Since my business is only a year old, I’ve been feeling a little unsure about the whole entrepreneurship thing. Have I made it? Is this what a real entrepreneur feels like? It’s easy for me to compare myself to other entrepreneurs on the web and feel inadequate without understanding that many people have been doing this much longer than I have.
The more entrepreneurial friends I have, the more people agree with me. Everyone has reasons why starting a business was horrifying at first, but now they can’t imagine working any other way. So, here’s what entrepreneurship feels like from those of us who started from nothing and see success as being just within reach:
-You think about your business constantly – even though you know you’re exhausted and should probably go to sleep, you can’t stop obsessing over it.
Making money is great, but it’s still just all about the numbers for the most part. You’re working your business with spreadsheets more than anything else these days.
-Your Instagram feed has mostly either selfies of you working out or pics of your dog sleeping next to you while you work late into the night on accounting stuff that will never get used again.
-Every time a new person joins your team, there’s a sense of pride mixed with a fear that this person will be too demanding and make things complicated. But only one of those feelings ends up being true in reality…most of the time…
-The people who first believed in you enough to invest in your company are still the people you tell first about your wins. You can’t help but brag a little because this is their baby, too.
-Your biggest fear isn’t spelling your name wrong on social media or making up some creative excuses for why you’re always late…it’s that one day you’ll wake up and no one will care anymore what you have to say.
-There are days when it seems like everyone around you has either done something unique or has been promoted, gotten married, had a baby…and yet here you are asking yourself if your business is going to be able to come through for someone who needs it most.
-Being an entrepreneur means never having an actual vacation. It’s not that you don’t want to take a break; it’s more like your business is panicking at the thought of being left alone for even one day.
-You get excited about plans way in advance but can never actually commit to anything concrete because
1) you never know what will happen with your business
2) if things are going well, why is risk screwing them up?
3) there are too many factors outside of your control.
–William D King says, all other jobs feel boring and trivial after one year of working for yourself. At this point, there is no question that entrepreneurship is all you’ll ever do unless you burn out or quit before then (and who could blame you?)
-When someone tells you they’re thinking of starting a business, you immediately go into “therapy mode” and begin asking them questions that scare the shit out of them, such as
1) What do you think your clients will say when they read your contract?
2) How much money will it cost to start this company?
3) Have you thought about?
-You’ve stayed up so many nights working on figuring out _____, only to find yourself waking up at 5 am and thinking about it again because your brain can’t stop.
-There is no such thing as work/life balance. You’re either putting in all of your time towards making things happen, or nothing is happening at all. There’s no middle ground anymore. Your business has become part of you says William D King.