WHAT YOU FEEL: Pressure, Passion, Pleasure and Pain

PERSPECTIVE: If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s likely that you are familiar with “The Struggle.” There are many burdens for an entrepreneur, from fear of missing payroll to feeling like the entire world is resting on our shoulders. These burdens cause us to become “under the influence” of the 4 P’s, which are:

PRESSURE: The enormous burden of responsibility, and the daily stress of a new business makes us overreact, make hasty decisions, and have a hard time seeing past the next thirty minutes.

PASSION: Our obsessive belief and commitment for our vision makes us plow ahead in the face of obstacles, but also makes us ignore things we see along the way. Entrepreneurs say, “I know nine out of ten restaurants fail, but no one can cook like me.”

PLEASURE: The energizing feeling of seeing a vision come to life, and of satisfaction, accomplishment, and achievement, empowers us but it also makes us fail to address problems staring us in the face.

PAIN: The angst over disappointments, frustrations, and mistakes makes us doubt ourselves and feel it is just too hard when we face constant setbacks or are picking ourselves off of the ground every day.

When under the influence of the 4 P’s (Pressure, Passion, Pleasure, and Pain), we develop damaging “perspectives” that blind us, obscure solutions, and undermine our progress in the business and personal issues we face. Some of those perspectives include believing we have to do everything and can’t prioritize; expecting others to live and breathe the business as we do; thinking that others don’t understand what we are going through; evaluating our lives in the middle of the fight; and thinking no one can meet our expectations. You can read more damaging perspectives in last week’s article (link to intro).

Let’s look at an example of what it means to be under the influence of the 4 P’s and a Perspective it causes.  When you come to work, you have 100 hours of work and ten hours of time. You have a set of things you want to get done that day. But instead of working, you begin to think about the 90 other things you are not getting done for your business that day. The result: You don’t even get the ten things done you had planned that day, and the ninety aren’t closer to being fixed. The next day is worse because you still have the list of 100 things to do.  The “change” in perspective is: when you pick the priorities for the day, stick to them, and get them done. That way, each day builds on itself.

Another example. Entrepreneurs tend to evaluate the meaning of life in the middle of the fight: right after losing a deal, or a failed investor meeting, entrepreneurs think: “Am I happy? Am I cut out for this?” Do we ever evaluate life after we have won a deal? Change your perspective to this: everyone needs time to reflect—just not after getting punched in the face. Save yourself from emotional turmoil, and resist the temptation to disrupt your day. Instead, sit down every two weeks and evaluate your life.

The Lonely Entrepreneur will guide you to change your perspective from those that stunt your progress to those that empower you to thrive. In order to change the damaging perspectives that are caused by the 4 P’s to ones that will empower you to thrive; we have created a methodology (which we will delve into next week) that is grounded with a keen understanding of what it is like to be in the trenches. This process will hopefully help you, the lonely entrepreneur, break through the struggle and unlock your potential.

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