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As soon as
you decide to become an entrepreneur and bring your business to life,
you take on the responsibility of keeping your business alive.
No matter
what. In the early stages, all sorts of crazy things happen, all in the
name of making it work and surviving to the next day.
When we are
seeing very little progress and our goals seem so far away, it becomes
disheartening to see others succeed. We hear stories all around us of
overnight successes. It seems like everybody had lightbulbs go off,
things fell into place easily, and their company skyrocketed just like
that.
But this is
not the case.
Have you
ever heard the phrase, “It takes an average of 7 years to become an
overnight success?” It’s true! We often don’t notice anybody working
away until they skyrocket. Then the media and others like to portray
them as overnight successes, because overnight success is much more
interesting than “they toiled away in obscurity before finally getting
things right.” That doesn’t sell issues or drive clicks!
So in the
short term, we feel that we must sacrifice everything to make our
business work—our health, our relationships, our free time, our
hobbies. While it’s true that all businesses require dedication and
sacrifice, it’s a myth that they will require everything of you. Your
business will only take from you what you are willing to give it.
So, what
can you do in the early years to feel like you are sacrificing less and
still continue to build your momentum and traction?
The answer is simple: gain a
new understanding of time, start viewing how you spend time, and
allocate your priorities differently. The better you get at this, the
less you will have to sacrifice.
Tony
Robbins is famous for saying, "Once you have mastered time, you
will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they
can accomplish in a year—and underestimate what they can achieve in a
decade."
Don’t fall
for the Silicon Valley “unicorn.”
Don’t allow
the media or the general culture around you to dictate how you should
look in order to be a legitimate entrepreneur. You don’t have to wear a
hoodie and sneakers to be good at what you do and worthy of doing it.
You don’t have to wear an expensive suit either. You don’t have to
build a certain type of business, be in the hot industry at the moment,
have your branding look a certain way, or be young and “hip.”
This is all
just an image that was created of how an entrepreneur should look and
act. But this image was created by society, and it has absolutely
nothing to do with you.
Tying your
self-worth to the performance of your company is a sure-fire way to
find yourself stressed, unhappy, and feeling like throwing in the
towel. Take the approach of turning any internal self-criticizing talk
into self-guiding talk. There is a resource below that can help greatly
with this and the concepts discussed in this first lesson.
Your Action Tip of the Day
Upping your
mental game is a practice!
Define
priorities for yourself each day that are realistic. Are you putting a
major part of your focus and attention on minor things? (For example,
are you stressing out and overextending yourself to publish a blog post
each week when blogs are not a key driver for your business?)
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