control”: There are a lot of things #entrepreneurs can’t control. Such as timing.

When starting a business, things beyond ur control shouldn’t deter you but pretending that everything is within ur control can be damaging.

Lie No 7: “It’s Not the Product”: Most #entrepreneurs don’t like to consider d possibility of a flaw in product because it’s hardest to fix.

If u’re not doing as well as expected, ignoring d possibility that there’s a problem wit ur product could be the beginning of the end.

Lie No 8: “We Project That”: It’s impt to project but many #entrepreneurs look at projections as fact when in reality they’re usually way off.

As a rule, you’ll almost always underestimate the amount of money you need and the time it will take to break even.

You’ll also almost always overestimate how quickly you’ll get your product built and acquire your first customer.

Lie No 9: “Somebody Will Want to Buy Us”: Hehehe… This is not always a “win-win” situation.

It’s easy for #entrepreneurs to convince themselves that they’re working on something revolutionary that everyone will want to acquire.

Lie No 10: “We Only Need More Money”: If ur company is not doing as well as expected, it’s easy to convince urself that money is the cure.

Millions in funding usually doesn’t save some startups from the harsh truth: most businesses fail & it isn’t because they lacked funding.

Most good #entrepreneurs are realistic people. They need to be.

But if ur optimism leads u to look in d mirror & lie to urself about d state of ur business, it’s time for a reality check.

End of tweet session.

Don’t forget to follow Kathleen Ndongmo on Twitter.