Joys and frustrations of entrepreneurship

how they have made it and I would spare no effort to have an opportunity to ask.
Obviously, I would not be expecting an answer explaining the stress, the long hours, the lack of sleep and the lack of money that they would have endured in building the empire. For some reason I have always been expecting an inspirational reply that will get me going and set me into an introspective mindset, searching my soul on what I really want to do and how?
Don’t get me wrong, there are some great benefits of being an entrepreneur and owning your own business. You will, however, find yourselves asking some questions.

Are you an entrepreneur?

Do you have what it takes?

Are you a born leader?

What is your career path?

It has been said that people who ask these questions are not being genuinely sincere, as they would not be asking if they were not already interested in the subject and craving entrepreneurship. We just all want confirmation of our seemingly crazy and misguided need to work for ourselves, and build a business that is bigger than us.
I was with this other friend of mine DK who prides himself as one of the few millionaires in town the other day and he was teasing me that I write a lot about entrepreneurship but I did not have money.

Well, I told him that I never claimed to have money, but I am working on it and one day my time will come and I will be able to say that I worked hard to get to this level. Yes, my time will come.
If you have a concept for something, and believe in that concept so strongly that it’s all you think about night and day – you have it.
If you go after your dream, even though everyone tells you are doing the wrong thing and going down the wrong path – you have it.

If you risk all of your money to go after your dream, knowing that it will succeed without a doubt – you have it.
If your concept fails, and you immediately start thinking of your next big idea – you have it.

Basically, being an entrepreneur means taking the courses of action to make your dream a reality. To not be afraid of making mistakes, or even to fail. To ignore the negative people, and seek out the positive. To be so excited about your dream that other people want to join you and help.
It’s not easy – any business owner will gladly tell you that. They will probably even try to talk you out of working for yourself – only an insane fanatic would choose to be an entrepreneur, they say.

But we do choose to, because we need to. It’s a feeling that is always there with us, and has been since we were kids. It gnaws at us night and day, and we suffer with it until we embrace it, and start the long and exciting journey of learning, building and growing our dream.

I once read in an American journal that being an entrepreneur is like careening down a mountain road at 90km/h with one headlight out. It’s both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. You react to circumstances as quickly as you can but still you wonder if your last decision:

Will throw you off the mountain;

Will cause you to run headlong into some obstacle; or

Will allow you to gain even more speed and momentum.

It can be a true adrenaline-laced thrill ride. But like an amusement park roller-coaster, a valley follows every peak. These peaks and valleys represent the joys and frustrations of entrepreneurship.
It is a fact that not everyone shares your enthusiasm. When you are “moving and shaking”, you tend to assume that everyone around you is interested in your success. They are not. In fact, some are secretly hoping that you fail.

If you are successful, then others are forced to examine why you achieved your success while they have not. And if you are successful, then you may move beyond your current environment leaving some friends behind.
One of the benefits of Press coverage of entrepreneurial success stories is that it creates a natural curiosity in people. They want to see what all the fuss is about, so they travel to your business to see how you have done it. This Press coverage increases the awareness of the products and services and creates a “buzz”.

You are bound, however, to receive resistance from people to give testimonials about the success of your products as they fear that this may jeopardise their relationship with other suppliers.
Increased sales are the quest of every entrepreneur. When you get more eyeballs looking at your product or service plus an unsolicited and unpaid endorsement from a fair and unbiased third party, the result is an increase in the volume of sales.

All in all, it’s all good! Valleys follow peaks. That’s just the way it is. Just don’t allow yourself to stay in the valley. Start climbing to the top of the mountain and get ready for the next thrill ride down.
As always, let’s make money.