What was the most difficult thing you've had to learn or do for your business?

[TreyAllDay]

I'm curious to hear from some of you other entrepeneurs, what was the most difficult thing you had to do or skill you had to learn in your journey?

For me, I would say getting over cold calling fear.

 

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[Max Gambit]

Fear of failure, was the hardest moment in my beginning! To get over the fear of failure -uhhh, it cost me a lot of time and effort!

 

[biggeemac]

Fire one of my kids.....and threaten to fire another.

 

[AllenCrawley]

I'm curious to hear from some of you other entrepeneurs, what was the most difficult thing you had to do or skill you had to learn in your journey?

For me, I would say getting over cold calling fear.

It's been all sunshine and rainbows.









JK.


I'm not really sure what my most difficult thing has been. However, the first thing to comes to mind is... Patience.

I'm 46 years old. I've been in this game for over 25 years with varying degrees of successes and failures. Mostly failures.

In the age of well publicized "instant" multi-million and billion dollar exits it can be frustrating to plug along little by little, step by step, day by day and not experience the meteoric growth we see daily. I, we, have to remind ourselves that's an effect of the frequency illusion.

Nevertheless, we see successes here on the forum that isn't publicized or well known. One's that started their business later than me that are much further along. If I'm not careful impatience can creep in and influence me to make decisions that would be too soon or aren't good for the company.

As I reflect on this, impatience and bad decisions seem to be the root of my past failures. I must stay vigilant.

 

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[Red]

Accept that every time I find myself angry about something another person has done/something that has happened, it's time for ME to step up & put systems in place that never allow that to happen again. It's time for ME to get better & improve. Every single time the same thing happens to me beyond the first time is MY fault. Because I allowed it. You can't change other people, you can only change yourself.

It has drastically improved my business and my personal life.

 

[Lex DeVille]

For me the hardest thing has been knowing when to continue through rather than switching to something new. Usually the switch came just before the point where what I was working on could have been huge. The times I didn't switch were usually the times I had the most growth. What's funny is, my journey has come fairly close to full-circle with the things I started with being among those most likely to fuel my business moving forward.

 

[TonyStark]

That no one cares that you started a business, until they see how much you care.

 

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[Andy Black]

I'm not really sure what my most difficult thing has been. However, the first thing to comes to mind is... Patience.

I'm 46 years old. I've been in this game for over 25 years with varying degrees of successes and failures. Mostly failures.

In the age of well publicized "instant" multi-million and billion dollar exits it can be frustrating to plug along little by little, step by step, day by day and not experience the meteoric growth we see daily. I, we, have to remind ourselves that's an effect of the frequency illusion.

Nevertheless, we see successes here on the forum that isn't publicized or well known. One's that started their business later than me that are much further along. If I'm not careful impatience can creep in and influence me to make decisions that would be too soon or aren't good for the company.

As I reflect on this, impatience and bad decisions seem to be the root of my past failures. I must stay vigilant.

Likewise. I'm also 46... with my take-home lower than it was 15 years ago when I was an IT contractor.

But I'm doing it differently. And *I* am different.

Not trying to skips steps is very important to me now. I've found that chipping away works much better for me, especially having a family.

Turning down bigger and bespoke consulting work was (is?) hard... it's easy to get tempted and stray from the path I want to go down.

What's been really hard to date is to ignore well meaning advice that either leads me astray or makes me question what I'm doing.

In a way, the hardest thing has been to realise all the answers are within me, and to protect myself from outside influence so I can actually hear myself think and do my own thing my own way.


EDIT: Thank you @AllenCrawley for your honesty there.

 

[Andy Black]

For me the hardest thing has been knowing when to continue through rather than switching to something new. Usually the switch came just before the point where what I was working on could have been huge. The times I didn't switch were usually the times I had the most growth. What's funny is, my journey has come fairly close to full-circle with the things I started with being among those most likely to fuel my business moving forward.

So true. It feels like I keep coming back and revisiting things I was doing years ago, but as a different person seeing it differently. It's like I progress by going round in circles but cork-screwing upwards (upwards and to the right of course)...

 

[Joe Cassandra]

NOT thinking about my business 24/7.

My daughter knows around 5:00pm I'll come down for dinner and play. Yet, sometimes...many times...I'm still thinking about

- That client who emailed saying my copy sucked
- Or that prospect who won't email me back to get that 5-figure contract signed
- Or that client who's 6 weeks behind paying me and my taxes are due​

It'll be like a TV show dream sequence...

I'll be staring off into space and my wife raises her voice "JOE!" I'll look over and she says, "Your daughter's asked you a question like 5x now, answer her!"

It'll be the same with my wife. Last night, she's stressed from being pregnant and needed someone to listen. All I was thinking was "Man, I have X to do tonight meaning I'll be up until 2am...ugh "

It's bad.

Still learning. Started with not pulling out my phone while my daughter is still awake (from 5pm - 745pm)

 

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[Guest3722A]

Perseverance hurts at times. And there's ALWAYS an additional road block to figure your way through. It's like one massive game of chess.

 

[garyjsmith]

..most difficult thing you had to do ...

Overcoming doubt that I had actually found a way out of what I now know to be the sidewalk and slowlane. I'm quick to believe -- especially when I find supporting facts -- and I test until it's proven wrong. There have been times when the weathervane shifted directions and I, not only felt lost, but that I was leading my family into peril, and fast. I look back and think about how much risk I took in the past year, and despite stressing the people I care for, it all worked out -- not to make light of their grief. This is sounding really selfish so I'll chop it off here: As a result of overcoming doubt, I have a new well-paid and valued skillset to aid us if things hit the fan and my constant refinement keeps me agile.

 

[Ivan2BAlive]

I'm curious to hear from some of you other entrepeneurs, what was the most difficult thing you had to do or skill you had to learn in your journey?

Me, was letting two business(es) go. Lost 2 franchises in 2008 and everything fell apart after that.

 

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[TreyAllDay]

That no one cares that you started a business, until they see how much you care.

This one was tough. I remember my first round of "sales calls" I emailed 10 people, TEN. When none got back to me, I told my mentor "oh man.. maybe the product sucks", he laughed in my face and said I needed to make at least 500+ calls before I found people who gave a shit.

I would say almost 90% of my giving up in the past had to do with me making assumptions on information that isn't even relevant. I would think people didn't like my presentations, but I had no idea if they were even opening the email or clicking on a link. Or I would explain it to a friend and they wouldn't be interested. Once I started focusing on knowing where the failures were, it became a lot more manageable.

 

[JWelch]

Managing Human Resources

 

[TheSmokey1]

Everything related to HR. There are many things that can be hard about starting and running a business, but for me the most difficult thing is dealing with internal HR issues. Watching grown men and women fight like children, lying, stealing, sexual harassment, seeing people do shit that you never would have thought of in a million years. It makes you want to weep for humanity...

 

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[Duane]

Understanding that the reward comes at the end of the journey, not the beginning or middle.

Reinvest almost everything back into the business... Hold the vision and trust in the process.

 

[TreyAllDay]

Fire one of my kids.....and threaten to fire another.

This is a difficult one. I had to cut off a business deal with my cousin and that was difficult enough, can't imagine firing one of my kids.

 

[458]

I'm curious to hear from some of you other entrepeneurs, what was the most difficult thing you had to do or skill you had to learn in your journey?

For me, I would say getting over cold calling fear.

Refund money

 

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