Being an entrepreneur is hard. I have three failed businesses that all made me broke. I want to try again, but I am terrified to give up my day job for a new venture. What do I do?
I am also scared of what people will think of me if I fail again!
Dear Weary Entrepreneur,
Sounds like you are considering getting back on the horse, but you have been bucked off a few times and are afraid to get hurt again.
What you are feeling is understandable.
Entrepreneurship is a mixed bag of challenges and rewards. You don’t have the safety net of a regular paycheck or a boss who tells you what to do and when to do it, it’s all riding on you. (pun intended)
Entrepreneurship isn’t meant to be easy, if it were everyone would get rich doing it.
But telling yourself “Entrepreneurship is hard” is not helping you, in fact believing this thought is probably making your business journey downright unpleasant.
You hit a snag, the thought is “This is hard.”
You encounter an obstacle, your thought is “This is hard.”
You can’t get enough sales, your thought is “This is hard.”
What if I told you that, it’s all a normal part of entrepreneurship?
You are not special and neither is your situation.
Three failed businesses, pish posh, that’s nothing compared to some entrepreneurs!
Failing is a rite of passage.
Most entrepreneurs fail before they succeed, many times over. Welcome to the club!
Here is a list of 14 Failed Businesses from Successful Entrepreneurs
Did you think you would be the exception?
The person who skirts through unscathed.
That you somehow would be perfect from the jump.
That you would get away with running a successful business without ever having to risk anything, including your time, money, and pride.
Failure is a natural part of the entrepreneurial process, and how you are experiencing that process is based on your perception i.e. what you are thinking.
Failure is a natural part of the entrepreneurial process, and how you are experiencing that process is based on your perception i.e. what you are thinking.
What you think about entrepreneurship determines how you feel about it, and your thinking “It’s hard” probably makes you feel pretty crappy, no wonder you are hesitant. That thought is like bug repellant.
“I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” - Thomas Edison
What if Thomas Edison thought “It’s too hard” and gave up on the 9,999 try?
We might still be reading by kerosene. Edison viewed failure as a learning opportunity, a way of improving and innovating. He also didn’t allow failure to keep him from chasing after any pursuit that piqued his interest.
Checkout the 7 Epic Fails Brought to You By the Genius Mind of Thomas Edison
Instead, he got curious.
What if when you hit a snag in your business you thought “That’s interesting. What can I learn from this?”
What if when you encounter an obstacle you thought? “This is a normal part of the process. This is how I become a bada** entrepreneur.”
What if when you don’t get enough sales, your thought is “What’s not working in my sales process? And what can I do better? ”
If you change how you view entrepreneurship, you change how you experience it along with the results you get.
By thinking it’s hard, it becomes f*cking hard, and it might be the very reason you went broke.
Imagine if you viewed business from a place of curiosity.
It’d probably feel lighter.
There certainly would be less mind drama, more play, innovation, and trust in yourself and the process.
You may be thinking, that sounds great in all but I am not willing to go broke for it! Not again.
I hear you. When money is involved the stakes feel HIGH.
You could lose your house, your sanity, and your savings.
Everything comes at a cost, it seems like you might not be willing to pay the price to make your lifelong dream happen. Not again at least.
I get it. Everything in you is bucking against handing over your hard-earned bucks to a business endeavor that might fail.
Let me ask you this, what is the price you are paying to stay exactly where you are right now?
Are you happy?
Do you like your day job?
Can you live without living out your lifelong dream?
If you said yes to all three. Then release the dream and enjoy where you are at.
If the thought of letting your dream go makes you cringe, then ask yourself, do you have enough faith in yourself to figure it out?
To figure out the money, the steps, the how, the when, the where, and with who.
If your knee-jerk reaction is no, get curious.
Why do you think you can’t figure it out?
You’ve figured out many things before.
Hell, you figured out how to get yourself a job, but I bet you didn’t have much mind drama about it. I bet you overcome obstacles at your 9-5 like a boss and move on. No muss, no fuss.
Why do you think you are more capable and able at your 9-5 job than you are at being an entrepreneur?
My guess is that the stakes feel low at your day job and you are operating inside of your comfort zone.
You likely fear that if you fail at something you sincerely want and it doesn’t work out, you’ll be crushed.
Having a lifelong dream has carried you through your hardest days.
Bringing it into reality scares the living sh*t out of you
Because you’ll have to be honest, vulnerable, and real with yourself and others.
I challenge you to stop caring so much about the opinions of others.
Other people aren’t living your life. You are.
They don’t think about you as much as you think they do. They’ve got their own problems and long-lost ambitions to contend with.
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.” - Henry David Thoreau
What if you were 100% certain you wouldn’t fail? Would you still do it?
And why?
Imagine for a moment what it would be like to do what you love every single day.
To live your purpose out loud.
Thousands of people wake up, do what they love and make a ton of money.
Why not you?
The only thing standing in your way is YOU and what you THINK you are capable of.
You are never going to feel ready.
You will never feel like you are prepared for the next step or to take a risk.
But what if you feel the fear and do it anyway?
Entrepreneurs do it scared, unsure, and uncertain of the outcome. That’s what makes them entrepreneurs.
Luckily, for you, you already have three failed businesses, which means you are ahead of the curve. You’ve got a competitive advantage.
Your experiences showed you what DIDN’T work.
What if you did it differently this time and it DID work?
It’s possible.
You don’t have to quit your 9-5 job right this second, but you do need to decide how serious you are about making your dreams happen.
Being undecided is hurting you.
Are you serious or not?
Time and actions will eventually reveal which one you wanted more, the safety of being an employee, or the freedom that entrepreneurship brings.
If this story helped you or inspired you please subscribe, comment below, or share with others.
Xo Whitney Anne Ellis
P.S. I am a Money Life Coach and I can help you. Learn how here
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