There are many ups and downs to the entrepreneurial journey.
There are big and little wins, and equal losses.
My personal favorite is the Valley of Death; the moment when you feel like giving up completely, which coincidentally is the exact moment when if you have enough courage to push through, and reach deep down for some extra grit, that moment will become a springboard for future success.
Here’s what I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, about the truth of entrepreneurship: it is a journey that will be worth it and at the same time make you question every ounce of what you are creating.
There will be clients that you love to work with, who make your work seem meaningful, magnetic, and oh so fun. Then there will be clients where you honestly wish you could pay them to go away. Both clients are valuable to your journey. Both of them show you where you can double down on your greatness and where you can do better next time, perhaps by saying no…
The saying, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” has never been more true than in entrepreneurship. If you look at your journey as good vs bad days, good clients vs bad clients, or good revenue times versus bad revenue times, you will always only see in black and white, and miss the technicolor magic that is bringing a business to life. Which leads me to the title of this post… no guts, no story.
We have seen it time and time again. Someone starts at the bottom and grows into a billion dollar business. The problem with this story is that we only see the success, we don’t see the sh*t that happened behind the scenes that built the foundation of success. We forgot to consider the late nights, the infinite cups of coffee, the doubt, the fear, the debt… we just see the empire. But you know what all empires have in common? Guts!
It takes real guts, and dare I say gumption, to build a business and take what was once only an idea and turn it into a legacy. And yeah, it is scary as he** sometimes but it is something that if you never had the courage to start, you wouldn’t have a great story or a great business, you would probably only have regret.
So why do I share this post with you? Because I want to give you an internet high five for having the guts to get out there. To kick the status quo in the teeth and have the grit to see it through, no matter how bumpy the road ahead looks.
Each “failure” has been a lesson. Each misstep a stepping stone. Each moment of doubt a precursor to inspiration. This journey is not for the faint of heart, but it is for the ones who see a better tomorrow than what exists today.
Keep on keeping on and build that amazing story so other entrepreneurs can look up to you for inspiration and see that they too can change the world!
