Sometimes I wonder why everyone isn’t an entrepreneur.
I get mad that my non-entrepreneur husband has to go to work every day, and I whine to him and ask “why can’t you just create your own business so you can stay home?”, because I’d like the company.
Entrepreneurship is fucking LONELY.
But I know that being an entrepreneur is something you don’t get to choose. You either ARE an entrepreneur or you aren’t. You can’t learn how to be one. You can’t TRY to make it work, because it won’t.
The thing about us entrepreneurs is that we LOVE the grind.
The set-backs
The money lost
The mistakes
The late nights
The early mornings
The missed parties
The working on vacation & holidays
The confusion
The stress
A true entrepreneur LIVES for that shit. Believe it or not, we love it when things feel “hard”. We like the struggle and the push and the pull and the “what the fuck am I going to do?” issues that come up on a regular basis.
We love it because we have the drive and the PASSION to make it big, to keep moving on, to prove ourselves, to do better, and ultimately, to survive and succeed in ways that others never could because they aren’t willing to take the risks and put up with the stress, money lost, late nights and early mornings.
I remember once I heard Gary Vaynerchuck say something like “I used to secretly wish I lost all of my money, just so I could make it all back again and rise like a phoenix“, and I totally resonate with that, because I have the same mentality!
I love the bad side of entrepreneurship just as much as I love the good stuff, and that’s the difference between as true entrepreneur and someone pretending that this is their thing.
You’re either one of us or you’re not. Stop playing yourself. You’re only making things more difficult than they need to be.
If you want a job that allows you to have a “work/life balance”, you’re not an entrepreneur.
If you want a job that allows you to to take time off, you’re not an entrepreneur.
If you want a job that allows you to go on vacation, you’re not entrepreneur.
If you want a job that has “security” (ha!), you’re not an entrepreneur.
If you’re not willing to take big risks, you’re not an entrepreneur.
If you’re not willing to lose a bunch of money, you’re not en entrepreneur.
If you’re not willing to fail more times than you can count, you’re not an entrepreneur.
The good, the bad, the ugly, you’re not only okay with it all, but you WANT it all. That’s a true entrepreneur. That’s someone that’s going to become crazy rich and crazy successful, because they actually have the GUTS to do what it takes to make that happen.
I’m not saying you don’t get to breathe. I’m not saying you can’t go on a trip with your family. I’m not saying you have to be tens of thousands in debt all the time.
I’m saying that you LOVE what you do so much, that you never want to stop. You mesh your business with your life. You take big risks. You make scary investments. You jump through hoops to make your dream life a reality.
“Yeah well I’m already successful and I take weeks off work all the time so I can go on vacations and have “tech-free” time!”
Good for you. You’re not an entrepreneur. You just ended up with a business you like (not love) that brings in “good enough” money. You might be your idea of successful, and that’s fine for you, but you’re not going to get much bigger than you are right now because you don’t have it in you.
The fire, the drive and the passion is missing (and don’t tell me I’m wrong, because if I was, you’d be working that biz all the live long day).
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. That’s a fact. Figure out who you are and act accordingly.
I’m grateful every day that I was born the way I am. I used to think working all the time was bad, that I should have other “hobbies”, that I needed to “get out more”. I forced myself to have set work hours and I was fucking MISERABLE because of it. I am wired differently than most. And I consider that a GREAT thing.
I hope you feel the same about who you are.