I disappointed an aspiring entrepreneur by telling the truth

I met an aspiring entrepreneur from my community who is currently working in a 9-5 job and he wants to quit and go all in. He wanted to listen to my experience and my take on starting a business. The first thing I told him is that it is so difficult. His face changed immediately May be he was expecting some delightful words. He might have had a rosy picture that running a business is all jolly good.

He said I can find investors, there is a 3 PhD holders team, R&D IP and what not. There is this one client who may pay for the product if they can build it spending 800k$. So on paper it’s just words and promises. I told him that a business should run not because there is funding, or employees are working hard, or there is a trend you can surf on. A business runs when there are customers who are willing to pay for what you sell. Simple. And that part is the hardest in an economically turbulent world. And when revenue doesn’t flow in, everything else becomes tough. I await invoices as small as 2000$ which were not paid by clients for months. I told him that you will be choked every month with no light at the end of the tunnel. May be I should have just lied to him it’s going to be awesome. May be I should have said more nice things but I had very few nice things to say. How would you describe your journey to an aspiring entrepreneur? Roses or thorns? Or a mix of both?