The Emotional Roller-Coaster Ride of Entrepreneurship (Part I)
Dear fellow Founders and Entrepreneurs,
There’s an elephant in the room, in the ecosystem at large, that needs addressing and deserves some attention.
The emotional roller-coaster ride that we (all) go through.
Let’s face it, we’ve all been there at least once in our entrepreneurial journeys and the truth is that the majority of us continue to experience it on a monthly, weekly and sometimes daily basis. (I do).
In full transparency these past few weeks have been quite the roller-coaster ride for myself, it’s the reason why I felt so inclined to write a post on this topic.
So for all you founders out there, just know that you’re not alone.
It can be extremely overwhelming facing the everyday life stressors that stockpile on top of the many mixed emotions and feelings associated with building a team, a culture, a business.
Unfortunately, it’s just the way it is. At least that’s what we’re told and what we’re apparently supposed to say. But it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be that way.
So why do we all experience this roller-coaster ride that affects us in so many different ways? Stop for a moment and ask yourself what are the real reasons why we experience these moments of self-doubt while other times we experience feelings of triumph and like we’re unstoppable?
Well, there are many reasons. Most of them are right in front of our face, but we tend to get so caught up in our day to day “hustle” or chasing the future that we neglect any opportunity to take a step back and take a breath in the present moment.
In my honest opinion, a lot of it boils down to the many expectations that we face as founders and entrepreneurs.
These expectations are all around us and come from many sources such as our peers, our teammates, ourselves, and societal “norms” of what being an entrepreneur “should” be like.
The truth is that we’re faced with an incredible amount of pressure to succeed and perform at high levels, to bring in new clients, to hire new talent, to build and deliver the best product, to raise $X of capital and so forth. And if we don’t, then our “efforts”, according to society, are merely nothing but a “failure”.
It’s this pressure that then leads to these expectations forming internally between team members, by consumers, by your strategic partners and even by yourself. It adds up and it can take a toll.
And for whatever reason, there’s a picture that’s been painted and a stigma out there that exists within the industry for all entrepreneurs. One where we’re see an almost impenetrable and completely resilient.
What’s worse is that we’re seen as “vulnerable” if we allow ourselves to show any sort of emotion or show signs of stress.
While some of the above may be true (we are definitely immune to a lot of bullsh*t, we have to be!), at the end of the we’re also human and trying to better ourselves not only professionally, but personally as well.
Everyone only ever wants to talk about the glitz and glam of being a so-called “Entrepreneur” that rarely ever do we get to see or expose the other side of what it’s like.
There’s more to it than meets the eye, but just know that there are many different ways to face these roller-coaster like rides and keep a positive mindset going forward.
As you might have noticed from the title, this article is part one of a two part blog series.
The intended purpose of this part is to hopefully shed a bit of light on the topic and to create a healthy dialogue within the industry or at least amongst a few of you.
For the second part, Ill be talking with some fellow founders, getting their POV on the subject matter along with some tips they might have for dealing with these roller coaster rides. If you’re interested or know anyone who might be interested in contributing or sharing their thoughts please leave a comment or tweet at me to let me know!
