You see them everywhere in the news—teenage founders, twenty-something entrepreneurs crushing it with their unicorn startups. But here's what a lot of business owners are pushing back on: that narrative is kind of broken.

Lots of entrepreneurs hanging out online are saying the same thing: media love the outliers. They chase the rare, shiny success stories and completely gloss over how most people actually build businesses. The headline-grabbing prodigies exist, sure. But they're the exception, not the rule. What about the founders grinding for years before their first real win? What about the ones learning from multiple failures? Those stories don't sell papers.

It's a real problem because it warps how people think about entrepreneurship. If you're someone considering launching something, you're basically getting fed a distorted version of reality. The media incentive is clear—exceptional sells. So the average path, the messy path, the one most founders actually take? That rarely makes the cut.