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Think entrepreneurship is full of glory? Well F*ck..

Anything related to matters of the mind

Ravens_Shadow

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//Start harshtruth.exe

I've been deep in the trenches for nearly two years now. Working and working and working and working. I have worked my a$$ off. I kid you not, it fell off. Only when you look back can you begin to connect the dots and see just how far you've come:

Behind all of the glory that the media shows about business and how wonderful and great it is, or how awesome the hustle is, and how there is this never ending stream of energy and endurance and blah blah blah... depending on the road you take and mindset you have, it can be pretty soul crushing at times. @MJ DeMarco talks about this in his book. He just so happens to call this phase the desert of desertion. You put in so much work. You work day and night. And when you finally launch and feel like you're about to hit it big. WHAM. A golf club to the face. Nothing. No Sales. No Calls. Just a few Leads... for a few months worth of work building infrastructure on the validation you had for the company. So we pivoted to cater to the buyers. Things are looking up. Ready! Fire! Aim! Luckily a few missing teeth from a smack in the face is fixable with the right tools, time, and people.


But, F*ck is it hard guys. It really is.


I'm nearing the end of the desertion phase. And I'm finally seeing the light that I've been fighting so hard to get to. I feel like the parts that are actually great and notable are coming up really soon. Don't get me wrong, i've had so much fun building my life the way I want it to be with entrepreneurship. I've met some truly amazing people and i've made some life long friends from and off the forum. But it's harder than anything i've ever imagined.. to overcome the hurtles of yourself is a full time job on its own.


I used to work at McDonald's a few years ago, and I met this homeless guy who came into our restaurant and saw me mopping the floor. He called me over to his table and said "Damn, you sure do a fine job mopping floors." I replied, "Well sir, it's what I was taught to do." He said, "Well, you've got a great work ethic, and you work tirelessly. You need to just quit this job and go out and do bigger things than mopping floors, who knows, maybe you'll own a chain of these things one day. But I tell you what, before you can do something that big, things are going to get so hard. Things are going to be unimaginably hard for you. But I need you to keep on keeping on. Keep on keeping on. Keep on Keeping on. Do it, and do it and do it. And when you can't keep on any more, keep on keeping on. I know you'll make it out there. You've got what it takes." The next day I quit working there against what everyone else told me.

Why did this man come into my life and tell me these things? Why has this ONE GUY and what he SAID, stuck so well into my mind? Because my life is almost Identical to what he said it was going to be like. It motivates me though, I just need to keep on keeping on.

On the subject of keeping on:

Please, for the sake of your own sanity. If you need help. Ask for help, from anyone. Do yourself a wonderful favor. Get the F*ck out of your house or apartment, or from under the bridge. GO OUT INTO THE WORLD. Take just a small amount of time off each week. For you. Because things will continue to be hard until the sales are rolling in (even after that things will still be hard at times), and you need time to recoup. To re-formulate your plans and push through the toughest shit you'll ever face.

Entrepreneurship is beautiful at times, though there is no glory in it. Not at this stage. Just tons of work. But that's okay. It adds stark contrast to my life. When I kick back and do absolutely nothing business related on (most) weekends, I feel great doing absolutely nothing. I can clearly see that I'm making progress as my task list grows smaller and smaller every day. For me I MUST take this time off or i'll get extremely burnt out. I HAVE to have time to prepare my next week and have time off with my family.

Part of being healthy is taking time off when you need it.

There is no magic pill, or short cut, and certainly no event, trust me.. I've searched. Just keep pushing. I'm in the trenches with you and have been for a quite sometime.

Just keep your head up, and keep on keeping on. If a barrel of shit comes your way, grab your spoon and start eating.

There comes this point in the process where you just break and scream to the top of your lungs. I hit that point this past week, but I let my feelings feel what they needed to and held nothing back. I let my brain finally release all of the anger, frustration, sadness, disappointment and what ever else was in there.

And now I can think clearly again, refocus and continue on my way. It was just a way for me to break out of my old casing and start fresher, bigger, and better. Work ethic is key, just doing it and doing it over and over relentlessly. You have to take action.

//end venting and heads up session, back to work first thing in the morning.
 
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Last edited:
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GuestUser450

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So we pivoted to cater to the buyers.
Call me out if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you isolated yourself to "work" without asking what the market wants first?

You said it yourself, it wasn't until you started taking direction from the market that things picked up.

Everything great is hard. But hard doesn't automatically make something great/worthwhile.
 

Ravens_Shadow

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Call me out if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you isolated yourself to "work" without asking what the market wants first?

You said it yourself, it wasn't until you started taking direction from the market that things picked up.

Everything great is hard. But hard doesn't automatically make something great/worthwhile.

Well we did our initial market research asking a plethora of people/businesses who we thought to be in our target market whether or not they would want our product/service. Just because people say yes doesn't mean much until they give you money which is what I've personally learned. During this project we've had many many collaborations so it seemed like it was going to take off from the get go. Nope. So we targeted a deeper more centralized niche and we may have found our sweet spot. Mistakes are bound to happen, and you're surely right, just because its hard doesn't mean its going to make something great, but it's always worth while. It gives you the experience you need to tackle your next venture.
 

IrishSpring600

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Please, for the sake of your own sanity. If you need help. Ask for help, from anyone. Do yourself a wonderful favor. Get the F*ck out of your house or apartment, or from under the bridge. GO OUT INTO THE WORLD. Take just a small amount of time off each week.For you. Because things will continue to be hard until the sales are rolling in (even after that things will still be hard at times), and you need timetorecoup. To re-formulate your plans and push through the toughest shit you'll ever face.

I concur. I am following this advice and concurrently retrieving my sanity. Sometimes breaks are needed to fix the lens through which we view the world in.

It will be clear when you need the break. If you ask yourself, "Do I need a break?" You probably don't.
 
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Sanj Modha

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I always say if it was easy. We'd all be entrepreneurs.

It takes a certain kind of person. Someone who can see the light no matter what happens. I've tried to coach people who just don't have that fire inside them. In the end, I quit.

They're followers not leaders.
 

sharkas

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Nice story, you did the good choice, and will not regret it. However, like you say, you need to manage your sanity. Being a workaholic, working all the day and late at evening, during months, to build a product and then expect the success sound to me like a "If you build it they will come" fallacy. Working hard is not a precursive to success. Working smart AND hard is. Why don't do the slighest prototype of your product, with a good copywriting, and put that in the marketplace ? You will have see quickly if things are starting well, or if not, remember : in the beginning you have to do things that don't scale. http://paulgraham.com/ds.html In addition, a prototype product allow you to increment rapidly based on customer feedback, or totally pivot on your initial idea. Skillshare was started very soon, with 3000$. But this is a problem a lot of entrepreneurs are facing. Anyway, you did the most difficult. You had the balls to quit, to take action. Now maybe your first idea didn't worked, but now your resolve to succeed is stronger than before. You will succeed, if you remember the lessons of that experience.
 

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