When you really think about it, entrepreneurship is crazy. First, it requires a major leap of faith — at least one — as you decide to leave the stability of a traditional career path for the vast unknown of self-employment.
It’s terrifying.
Sometimes you feel a little insane (okay maybe most of the time) and that’s just the beginning …
After the initial leap, you start to make decisions based on a future you’re entirely unsure of. Of course, you have your goals: one year plan, three years, five, ten … But what can you really be sure about? The answer is: not much.
Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur.
During the course of a day we are balancing budgets, coaching team members, bringing on new clients, putting ourselves out there as we grow our business, surveying the competition (while trying not to compare ourselves) and wondering what else we can fit on our plate in a day. And … we love (almost) every minute of it.
Call me crazy and you’d be right. Fear of the unknown? There’s not time for that when you’re an entrepreneur. We have to stare the unknown in the face and have the courage to move forward every day (sometimes hourly, sometimes by the minute.)
Make no mistake: we are not ‘flying by the seat of our pants’ here. There is an ultimate goal in mind and often multiple goals that we are pursuing as if our lives depended on completion.
It’s just that we have to be comfortable with the short-term goals changing more often than not as we support the long-term mission for our business and our dream. Often, the long-term goals change too as we learn from other entrepreneurs’ successes and mistakes, read books and blogs to further our education and as our desires change. The truth is not much stays the same as an entrepreneur, which is probably one of the reasons why we love it so much. Every day is different and comes with its own challenges, uncharted territory and success.
We’re striving, sweating, dreaming and yes, sometimes stressing on this entrepreneurial journey.
If you’re an entrepreneur or you have been an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Sometimes we feel like giving up. Often we feel like no one really understands us — even those closest to us don’t get why exactly we’ve chosen the path we have or why we continue to pursue it.
But it’s okay. Why? Because we’re not alone. Yes, each of our journeys look different (some dramatically so) but the heart of what we do every day — our passion — gives us one very important thing in common: We are entrepreneurs.
