What It Means To Be an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. You’re heading into uncharted territory, probably without a map, or the right tools and enough supplies. There will be many days as an entrepreneur when you question what you are doing. Days when you don’t know what you are doing. Days when you know what you are doing but are not sure why. Days when you are not proud of yourself. Days when success seems so near. And days when success seems out of reach. Life would be fine, or at least manageable, if you were simply making a business decision. But it is much more than that. As entrepreneurs, we take this stuff personally. We question our purpose, our character, our will, our motivations, our capabilities, and our ability to bring our visions to life. The happiest day can also be the loneliest one. This is the nature of the beast. It’s a complex animal all of us entrepreneurs have to face.

“Being an entrepreneur is not for the feint of heart.” 

Things We Feel

My guess is that you are experiencing at least one of the following feelings: You’re carrying the world on your shoulders. You don’t have the money or resources you need. You feel like no one understands what you are going through. Your relationships are strained. Your friends, family and co-workers think you are crazy, stupid or selfish. You find yourself in a crowded room but feel alone. You are exhausted but you can’t sleep. You are hungry but you can’t eat. You are home but feel lost. Standing in the shower under freezing cold water for five minutes seems easier than running your venture. Sound familiar? I’ve been there. It’s one thing to create solutions to business problems. It’s quite another to create them when you feel the world is on your shoulders. When that happens, we feel like we are sprinting through cement even when we have talent and great business ideas.

All of the conflicting feelings that come with the territory are at the heart of the big question facing all of us: will we make it? How we cope with “the struggle” has as much, if not more, impact on our fate as the business decisions we make.

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