When embarking on a career as an entrepreneur, you can find yourself fixating on these questions as they run rampant through your psyche.
As you step out of your comfort zone to try something new, you find that these questions can occur so frequently that they create a permanent state of anxiety, imposter’s syndrome, or any other version of mind drama that can squelch your dream right in its tracks.
But here’s the thing: your dream doesn't have to die.
In fact, there is a simple (yet difficult) trick to stop your brain in its tracks.
What is it?
You make the choice to become successful.
Yes.
You.Make.The.Choice.To.Become.Successful.
What do I mean by that? You envision the end result for your dream, and you begin to live in the certainty that it will happen. You tilt your life and all of its actions towards its fruition.
Your dream becomes as certain as your birthday coming up.
It is on the calendar.
It is happening.
Acting with certainty that this dream will happen is the only way to make it happen; this energy removes the “wait-and-see” energy and doubt, lessening the frequency of those stupid questions.
ACTION! ACTION! ACTION!
Dreaming the dream isn’t enough. You have to get off your sofa and do things. Dreaming is easy. Dreaming is cheap. Everyone can afford it. BUT the true test of an entrepreneur is actually in doing – deciding on a line of action and acting on it. Acting often means getting out of your comfort zone to implement, to execute. To conquer your shyness, or lack of confidence, or fear of people. This is necessary, because you must. You may need to step out of the warm coziness of self-withdrawal, and become a master explainer of what you offer. Your own best spokesperson. Your own best brand ambassador.
Dreams are great, but could become Self-delusion
If you do nothing, nothing will happen. This is really what separates true entrepreneurs from those who dream. If you don’t do, then you won’t achieve. There will be no result to expect. No result to show. It will remain in the realm of feel-good-dreams; and, heaven’s forbid, even self-delusion. It’s as simple as that.
So regardless of what your idea, startup plan or small time hustle research is, you’ve got to do something about it. You have to cross the boundary between thinking all the time about it to actually offering it as a service or product, and marketing it. This way, you can see how easy or difficult it is to sell; what it means to convince other people to part with their money for you have to offer, especially people who don’t know you, and don’t care about you as person. And that’s when your work as an entrepreneur begins. That’s the hustle.
And what’s all this stuff about never giving up?
Now, there will be setbacks on the journey.
And there will be bad days.
And there will be moments of doubt and failure.
(Let’s face it…making a huge dream a reality is not as easy as going to the local 7-11 to buy a Coke). But when you live in the certainty that your vision is inevitable, you can look past the everyday setbacks and answer to the bigger picture.
That’s where all this never giving up thing comes from. This doesn’t mean that you should let silly ideas continue to fester, because, let’s face it, some of your first business ideas may be downright silly, of no value, and not marketable. That’s where learning comes in. Sometimes it takes a few bad ones to get to the really good ones. But the good thing is that, in failing in some, or giving up on others, you sharpen your instincts on recognizing better when something is worth pursuing. Or just best left alone.
So back to never giving up – it means not caving in so readily to challenges when you know you’ve got a really good one on your hands. It means devising ways to overcome things that life throws at you. If Thomas Edison gave up on himself, having listened to some of his – would you believe it – teachers practically call him dumb, we may not have some of the things he invented, like the incandescent light bulb.
Entrepreneurship as art – yes, it could be an art form
Another way to think about your dream is to think of it like a block of beautiful, white Carrara marble freshly imported from Italy. Upon its arrival, you look at the block - with absolute certainty - that your dream is in there somewhere - it exists.
It just needs to be released.
Like Michelangelo, you chisel away at it. Sometimes, you go hard, knocking off large chunks; other times, you sand away the rough spots. You look at this rough block up close; you look at it from far away. Sometimes, you remove too much, so you need to readjust. But you learn, recalibrate, and try again.
As you get closer to releasing your ideal vision, which is in there, you’re engaging in the process of becoming. You’re not applying useless accessories or painting the block bizarre colors to show off (that would be acts of the ego).
You’re remaining true to what’s inside of it.
You’re also remaining true to what’s inside of you.
And that’s how you make your dream become an absolute reality.
