The Road of an Entrepreneur
The road an entrepreneur needs to walk is often complicated, tough and lonely. So why walk it?
I won’t lie, becoming an entrepreneur wasn’t exactly my life long dream when I started. In fact, it wasn’t even on my radar. As far as slackers go, I gave the best of them a run for their money but one day, I decided to change things and years later, here I am, running my own company. People often ask me why I chose this road. It’s difficult, the odds are stacked against you and you often end up fighting that battle on your own. When you put it that way, it doesn’t seem like an attractive life decision and they’re not wrong for saying it, in fact, they’re absolutely right.
You have an idea. You voice it to a few people, they tell you you’re nuts. “You know the odds of that working?” they’ll say. You get discouraged for a few moments but in the end, you believe you can make that idea happen. You tried asking for advice or suggestions but that clearly didn’t work, you realize you’re on your own.
If that isn’t bad enough, you’ve never done this before. You’ve got no idea what you’re doing and you’re immediately in over your head. The only way to learn is from mistakes and trust me, you make a ton of them.
What about motivation? You’re trying to build a business from the ground up, staying focused and motivated is imperative. Unfortunately, there’s no one to help you with that either, in fact, what you’ve likely got is people giving you the exact opposite. You quickly realize that you need to do whatever is necessary to keep focused and push yourself beyond your natural limits.
After facing so many challenges, with a road filled with hundreds more, you realize that for the most part, you’re going at this alone. Now, I know what you’re thinking, this entire article has been a negative critique on entrepreneurialism. Don’t worry, it gets better.
I’ve been my own boss for 6 years now. I’ve faced hundreds of challenges, a handful of mistakes and failures and I continue to face them even today. Here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter. None of it does because we can’t help it. We don’t fit in with the traditional or the conservative. We want more than mediocrity and we’re willing to do what it takes to attain it. Once you accept that, failure becomes a challenge, mistakes are opportunities for invaluable lessons and nay sayers become the fuel you run on rather than the obstacles they used to be. Once you’ve faced enough, you earn this silent and fearless confidence. The only effect the word no has on you now is mockery because you know when you’re done, a switch to yes won’t be far behind.
Still wondering why you’d walk this road? Ask yourself what you want in life, then ask yourself how far you’re willing to go to get it. If the answer to the second question is anything then you’re already an entrepreneur, you just don’t know it yet.
There’s no need for middles. It’s all or it’s nothing.
