I wish I could say I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.
After all, my father was one, my brothers run a successful business and I married an entrepreneur.
From my perspective, they worked long hours, talked about business all the time and always seemed to be thinking of taking things “to the next level.”
I didn’t understand that those long hours didn’t seem long enough when it’s spent pursuing your passion. That you cannot help sharing your enthusiasm about what you love and how you are going to change the world to anyone who has a minute to spare. And that having your own business opens up a whole new world of creativity and perseverance that you previously didn’t know existed about yourself.
I didn’t know any of this until I became an entrepreneur myself.
In a new country, with no local experience and no contacts, I began consulting until I could get a secure job. What was simply a bridge to the next “sure thing” turned into a never-ending road with an unknown destination.
In 13 years, I’ve gone down the bumpy road of entrepreneurship traveled by many before me, and learned a few good lessons along the way. I hope these lessons make your road to adventure a whole lot smoother:
1. Embrace That You’ll Never Know Everything
It took you years to be THE expert in your field. You struggled to finally make THE product that everyone’s talking about. However, if, after all those years of hard work, you think you know it all and stop learning, or stop innovating on product development, your business will either fail or eventually get left behind.
Curiosity and perseverance are some of the most important traits for an entrepreneur to embrace – why do things work and how can it be better? What would happen if I did the opposite of what is the logical thing to do? Who knows more than I do and whom did they learn from? Do I really know what my customer wants?
Assume there is more than one “right” answer and ask the difficult questions no one is asking. You might be surprised at the answers you’ll get.
2. Work Hard And Give Yourself The Gift of Time
One of the most frustrating traits of an entrepreneur is our impatience. We spend weeks, months, even years creating something we love and when it’s ready, we’re caught by surprise at how slow it sells: How come my potential client can’t see how brilliant our product or solution is and how perfect it is for them? How can they not want it right NOW?
In a market with ever-increasing noise, it really does take time for you to stand out and build a momentum with your marketing. “Overnight successes” can often take 18 – 24 months or more. If you truly believe in your offering, keep working hard but give yourself the gift of time and know that you may need to take the marathon approach versus trying to sprint to success. Remember that childhood story? The turtle eventually beats the hare!
3. Be Willing To Succeed As A Result of Your Work
You should definitely be willing to fail as an entrepreneur, but sometimes what can hold us back is the willingness to succeed. It seems counter-intuitive but many of us have a fear of success in some way. We may believe: I’ve worked so hard but don’t deserve the good things and recognition that come my way. What if I can’t sustain my success? What if I take on something way over my capabilities?
Remember that many of your fears will be irrational if you look at them closely. Success is your reward for setting your sights on a seemingly impossible goal, pursuing it doggedly and sometimes making incredible sacrifices to get there. YES, you are worth it, and yes, you deserve all the recognition and success that comes your way.
4. Keep Working Towards The Next Step
Having your own business can provide amazing freedom and flexibility in creating a lifestyle you want. There are times though, where it takes great effort to get out of bed and hang onto your determination to keep going. You may be stuck on what you need to do next in order to reach your goal.
During these times, I remember an analogy a business coach shared with me: When trying to reach a mountain’s summit (your goal) you know the general direction is up. Even in the worst weather, when you cannot see the summit and don’t know how you are going to get there, you can at least see the next step.
In building your business, just keep taking the next step, work hard, and trust that you know what you need to succeed. You may go down the wrong path here and there, but you won’t know until you take that step…and sometimes the step you need to take may be asking for help from a guide who’s been to the summit and back!
Disclosure: I received compensation from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. This post was sponsored by Visa Small Business as part of their #gobiz Sweepstakes for @VisaSmallBusiness. Visa will be rewarding small business owners with $10,000 in prizes for their hard work from October 25th through November 17th. Visit here http://hosting.thetenthwave.com/visasb/ for more details, and follow @VisaSmallBiz for ways to help make your small business more efficient and successful. Discover more at http://visa.com/business.
Photo Credit: The Femme Files
Elena is founder of a technology PR agency that works with startups to billion-dollar companies. She is passionate about helping marketers and small business owners with practical publicity strategies.
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Thank you for this amazing post. It was very timely for me. I appreciate your thoughts on giving ourselves the gift of time. I have been working my business in addition to holding down a full time job, with a plan to leave my full time in a number of years. My thought was to allow time for my business to get noticed. I was beginning to think I was crazy or not as committed as others because I was still holding on to full time to help generate income while my biz is growing and gaining the necessary steam to last. Thank you for the “steps”. I am encouraged again.
Great stuff. I especially like #1. Learning how to make a decision without all of the data is part of being an entrepreneur. I’ve always used an analogy of bullriding. You may have an idea of where you’d like it to go, but if you don’t move with it when it takes a turn, you’ll hit the dirt!
Elena, these are excellent lessons. If I could expand on “give yourself the gift of time”, I would add “give yourself the benefit of the doubt”. Particularly when it comes to comparing your business success and rate of growth to other businesses. It can be easy to look at other supposedly successful businesses and get discouraged, because you aren’t making 6- or 7-figures yet. What you don’t know is that many of those supposed 6- and 7-figure businesses may actually have that much income, but have little or even no profit (or are in the red) because their expenses grow as fast as their income.
So, don’t bother comparing to others. Only compare to yourself, to your own business. As long as you are making progress toward that next step that Elena mentions, that is all that matters.
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Elena, valuable post to bookmark, thanks!
Failure is a great teacher but…”Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison, To reinforce your 4th point, ‘Never Give Up.’
Courtney: every entrepreneur is different and you’re smart to listen to your instinct about what is right for YOU. Good luck and take all the time you need – things will gel and you will get there!
Terry: thanks for that awesome lesson! We compare ourselves to others way too often without realizing what is “real” and what is “smoke and mirrors”. Business at the end of the day is about profit, not revenue. Without profit, you are more likely indulging in a hobby!
With 13 years in business, I still have days where I feel I’m starting over at square one, especially with the current economy issues. But I do have a lot of wisdom and experience under my belt to know “It’s not over until it’s over” and to keep plugging along because the next new client, the next big gig, is right around the corner. Even if I can’t see the corner for all of the traffic and road blocks between it and myself.
Your last point, keep working to the next step, really resonates with me and it is so important. Entrepreneurs need to keep moving forward with resilience and determination. Never settle, keep moving forward. Thanks for this inspiring article.
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Tracey: I know what you mean, and that is probably a good perspective to have – always a beginner’s mind! I love your analogy on traffic – the question is, how can we be better drivers and find the fastest route there! Thanks for stopping by.
Surfing the net all night – Liked your post I think I need to turn my computer off and go to bed.
Elena,
This is such a great post! I am going to have to pass this page onto my parents. I have watched both of them foster their businesses my entire life and I rarely see them take time to look at what they have accomplished. My mom is a brilliant interior designer and she has built a strong business that would fair very well if taken to the next level. She may just need a little encouragement. What a good lesson!
Thanks!
Laina
Good for you!!This is really inspirational for me…
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Elena, great post! I think we are often too hard on ourselves as entrepreneurs to get our passions, ideas, and dreams out there, monetized and well-known within a few months. Thanks for the reminder that ideas and plans take time. We can all benefit by breathing and taking the tortoise route with focused and deliberate action. Thanks Elena!
WOW! Amazing post, I always appreciate these kind of posts. I hope people will be able to understand value of these kind of posts.
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