Most entrepreneurs are not failing because they are lazy. They are failing because they are busy.
In a recent conversation on Founders’ Battlefield, host CEO Mike Macharia challenged a belief deeply rooted in entrepreneurial culture, that constant activity automatically equals progress.
The real question, he argued, is not how hard you work, but whether your work is actually creating value.
The discussion centred on what Macharia called the hustle delusion; the idea that motion, meetings, and momentum are signs of growth.
One of the most memorable contributions came from George Ikua, a serial entrepreneur, who described a pattern that many people celebrate without interrogating, which is being labelled “serial” can sometimes mean you keep going up, then starting over, again and again.
“Starting a business is hard and the trap is that you get so used to hardship that you start mistaking struggle for progress. Even when it’s costing, you are actually even looking for harder,” he said.
Ikua’s breakthrough, as he described it, was realizing that growth accelerates when you align the work to your natural strengths.
“When you hit your natural state, the business stops feeling like constant resistance,” he explained.
His self-awareness was blunt, he can take an idea from concept to reality, but operations and day-to-day management are not his zone.
The shift for him wasn’t chasing the next opportunity; it was letting opportunities align to what he does best.
“Things that are not for you are not for you,” he said.
That honesty opened space for Suzie Wokabi, founder of Suzie Beauty, to describe a different kind of “delusion”; the productive kind that creates something that didn’t exist before.
She explained how she returned to Kenya after a decade in the US and found a gap.
“I decided to make my own. Cosmetics were largely imported and often not designed for local needs,” Wokabi said.
Wokabi’s story exposed a side of hustle that rarely makes it into highlight reels; product creation can feel exhilarating; running the business is “a whole other ball game.”
She described the strain of building teams, keeping product in stock, and trying to secure stronger backing to sustain growth.
The most emotionally charged moment came when she spoke about selling the brand to a larger group after four years. It wasn’t an exit framed as victory; it was framed as survival and stewardship.
“It was literally heartbreaking giving up my child for adoption because the brand needed a stronger home than she could provide at that stage. The pressure got so heavy that she recalls thinking,” she said.
Kaburo Kariuki, of Strategy and Consulting, pushed the theme further by challenging a cultural obsession with looking busy.
He described himself as “a lazy entrepreneur,” not as a confession, but as an operating philosophy: he doesn’t believe in performing work for appearances.
He offered a powerful reference from Greek mythology to explain why some people who “look” like workhorses are still more replaceable than those who solve the real problem creatively.
In his framing, outcomes matter, and sometimes the person who looks less busy is the one doing the thinking that changes everything.
Macharia reflected on this from experience. He described years spent growing markets for global technology firms; training teams, winning clients, expanding revenue, only to be edged out once those firms established themselves locally.
The hustle worked, but the ownership didn’t exist.
“I was very busy, but busy doing what exactly?” he questioned.
The answer, he suggested, lies in building what you own: intellectual property, systems, and capabilities that remain even as people come and go.
He compared it to construction.
“If everyone who passes through your business adds even a few bricks, the structure rises. If nothing remains after each cycle, you are not growing, you are looping,” he explained.
The conversation did not dismiss hard work. It reframed it.
Hustle is not the enemy. Delusion is. The danger lies in confusing activity with progress, proximity with power, and short-term wins with long-term value.
