5 Sacrifices Every Entrepreneur Must Make
#Entrepreneur
Every entrepreneur starts out with big dreams and
excitement. As an entrepreneur, you control your own destiny, and with the
right ideas, the right skill set and unflinching dedication, you can build
wealth or establish an enterprise to serve as your legacy.
This is the bright side of entrepreneurship, but
unfortunately, there’s also a darker side. The rigors of entrepreneurship
demand sacrifices, and if you don’t make those sacrifices you’ll never be able
to succeed. Business is, at its core, a give-and-take process. The more
you invest, and the more you’re willing to part with, the more you’ll reap in
rewards in kind.
These are the five sacrifices that every
entrepreneur needs to make:
1. Stability
You’re starting a new venture, and there’s no
guarantee you’re going to succeed. The foundation of your company, even if your
idea and plans are solid, is rocky at best, and there’s no telling which
direction your business is headed until you’re several months, or often much
longer, into running things. If you haven’t already sacrificed a comfortable,
well-paying, stable job to follow this route, odds are you’ll have to sacrifice
some other kind of stability before you can move forward.
Entrepreneurship is, by nature, an unstable path to
follow. Don’t be surprised if you encounter multiple, unpredictable shifts in
your fortune as your work progresses. It’s natural and part of the
process. Eventually, if you work hard with a clear vision, things will
stabilize.
2. Work/life split
When you become an entrepreneur, the lines between
your working life and your personal life will blur. You’ll start thinking about
business even when you’re away from the office, sometimes because you want to
and sometimes because you can’t help it. You’ll also get calls and emails urgently
needing your attention because you’re the boss and there’s nobody else to
answer them.
Your downtime will become “light” business time,
but the flip side is that your time in the office will feel more like personal
time because you’ll want to be there. Remember, it’s still important for you to
balance your work priorities and your personal ones -- always make time for
your family and your mental health -- but the firm split between personal and
professional time is going to go away no matter how you try to handle it.
3. Income
This goes along with the stability sacrifice, but
for the first few years of your business, you’re probably not going to be
making much money. In most businesses, entrepreneurs and their families end up
investing heaps of their own money to get the business going. If this
is the case for you, you’ll be making even more of a sacrifice since your
potential safety net will be gone.
Since you’ll be deciding where the money goes, you
can set your own salary, but many entrepreneurs don’t even take a salary during
their first several months of operations, at least not until there’s a
steady line of revenue backing them up. Be prepared for this. You’ll need a strong
marketing plan to overcome barriers to entry and gain a share of the market in
your industry.
4. Sleep
Sleep is vitally important, but no matter how hard
you try to preserve healthy sleeping habits, you’re going to sacrifice some
sleep in order to run your business. In some cases, you’ll be pulling
all-nighters to get that last proposal together. In other cases, you’ll be
getting up super early to make a meeting or get all your tasks in order. In
still other cases, you’ll be lying awake at night, restless and wondering about
the future of your company.
Whatever the case may be, your sleeping habits are
going to change when you become an entrepreneur, and you’ll have to make the
best of them no matter how they end up.
5. Comfort
Being the boss of your own company means the buck
stops with you. You’re going to have to wear dozens of hats, make decisions
you’ve never made before and delve into subjects you’ve never before
considered. Part of being an entrepreneur means stepping out of your comfort
zone, often multiple times every day.
The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who
approach uncomfortable situations with confidence and a degree of excitement.
Learn to thrive in uncomfortable environments, and you’ll find yourself much
more at peace with your job.
Don’t think of these sacrifices as literal
sacrifices. You’ll be giving something up, sure, but try to think of it as a
type of investment. You’re giving up intangible luxuries in exchange for
something better down the road. You’re paying for the opportunity to find
success in your own enterprise, and your sacrifices will be rewarded many times
over so long as you stay committed in your chosen path.
Remember, as an unidentified student of Warren G. Tracy aid, “Entrepreneurship
is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the
rest of your life like most people can’t.”
Article by Jayson Demers
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