A friend of mine spent 3.5 years working to become a qualified accountant. He sat his year 1 and year 2 exams, then, several weeks before his final exams, he quit. He decided he didn’t want to become an accountant after all. (He subsequently sat the exams in a later year, and today works happily as an accountant).
This decision to quit seems like an obvious poor decision, but for my friend it didn’t feel obvious.
This happens all the time with aspiring entrepreneurs. They spend months working on an idea, then they either don’t launch at all, or launch half-heartedly. Right in the middle of it, perhaps just at the launch, the idea seems not to make any sense.
The temptation is to postpone the launch – sometimes to postpone any further work on the idea.
It’s this point where you avoid talking about your idea. You might even avoid certain social occasions altogether. You feel like you’ve wasted your time working on it, and question how you ever thought this was a good idea, and what it says about you that you did…
Every entrepreneur has been here. It’s part of the journey. It’s not the last time you’re going to feel this way! Maybe your idea really doesn’t make sense. Maybe your launch will be a total flop.
Right now, I genuinely can’t recall why I thought there was an opportunity to build a coaching program for aspiring entrepreneurs. There are so many alternative options available. They have no money. It’s so niche. What do I know. I hate coaching. I hate entrepreneurs. I just want to make money. This is so dumb.
It doesn’t matter that you don’t feel the idea right now, you’re in the middle of something and you need to power through:
- Finish what you started – even if you genuinely believe you don’t want to be an accountant/entrepreneur
- Run, don’t walk. Don’t linger in this stage – launch your idea now, and do it wholeheartedly
- Trust your past self – that you have been working on this for a reason
Q: What are you afraid to finish?