Why Entrepreneurs Seem Odd

"If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you probably need to be a bit odd."

Odd in the sense that you notice things others don't. You ask questions that most people nod at. You feel a nudge of discomfort when something is clearly broken, and instead of ignoring it, you take it personally.

It sounds noble. In practice, it often just feels lonely.

Absurdities Stack Up

Living and working in Slovenia and Austria, I'm surrounded by rules that feel out of sync with logic or fairness.

Some are small, but they add up:

• You pay to publish your financial report with AJPES if you use double-entry bookkeeping. It doesn't matter if you're a sole proprietor making €30,000 per year.
• That report becomes public. Anyone can look up your name and see exactly how much you earned.
• Meanwhile, AJPES charges €5,000 a year for API access to the same dataset, monetising it from both directions.
• Want to know what a public government employee earns? You won't. That data is not publicly available.

It gets more bizarre:

• If you're a sole proprietor working as a software developer from your own home, where you already pay for household trash collection, the law still requires you to sign a separate bilateral garbage collection contract for your business.
• Have a TV in your Airbnb? Doesn't matter if guests turn it on. You're paying RTV, IFR, and other fees.
• And don't forget the €600+ per month in compulsory health and pension contributions just for running a one-person business.

These rules don't feel designed for builders. They feel designed for compliance and to make sure you don't ask too many questions.

Similar patterns exist everywhere. Different countries, same underlying disconnect between bureaucratic logic and entrepreneurial reality.

When Does a Service Become Just a Fee?

I broke part of a tooth recently. Nothing dramatic, just one of those things you want fixed quickly because your dentist says, "asap is best."

So I emailed. Politely.

"Hey, just broke a tooth. When could I come in?"

Their reply?

"We're fully booked. No available dates in the near future."

This is a service I've been paying into every month. Like clockwork.

At some point, we need to ask:

When does a tax become a fee? If I can't get help when I need it — What am I paying for?

It's not just about teeth.

It's public healthcare. Public pensions. Public services. We're told they're here for us. But try to use them.

This disconnect between promise and delivery is what entrepreneurs notice first. It's the gap between how things are supposed to work and how they work.

Different Levels of Types of Engagement

I've started thinking about people as operating on different levels of awareness. Not as a hierarchy, but as a framework for understanding how differently we each experience the same system.

• The Rule Followers operate day-to-day within existing structures. They trust headlines, believe recycling works because of bottle deposits, and defend systems they don't fully understand because they assume someone else thought it through. This isn't criticism — most people have enough on their plates without questioning everything.
• The System Architects shape what others see and believe. Politicians, media, bureaucrats. They benefit from complexity and have incentives to maintain it, even when it doesn't serve the people it's supposed to help.
• The System Challengers don't just live inside existing structures — they actively push against boundaries. They spot inefficiencies, question assumptions, and build alternatives. This includes entrepreneurs, but also reformers, activists, and anyone who refuses to accept "that's just how it works."

But even within those broader roles — followers, architects, challengers — there's a more personal, emotional layer. How people feel about those who build outside the system says a lot about how they relate to risk, change, and discomfort. Not everyone fits neatly into one category; many drift between them over time. Still, certain patterns emerge when you watch how people respond to those who try to build something new.

Different Levels of Types of Response

Here's what I've noticed:

• The Envious: Some envy entrepreneurs. They don't mock them directly, but they hope they fail. They assume success means shortcuts or cheating. "They probably inherited something," "they just got lucky," or "they're probably evading taxes."
• The Sideliners: Some are just minding their own business. They're not bitter, just focused elsewhere.
• The Burnouts: Some tried to build and gave up. They know the pain.
• The Builders: Some are quietly building, wrestling with the grind.
• Those who made it: A few have made it. You might not hear from them. Not because they're secretive, but because they know how little most people would understand.

You can't compare the outlook of someone with fixed income and job protections to someone whose survival depends on spotting opportunity, solving problems, and pushing through friction daily. The lived experience is completely different.

Bitter or Builder?

Here's the dilemma I've been facing:

• Do I keep noticing everything that's wrong and let it make me bitter?
• Do I keep collecting these absurdities until I burn out?

Or do I do what entrepreneurs are supposed to do?

See unfairness, and build anyway.

The answer became clear through action, not philosophy. Every time I've built something that worked. Whether it was streamlining a process, solving a real problem, the frustrations faded into background noise.

I once sold two websites for €100 each.

"People laughed — '€100 for a website? That's not a business.' But it was a start."

The answer was, I didn't focus on the price. I focused on building the system. I optimised, I streamlined, I delivered. And I made it work.

That's what entrepreneurship is. You don't get rewarded for your opinions. You get rewarded for solving real problems.

Zooming In

The system may not change. The taxes may stay high. The bureaucracy might remain confusing.

But I can choose how I respond.

I can zoom in so deeply on the problems I'm solving that the rest becomes background noise.

If "Rule Followers" can spend their days inside Instagram, brunch, and yoga, then I can live inside my mission. Inside my build. Inside the thing I care about most.

Final Thought

Entrepreneurship starts with discomfort. But it doesn't stop there.

It turns discomfort into action. Action into insight. Insight into a product.

That's the choice:

• Do I stay bitter about how things are?
• Or do I build something better?

You don't need permission to build. You don't need to pay a fee. Just persistence.

I'm choosing to build.

Thanks,

Matija