The Entrepreneur’s Marathon
You are the finish line.
Think about it…
Imagine you are going for a 5 minute drive around the corner. How would you prepare? You’d probably not put any thought into it. Just jump in and ‘do road’.
Now imagine you’re going on a 1 hour drive. To prepare, you’d probably need a playlist, a water bottle, your wallet and phone. Anything else?
This time, let’s say you’re going for a 2 day drive, and you expect some tricky terrain. You’re gonna exhale and look around twice before you leave. And you will want to pack a few things. Snacks, a few playlists, a bag of necessaries. A travel companion would be nice.
As an entrepreneur, you don’t know how long the journey is.
All you have is a compass and a vehicle. And one job: Just drive.
There is no finish line. So how do you prepare? What do you need to pack before you jump into that car every single day, and get closer to some other place you’ve never seen?
A few years in, this continuous journey begins to take its toll. You can’t push yourself to the limit every day for years and expect to simply recover later on. That’s an illusion of control. Your focus on recovery must be ongoing. Slowing down and refueling are as necessary as moving forward.
Service Regularly
To prevent and recover quickly from burnout, you have to run on clean fuel. Daily injections of things that bring you peace, joy, perspective. Meditating on your purpose, celebrating victories, seeing your positive impact on others, exercising or acting on your passion. Good vibes from those around you.
Without ongoing recovery, your fuel starts to get toxic. Toxic fuels are the pain of disappointment, anxieties, and envy of others’ progress. They will slow you down. They will kill you, and those around you. They leave a dark cloud that swallows everything in your wake.
It’s easy to believe that a big lump sum later on can pay for the pain of this forever-journey. But that’s not always the case. And worse yet, we must sometimes face our most feared question of all: what if the big lump sum doesn’t come?
Packing for the long haul
There is no direct correlation between performance and external validation. You can be on this marathon doing amazing things, making good time and steady progress, and the world hardly takes note. There are many others on this road too, and you can’t control the environment, external conditions or your success relative to others. But you can pace yourself, be flexible and remain open to new roads.
And pay attention to the signals indicating you haven’t packed enough. You may need a pit stop to pick up a few things. A mentor; someone to talk to; a healthy routine; space to think.
After all, you are the finish line. You determine where this is all going and you are prepared to go all the way because you’ve packed among everything else, faith in yourself.
Oh yeah, about that: Believe in your greatness. Take your hands from the wheel sometimes and beat your chest. As a friend once said, “we can’t sell ourselves as underdogs and claim the reward of champions.” Bravely declaring your success and truly owning it is hard for many on this journey. But necessary if we are to feel fulfillment of that declaration when it comes.
We can’t sell ourselves as underdogs and claim the reward of champions.
There will always be more to do and more places to go but you won’t always have the energy to get there. You’ll know this journey is done when you feel you’ve done all you can and can see the positive impact you have made. When you’re proud of your work and happy with who you have become, you’ll know you’re getting there. And the ride is much happier if you can blast that music and sing along with close friends you’ve made along the way.
I wrote this after a quick check-in-turned-long-convo with fellow entrepreneur Quam Byll- Cataria, a fitness trainer in Switzerland. He has amazing insight and inspiring thoughts on how to keep the body, mind and spirit fueled while recognizing that we ourselves need to take our own advice. This post is a recommitment to doing that. Writing this, is me refueling.
Thanks to Gashwayne Hudson who quickly sketched ‘the Journey ahead.’ Want to see what else he does and other stuff we’re thinking about? We share our adventures in illustration and creative design @Listenminow on Instagram and www.ListenMi.com.
