Ege Haber Column – Being an Entrepreneur in Turkey: Hard, but a Good School

One of the first things I learned at my father’s corner shop was this:

No two days are alike.

One day business is great, the next day customers thin out.

One day the wholesaler changes prices, the next day someone from the neighborhood asks to put it on their tab.

One day there’s money in the till, the next day it all goes to pay for the latest delivery.

As a kid, I thought this was just the natural rhythm of life in a corner shop.

Then, when I started my own business, I realized that being an entrepreneur in Turkey is a lot like that too.

You make a plan, conditions change.

You draw up a budget, costs change.

You prepare for a project, the client changes their mind.

You think you’ve accounted for everything, the country’s agenda changes.

And you still have to open the shop in the morning.

Being an entrepreneur in Turkey isn’t easy. There’s no point romanticizing it, either. Access to financing is hard. Long-term planning is hard. Between economic swings, currency fluctuations, rising costs, collection problems, and regulatory changes, you often end up having to manage not just your business but the conditions around it too.

But here’s the interesting part:

At the same time, these hardships are an incredible education.

If you’re an entrepreneur in Turkey, you don’t just sell a product or a service. You also learn to manage crises, read people, make quick decisions, protect your budget, understand your customers, motivate your team, and change direction when you need to.

Some lessons that take long courses in other countries, life teaches you here hands-on.

Sometimes painfully, but it does teach you.

I’ve never seen entrepreneurship as simply starting a company. For me, entrepreneurship is a matter of character. Not running away when you see a problem, looking for solutions, starting with what you have, not giving up, and always learning.

And that, I think, is where the greatest strength of entrepreneurs who grow up in Turkey lies: adaptation.

We often learn to do business without waiting for the perfect system. We make decisions with incomplete information. We come up with solutions on limited budgets. When resources are scarce, creativity rises. When the road is closed, we take a side road.

Sometimes it’s exhausting.

But it also builds a very powerful reflex.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should normalize our problems. A more predictable economy, stronger financing models, university–industry collaboration, structures that support entrepreneurs, and firmer legal ground are essential.

But despite all the shortcomings, there’s a very strong entrepreneurial spirit in this country.

Because Turkish entrepreneurs are raised in the field, not behind a desk.

That’s how it went in my story too. When I founded M3 Works, I didn’t have big capital. But I had energy, I had ideas, and I had a mind ready to work. I made mistakes, I saw what was missing, I failed at some things and grew with others.

Looking back today, I can see that one of my best schools was being an entrepreneur in Turkey.

Because being an entrepreneur here doesn’t just teach you business.

It teaches patience.

It teaches flexibility.

It teaches you how to build relationships.

It teaches you how to stay on your feet in a crisis.

And it teaches you one more thing:

Perfect conditions may never come.

But you can start anyway.

Maybe that’s the most beautiful thing about entrepreneurship in Turkey. This is a country of people who keep trying to create against all odds, who find a way, who get back up even when they fall.

Is it hard?

Yes, it’s hard.

But then again, the best schools are often the hard ones.

Source: Ege Haber ↗