Setbacks come in all shapes and sizes!
I’m not one to spend any time moaning about my current situation or posting on social media every inconvenience that befalls me. It all just seems like such a waste of time, when you could be getting on with extracting yourself from whatever hole you’ve found yourself in.
However, i’ve well and truly caved of late.
When you start your own business it would be insanity to state that you do not need a bit of luck. Now luck, in this context should not be solely reserved for just your business, but also your own life as well. After all, if you are starting your own business, you’re putting everything into that thing; blood, sweat and tears! So, if you personally experience a set back, it will inevitably effect your business.
And that, is exactly what has happened to me. 3 months ago, my L5 disk in my spine decided to go walkies and found itself a full 2cm out of position, pressing into my S1 nerve.
Now for a quick science lesson, to give this problem some context. Your S1 nerve runs down the entire left hand side of your lower body. When this nerve is trapped by your disk, it causes searing pain down the your left leg and glute, 24/7. There is no escaping this pain, no position provides relief. Even my daily dosages of morphine where about as effective as pissing on a forrest fire! The most tolerable position was flat on my back, staring at the sealing. So, that is where i stayed for a full 3 months, until my recent surgery — which has appeared, for now at least, to have fixed the problem.
Those three months of not being able to effectively run my business has had the effect you’d imagine it would. Huge losses in revenue and customers. All of which coming only 6 months into its creation.
I’ve had to fight many demons to even get myself to the point were i’m attempting to save the situation. Whether I succeed remains to be seen. But it has taught me a valuable lesson.
When you put everything into a business, when every waking hour is spent working on it or thinking about it. You’re left with nothing when it suddenly comes to a halt. Before June (when my back went), I had no social life, no dating life and no hobbies beyond my work. At the time it’s what I believed was required to make a business work and to have it all undone so quickly by a slice of bad luck is eyeopening.
Of course, you should spend the majority of your time building the business that you love. If this is the hard part for you then your heart may not be in it. However, your work should not trump everything else entirely.
So, my personal goal for the remainder of 2017, beyond recovery, will be to become a more interesting person to talk to. Hell, it may even result in these blogs getting better!
