The Entrepreneur’s Journey Part 3
This is the third of a five part series on my reflections on the entrepreneur’s journey. Some of this is taken from my experience advising and counseling entrepreneurs over nearly 20 years of practicing law. Much of this comes from hard-won personal experience as I have worked to build my own businesses from the ground up.
Part #3. BUILD YOUR DREAM
If you’re reading this post, then you are already an entrepreneur or you are on your way to undertaking the biggest adventure of your professional life. In Part 1 of the series, I wrote about falling in love with a problem and the need to solve that problem. In Part 2, I focused on the need to be of service. Now, in part 3, it’s time to get your hands dirty and build your dream.
No entrepreneur has ever quit her job, cast aside security and set out for the open seas with the aim to do something average, something that’s just “ok”, something that people might like…maybe. No. The entrepreneur seizes an opportunity with both hands and runs with it, fully certain that this is the best idea to ever have been conjured up.
To put it another way, every entrepreneur is a dreamer who is trying to make their dream a reality. So…now your job is to dream big. It requires just as much mental energy, planning, and thinking to build out a small and unremarkable idea as it requires to build something grand and inspiring.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that only multi-billion dollar market ideas are worth your efforts. Not at all. You can apply your entrepreneurial zeal to a for-profit venture as well as a not-for-profit.
You could be trying to design the next killer app just as easily as you could be ready to solve social or health problems in third world countries or inner city ghettos.
In either case, you have a dream. Make the dream big. Make the dream something that you can share with as many as people as possible so that you can make a difference. Bring your dream to life and share it with those around you.
Most importantly, you have to build your dream now. Today. Start immediately. Make a plan. Do your research. And then get on with it.
At this point in the entrepreneur’s path, my view is that there must be a driving sense of urgency to everything you do. Something pushing you and compelling your actions.
A whisper in the distance has now turned into an Earth-shattering roar that you can not escape. You have every reason to do this now and not to wait for later. The thought of doing this “maybe later” is no longer enough for you because dreams don’t wait for later. Dreams don’t come around twice. Dreams are now. Your moment has arrived.
Unfortunately, many of us get bogged down in details. We get stuck in the mire of making business plans and talking to business partners, bankers and our friends. All of this discussion and planning slows down momentum and puts out the fire in your belly.
If you have found a need and can be of service and something is telling you to build more, then you have enough to start today. Now. Immediately. Do it without delay and with great urgency.
This is Part 3 of a 5 part series. Next week I will write about the importance of execution and being involved in the details of every part of your new business.
