When you hear the word entrepreneurship, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Aspiring entrepreneurs often think of wealth, fame or freedom.
Actual entrepreneurs and business owners immediately think of sleepless nights, high burnout rates and massive stress levels.
Now, there is a difference between being an entrepreneur and a business owner, but this is not what this post is about. This post is about something they have in common. Its about a character trait that is absolutely essential to the survival of your business and your sanity.
That trait is endurance.
You know the story about the tortoise and the hare, right? They race and the hare should have won. The hare was definitely faster, the hare was built for racing. But… he was also arrogant and reckless.
The tortoise was persistent. The tortoise had endurance. The tortoise won.
Building a business is really, really hard. Do not believe the sugar-coated stories about success. There is no such thing as an overnight success. If you want to build a business, it will involve a LOT of hard work, many sleepless nights and many, many moments where you find yourself wondering why on earth you decided to do this.
You will face failure and fear, false starts and false hope, unhappy customers and unfair reviews, hiring mistakes and HR issues, cashflow problems and debt, and moments of flat-out panic.
In between all that is the good – there will be a lot of good too. But only the persistent will see the good. Only those who endure to the end get to enjoy the reward.
Endurance is hard. It’s not fun to push through the pain. It’s not easy to get back up again after you have been knocked down for the tenth time, or the twentieth, or the hundredth. It hurts to run back into the fray, especially when you know you’re going to come out bleeding again.
But just like physical muscles, endurance can be built up over time.
You have limited time as a business owner. Do not waste your time trying to build your confidence, your positivity or your ego before you spend time building endurance. If you don’t have it in you to endure hardship, no amount of confidence is going to pull you through a slump and see you still standing on the other side.
Push on through. Get back up. Take that punch. Try once more. Try it again.
Then YOU are going to be the “overnight” success other people talk about.
