My Difficulties of Becoming an Entrepreneur
I’m genuinely curious about what it’s like to wake up in the morning as an entrepreneur and not immediately start thinking about work. Do you ever reach a point in skill, knowledge, and experience where you can float through the day knocking out tasks like Mike Tyson in his prime? Or is that the beauty of owning your own business? Each new day brings new challenges that can either throw everything out of whack or be exactly what you needed at that moment.
In a dark corner of YouTube late one night, I came across a clip of Miles Teller from the ending of “Bleed for This.” The interviewer asked him, “What’s the biggest lie you were ever told?” His response was, “It’s not that simple.” He then followed up with, “It is that simple; they just tell you that, so you don’t succeed.”
In my opinion, you must learn one difficult skill for most things to be “simple.” That skill is having perspective over perception. Perspective can make any task seem that much more manageable; it takes the edge off, so to speak. By no means am I a master of this skill, but I’m trying. I struggle especially hard when my goal is to post on social media, and I must step into the light. Spoiler alert: I’m 35 and have never had any social media except Facebook, which I keep for birthdays. Raised by boomer parents, I prefer to keep my life out of public view. Working in the close protection/security consulting industry only magnifies this desire.
Then you start a business, and your point of view changes since, as Meb West says, “Social media is the biggest megaphone in marketing.” Perspective has changed how I view social media and turned it into a weekly goal to get out there and interact with my peers.
Something else that has helped with the smaller, more annoying tasks is this quote: “What blocks the path becomes the path.” That report you’ve put off or the lunch meeting with the guy who chews with his mouth open—whom you’ve dodged twice—should be the next item on your schedule. I get it; I’m currently procrastinating on cold calling some new leads.
What about the saying “perception is reality”? Perception is reality because your understanding of life is filtered through your individual experiences, beliefs, and biases. Perspective is a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something, a point of view. Two people experiencing the same event can have totally different experiences. Therefore, it is subjective, not objective, and can be changed. Start with something small, like a memory of your last birthday party. Now imagine it from your spouse’s or parent’s point of view. How different is it from yours?
Currently, I am stuck on the work/life balance. I am getting married in May, and it seems that any free time we have is spent fixing, finalizing, or swapping out plans and details. There is little time for us to focus on much else. My approach is to frame this period in our lives as just a busy time that requires our full attention. It won’t last forever. There will be many more periods like this in our lives, especially because both of us are entrepreneurs. Instead of groaning about the time we don’t get to spend together, I’m thankful for the fact that we both work from home. We can share small bits of time over coffee refills or figure out who’s going to get the cat off the carpet as he dry-heaves a fresh kibble-hairball.
If something from the above text sounds familiar and you’re stuck on [insert reason], then I highly recommend “SECURITY LLC” by Meb West for starting a security company, “Sleep Smarter” by Shawn Stevenson if you stare at the ceiling for hours, “Think Faster, Talk Smarter” by Matt Abrahams, “Free to Focus” by Michael Hyatt, and finally, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. I use an app called Shortform. It’s an online library that you can read or choose the narration feature. They also have a 1-page summary that I really like. I can get through a summarized version of a book on my way to and from the gym every morning.
If any of this is relatable in the slightest, drop a comment and tell me what you’ve been stuck on. Maybe it’ll help one of us out.
