Excuses don’t build empires. Shout out to everyone chasing their dreams. Entrepreneurs never sleep. These are just a few of thousands of quotes regarding entrepreneurship. While it is admirable to chase your dreams, establish a business that you can call your own and earn a profit from it, everyone is not cut out for it.
Entrepreneurship is more than inspirational quotes, sleepless yet productive nights and securing the bag. Business owners are looked at as celebrities in today’s age. With social media heavily at the forefront, a lot about being a business owner is glamorized.
“There is nothing beautiful about the beginning of entrepreneurship because it’s incredibly hard. The earlier people stop fantasizing about being an entrepreneur and get a real taste of what it’s like, the quicker they’ll stop focusing so much on the excitement that comes much later in the process,” says Pejman Ghadimi.
As the author of The Third Circle Theory, Ghadimi focuses on helping to get people in correct position for victory. There are many authors, motivational speakers and entrepreneurs who share testimonies of going from 0 – 100. In The Third Circle Theory, Ghadimi expresses his interest is taking people from -100 to 0.
It is widely known that everyone uses social media to share the highs or their lives more so than the lows. How many Ted Talks, speeches and testimonies have you heard from others sharing their struggle to get to where they are now as a successor in their industry?
The key is, we hear these testimonies most after the successor has access to the platform they once never imagined having access to. Basically, let’s say your bills have gone unpaid, your fridge is scarce, and you don’t know how you’ll make it out of this rut. How likely are you to login to your most popular social media page and say, “Life sucks right now and I feel like a failure and irresponsible?”
That is most unlikely, but posts like, “Never thought I’d make it here. I remember when I couldn’t afford to eat anything above $5. I remember sleeping in the dark because the struggle was real, but now I can feed hundreds of families, travel the world, and accept all blessings coming down to me. Respect the process.”
Sounds familiar right?
Probably because you’ve seen something similar on my page. We all do it. We wait until we can breathe again to inspire someone else who doesn’t know how they’ll make it.
Where am I going with this?
Before I took my ‘leap of faith’ into entrepreneurship, I asked a mentor, “When is the right time?” He asked, ” What are you afraid of?” What are most aspiring entrepreneurs afraid of? Being broke and humiliated. That’s essentially what I told him. He simply responded, “Don’t wait to jump into entrepreneurship when you think you’ll have enough money. You’ll never have enough money. Your standards will continue to grow, hopefully. The key to becoming an entrepreneur full time is not when you’re paid up enough, but when you’re strong enough.”
Once again, entrepreneurship is more than inspirational quotes, sleepless yet productive nights and securing the bag. Entrepreneurship can (and most likely will) embody late/unpaid invoices from clients, unhappy customers, sleepless nights due to anxiety, oversleeping due to depression/isolation, losing friends, more pulling hands than holding hands, applying for a job again (because someone has to pay the bills) and much more.
I can honestly say, 2018 has exposed me and a handful of my small business owner friends to the not-so pretty side of entrepreneurship—and I admire that none of us have thrown in the towel. None of us have thrown in the towel because we waited to jump into this when we had more faith than finance. Not to get biblical but, faith without works is dead right?
Understanding faith over finance is important but no one is called to struggle. Some are called to be of service rather than lead. If everyone has a business, who will be your target customer?
If everyone is busy running their own empire, where will your employees come from? Instead of having 50,000 restaurants, consider being great in your niche within that restaurant. We love brunch. We all don’t need to own a brunch spot.
Although, we do need real estate agents so we can have a venue, we do need promoters to bring a crowd out, we do need graphic designers for quality flyers, we need chefs for amazing food, we need interior designers to make sure it looks nice, we need accountants to make sure the money is right and the list goes on.
Consider preparing yourself for victory in your own right regardless if you’ll be an entrepreneur or not. People mimic businesses daily, but no one can mimic who you are called to be. Own your purpose on this earth and everything owed to you will be yours.
Tell me about your entrepreneurial experiences or dreams in the comments below. Be sure to follow me on Instagram @iamwinnieelizabeth!
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This is sooooo true and a great read! Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone and that is okay! I just told my friend that we live in a generation where if you don’t have something of your own you’re “failing”. That ain’t true. The journey aka the struggles or lows of entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. It’s okay to work for someone just make sure you build yourself up within that company and get paid what you rightfully deserve! Thank you for this!