Being an entrepreneur is not easy!! I always joke and say that you have to be unrealistically optimistic to be an entrepreneur. You have to be optimistic beyond all reasonable odds.
Teach a CEO wrote an article which asked the question, “Are entrepreneurs born or made?” Many entrepreneurs chimed in with their various responses. Mine is HERE.
What do you think? Were you one of those children who were selling, creating, or building at a young age? Were you innovative and wouldn’t take no for an answer? Or did that spirit rise up in you one day?
For me, it was not an overnight thing, I don’t feel as though I was born with that spirit or ability. It rose through a series of events.
Ultimately, this desire arose when I began to grow out of my job as a public school teacher. I realized that I needed more, that I was capable of more, and I wouldn’t be content with anything less.
I used my skills that I learned as a Veteran Marine to begin to chip away at the larger goal and just “get one thing done per day towards my ultimate goal.”
Tons of highs and lows… a ton of late nights and early mornings… many times wondering what in the world I got myself into, and yet, each day I keep on keeping on. I keep moving forward and making things happen. I don’t want to stop because there is nothing else I’d ever imagine doing that is more fully me than this. I love it and hate it but I love it more.
Do I desire more stability? Yes, of course. But do I appreciate every dollar I earn? Never more so than now. Every dollar means the world to me.
I completely get the obsession Scrooge McDuck had about his first dollar. That was the first dollar that he earned with his hard work and ingenuity. No one could take that away from him. No matter how many times he lost all his money, he used his abilities to get it (or earn it) back.
I now realize that if everything had falling into place right when I wanted it to, I would have been one of those lottery winners that blows all their winnings in a year. I had no respect for money. I had no appreciation for all my hard work because I didn’t understand the value of each dollar.
Now I know. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m going to do it anyways. I know that there are ups and downs but who cares when you are doing something you love. Whether rich or poor I will still have this desire to write, create, and educate.
It’s not all exactly the way I envision it, even now. I know it is constantly evolving and growing into what it is supposed to be. I will never get there. I don’t want to. Each step of the way, each week, each month, it is becoming bigger than I have ever imagined. And like I tell my clients, “Don’t think you know what it is going to look like until it’s done. Let it become what it is supposed to be.”
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