What I Learned From Becoming a Full Time Entrepreneur

 

   

I've been on this full-time entrepreneur journey for about 1.5 months now, and I've learned a ton. I think that the hardest part of the journey is actually managing myself. You see becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. It's not for those who want to see quick results. 

If you look at Facebook, then you will believe that so many people are making a lot of money overnight and it's just not true. People only see what they want you to see, and you don't see their struggles. Many of the struggles that you face as an entrepreneur will be mental.

 I want to share with you some of the key things that I've learned since I have become a full-time entrepreneur. My hope is that this will help you to know what to expect, because you don't know what you don't know. 

1. Your journey is your journey. Don't compare yourself to someone else's pace. You don't know the sacrifices that someone else has made to get to where they are. In truth you don't even know if they are where they say they are.

2. You need more money then you think you do. Your savings goes fast, and generally we underestimate how much money we think that we need to survive. We also overestimate how much we think we can cut once we stop working. Trust me. If you have been on a personal finance journey, then you have probably already cut a lot. It's harder than you think to cut out even more. 

3. Be realistic about what you can do in one day. Identify the highest priority items that will advance your business at the beginning of the week. Use this list to back into your highest value tasks to accomplish for each of the days. Get those done with no excuses. 

4. Find your normal. I think that this one is very important, because we hear so many things about entrepreneurship - entrepreneurs don't sleep ever because you sleep when you are dead. Entrepreneurs only work on their businesses, and don't do anything else. These ideas are simply not true. As an entrepreneur your brain is always thinking about advancing your business, but if you don't give yourself the time and the space to sleep, create memories, or enjoy time with loved ones then how can you have anything left to give to your business? If you're burned out then how can you be creative enough or have enough energy to advance your business? 

5. Everyone who is friends with you now won't support your new path and it's OK. We think that just because someone has encouraged us in the past then they will encourage and be supportive of us in the future. That realization is painful, because we think that those closest to us are there for us through thick and thin, but sometimes that's just not the case. Remember that has nothing to do with you. Everyone isn't meant to come on your journey. 

6. Sacrifices are inevitable in this journey and sometimes those sacrifices include relationships. You must be willing to give up something to get something. 

7. Unemployment may not be available for you. We believe that services like unemployment will be available to ease the financial burden of not working, however the government looks for reasons to not pay. 

8. Vision is key, but action based on vision is better. If you don't take action to achieve your vision, then your vision is just a dream. 

9. There are lessons in failure. When something doesn't work, look for the lessons in the failure. Many of our biggest lessons come from learning from what doesn't work. 

10. You only lose if you quit or don't try. It's easy to take the path most traveled, but if you take the path most traveled, then you will miss out of being truly extraordinary. 

11. There will always be ideas. Pick the best ones with the highest return and focus on those. 

12. Have faith. Fear and faith cannot exist at the same time. 

13. You can't do it alone. Don't make the mistake of believing that you can accomplish your dreams alone. If you think back along your life, there were always people who spoke a kind word or helped you along your journey. Admitting that you need the help of mentors, coaches, advisors, friends, or advocates doesn't make you inadequate. It shows strength in knowing your limitations and also knowing that by surrounding yourself with other like-minded people, you can do way more than you ever thought possible. 

You can never be prepared for entrepreneurship and there is never a right time to get started. With faith all things are possible, but you can't have fear and faith at the same time. I hope that these lessons will help you along the path of entrepreneurship. 

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Aisha_Taylor/1957264