A lot of people really like the idea of one day starting up their own businesses, but hold off on actually doing this, indefinitely, because they’ve got a set of unrealistic expectations about what the process actually entails.
It’s not uncommon, for example, for people to believe that they have to be absolutely dominant in their day jobs, and have vast savings, and an absolutely masterful understanding of various niches and skill sets, before getting started.
Just a quick look at the ways in which actual entrepreneurial success stories have tended to play out, however, paints a very different picture.
Here’s a quick insight into what it really means to create your own business. For most people, anyway.
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Stumbling forward and learning on the go
When you first embark on any endeavor, you’re not going to be good at what you do, and you’re going to look and feel a bit like a fool.
That’s simply what happens because it’s impossible to truly prepare yourself for any meaningful undertaking, without hands-on experience in that specific endeavor.
The idea that successful entrepreneurs start up their first business, and are globally acclaimed, overnight successes the next day, with no issues or shortcomings, is absurd. There may be a few cases like this, but the far more typical story is that the entrepreneurial path is a path of stumbling forward and learning on the go, through countless mistakes.
Understand this, and be willing to go through the process of all that stumbling. Because it’s impossible to create the perfect business through planning alone. Experience is the greatest teacher.
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Identify the right tools and services to support you in your efforts
No matter what kind of business you are thinking of creating, it’s important to realize that you are only one individual, and you’re not going to be able to make great things – or anything, for that matter – happen in a vacuum.
Sooner or later, you may well need to hire staff, and you’ll definitely need to be able to interact in a mutually beneficial manner with other people.
You also need to identify the right tools and services to support you in your efforts and to prevent you from wasting all your time trying to figure things out unaided. Managed IT services, for example, may help you immensely.
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Grinding on, consistently, and not waiting for “inspiration” or “motivation” to show up
When you first dream up your ideal business and spend some time visualising how great it will feel to be your own boss, you should certainly be filled with enthusiasm and positive emotion.
But, life is messy, and situations arise and get in our way.
You will simply have to grind on, consistently, through days when you absolutely do not feel like getting out of bed, and when “motivation” and “passion” are totally absent.
The key is putting one foot in front of the other, and trudging forward regardless. In many cases, you’ll find that doing this will actually summon up that “inspiration” pretty quickly.