Are you a committed entrepreneur?
Many aspiring entrepreneurs struggle with commitment issues.
Perhaps they’ve spent some time searching for an opportunity and have come up empty handed, or perhaps they’ve been pursuing an opportunity but are ready to throw in the towel.
As a result, they worry that they’ll never commit to an idea (or find an idea worth committing to) – so maybe that means they’re not really an entrepreneur? They’re not sure about the entrepreneurial path any more, so maybe they’re not cut out for it? Maybe it’s not what they really want?
This questioning can lead to a lot of self-doubt and suffering, and many take the all too tempting easy way out of pre-maturely returning to the safety of a job (which, ironically, is out of the frying pan and into the fryer for those with an unquenched entrepreneurial drive).
Entrepreneurship is an exploration process – commit to that
It’s important to recognize that the process of exploring opportunities is the process of entrepreneurship. Learning the skills of maintaining perspective, handling self-doubt, perseverance – that’s learning to be a better entrepreneur.
- Perspective: all you need to do is commit to the exploration process. Anyone committed to that process is an entrepreneur. Giving up on a specific opportunity is not giving up on entrepreneurship, on the contrary: it’s learning to trust your intuition – your strongest ally as an entrepreneur
- Self-doubt: you’re doing something uncertain: maybe it won’t work. Anyone attempting any creative endeavor will face self-doubt – that’s what makes it hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would be doing it! Learn to recognize these doubts for what they are
- Perseverance: sometimes a change is right – you’d perform better with time away from entrepreneurship, more savings etc. This is a marathon, not a sprint. However, more often the rewards lie in sticking with the process when you really feel like giving up…
How can you renew your commitment to the exploration process when you’re full of doubt and running on empty?
- Tap into your innermost desire: imagine, if anything was possible, what would you most want to be doing? What is the next step that will take you closer to that goal?
- Taking this next step – whatever it may be – requires courage. Courage stems from “cor”, the latin word for “heart” – courage is what’s needed to follow your heart’s desire. The only thing you need to commit to is taking the most courageous (i.e. terrifying!) action available each day.
Q: What’s the most courageous (terrifying!) action you could take today?