Let me give it to you straight:
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS NOT FUN.
It’s blood, sweat and tears all day long. It’s trying 10x and succeeding once. It’s giving everything up for your dreams. It’s a long haul of frustration.
It’s not some way to get rich quick and live happily ever after. If you believe that, you’re delusional. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle. It’s something you are born as. You can’t “become” an entrepreneur. You either are one or you aren’t. You just KNOW. It’s a feeling in your soul that you usually start to feel when you’re just a kid and want to make money.
Lemonade stands, door to door sales, the works. If you did that and you loved it? Baby, you’re an entrepreneur!
If you’re entreprener, you know: It ain’t a fucking joke. Being an entrepreneur is hard work. It’s a lot of work. It’s sometimes frustrating work. But you know that it’s who you are. So you embrace it, even when it sucks.
And because entrepreneurship is a crazy fucking ride, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s all fun and games. You can just create a product, and a funnel, set up some FB ads, and then you’re rich and free and don’t have to lift a finger practically ever …
HA!
Not.
Even.
Close.
To.
Being.
Correct.
Don’t believe the hyped up “ease and flow, ease and flow!” content you see out there. Don’t listen to the people who tell you that everything is so fucking easy, because that’s a bullshit lie. I’m not saying it can’t be easy, but it’s not ALWAYS easy. Most of the time, it’s an uphill battle. The thing is, though, you kinda like it that way, don’t you? You enjoy the pressure, you enjoy the hustle, you enjoy the constant stream of shit to get done –
Even if you rarely get it all completed.
And yes, you DO love to rest. To take some time away. To sleep ocassionally. To indulge.
But you never, EVER, not even for a second, would consider a life without the feeling of needing to push. Because the push is what drives you. Otherwise, you KNOW you’d just get complacent and bored. And you’re no fun when you’re complacent of bored.
You need to be doing stuff!
You need to be working!
You need to be dreaming & scheming!
You need to keep going, more more more!
Am I right?
I was journaling this morning on how much I enjoyed the ease, but also still craved the hustle, and I realized something: A lot of the shit you’re being fed about building an empire is complete and utter BULLSHIT.
It’s all written to make you believe that you can get rich and famous instantly, you don’t ever have to work more than an hour a day, and you get to have whatever you want at the drop of a hat.
Listen, I hate to be the one to break it to ya, but:
That simply isn’t true. If you want to build an empire that will allow you to make a helluva lot of money and a massive difference in the world, you need to get real.
It takes a fuck-ton of time, money and energy to build an empire. A LOT. And it never stops. It can be EASIER over time, yes. You can hire people to help you, you can delegate a lot more. You can make more money because you’ll be more highly sought-after (and can charge more).
But don’t ever forget: IT IS WORK.
FORGET WHAT YOU’VE BEEN TOLD. This is what it REALLY takes to build an empire:
1. Failure. Lots and lots of failure. If you haven’t failed yet, brace yourself. It’s coming. You’re going to fail A LOT, and from each failure, you’ll learn something. All of those lessons will make you stronger and more resilliant. You’ll be a better person because of them. I encourage you to fail often. Don’t try to fight it. The quicker you fail, the quicker you’ll finally have some success. Don’t fear failure. It WILL help you (even though it may not feel like that at the time).
2. Sleepless nights. Not necessarily because you’ll be working so hard trying to get things done (although that will absolutely happen as well!), but also because you’re overwhelmed, scared, frustrated, sad, and you can’t sleep. Your brain won’t turn off. Your body doesn’t actually WANT to rest. You may need to have a really good cry. Or you may just need to get up and get your hustle on, even if you’re tired. You’ll sleep eventually.
3. A load of debt. At first, anyway. I know that this isn’t what you want to hear, but it’s the truth. You DO need to spend money to make money, and when you’re building an empire, you’re constantly spending money. This will lead to more income for you (if you’re spending/investing money on the right things), but even then, you will still spend money. In fact, the more money you make, the more you spend (and hopefully the more you SAVE, too). You can’t build a business without accumulating debt, especially in the beginning. Not if you want to build it quickly, anyway.
4. Loss of friendships. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur. And sometimes, when you ARE one and you have friends that are not, they just don’t understand you. They may be supportive, but eventually, some of them will get bored with you always spending time on your business and less time with them, and they’ll walk away. The bad news is that this will happen with most of your non-entrepreneur friends. The good news is that your true friends will identify themselves by sticking around.
5. Constant criticism. It doesn’t matter how amazing YOU believe your content/offer/website/book is, someone else is going to think it’s total shit and they’re gonna tell you exactly why that is. They’ll likely do it on social media or through email and not face to face because they are cowardly. Don’t let these bullies push you down. It’s pure jealousy that you are or have or have DONE something that they desire. And always remember that for every hater, there are 100 people who absolutely adore you.
6. An obsession. If you’re not wildly obsessed with your mission, your message, your EMPIRE as a whole, you will never make it. Obsessionis a MUST. It must be on your mind day and night. You think about it in the shower, on the plane, at the school with your kids, even during sex. It’s ALWAYS there. You can’t NOT think about it and strategize for it. You must be obsessed to the point where other people think you’re bat shit crazy.
This is what’s required if you want to build an empire.
This is what’s NECESSARY if you want to go big.
This is what you must be willing to accept. It’s ALL IN, or nothing!
Are you prepared to do what it takes?