Deep Breath. No End in Sight
Entrepreneur, My Journey: Episode 5
(Episode 1: Time to Cast Off; Episode 2: Taking the Plunge; Episode 3: Christopher Columbus; Episode 4: The Dark Night)
When I informed friends and business contacts that I was starting my own consulting business, everybody congratulated me and praised me for a great decision. Entrepreneurship is now largely celebrated by society. The entrepreneur is presented as a modern hero who takes his destiny into his/her own hands to do good, and live a happy life. Wait a minute. This is actually an advertisement for entrepreneurship. This is not real life.
No End In Sight
I am still going through the Dark Night. On my own. I managed to get a second client for an OK job. A third, and a fourth client. Again, not huge, not bad, but nothing crazy that will push my revenue through the roof. I keep seeing outflow of money for the business, and not enough money coming in to keep it afloat. I carry on. Business development and marketing. Hustle. Stress is high. Stress of not making it, and having to give it up at some point. The fear of having wasted time, money, credibility, and end up with nothing. Just a sorry story of entrepreneurship that went down the toilet...
Fear is with me constantly. It takes a lot of mental strength to keep going. I am six months into my start up. I am nearly broke. Not paying myself any salary of course. Surviving on my wife’ salary. There are days where I feel strong, confident and optimistic. I am convinced my efforts will pay off. But it doesn’t seem to happen. And there are days where I just want to cry and give up, I lose confidence and I can’t see the end of the tunnel. I can’t see any light. No end in sight.
I am not trying to warn anyone, or to debunk any myth about entrepreneurship with my articles. I am just sharing a real life experience. How it went for me, how I struggled, what went through my head at the time, and how I dealt with it to move to the next stage.
Nothing prepared me for this entrepreneur episode of my life. Nothing I read about the subject before starting my journey was close to what I have been going through until now. It has been the most intense experience.
No results. The hardest part.
Most of my life, at university, and during my career, I have worked reasonably hard, and I always obtained average, good or excellent results. Like most people, I am mentally wired for the standard concept: Hard Work = Results. Unfortunately, this time, it doesn’t work like this. At all.
Hard Work = More Hard Work = Even More Hard Work
Etc.
That’s mentally difficult to swallow. This is what entrepreneurship has been about for me so far: huge efforts, no results. The absence of tangible results is extremely difficult to absorb mentally. It hurts. It starts feeling like physical pain. It lasts for days. For weeks. And then months. And like Columbus, I am half way through my journey, stuck in the middle of the Ocean, too far to come back. I have to make it work. Failure is not an option.
Darwinism at play
Suddenly life as an entrepreneur becomes a game of survival and resilience. Once I understood the rules, accepted my new condition, I started to grow another layer of crocodile skin. Manner of speaking. I developed new survival skills. Pure Darwinism at play. We are humans. We are incredibly strong. We can adapt fast to changing environments and situations.
The most important to understand is that this “No end in sight” moment of my life, became my new normal. Without realising it, it became the air I breath every second. All I had to do was to take a deep breath, and carry on.
Out in The Jungle (The Market)
A key element of my survival instinct is to constantly keep close to my professional network, and to meet a lot of people. All the time. I have a rule which is I make time for everybody. I don’t discriminate people based on my short-term interests. I try to cast a wide net. Because I know there is a lot I don’t know. I can pick up a lot about market changes, trends, opportunities, from a simple business conversation with anyone. A lot I can learn. And the most random connection might bring me something positive in the near future. Or not.
So I constantly talk to business leaders, entrepreneurs, senior executives, management consultants, bankers, traders, lawyers, investors, young people, mid-level managers, sales people, marketing people, recruiters, old contacts, new connections, etc. I also try to help a lot of people. I am always happy to spend an hour with a young person fresh out of university looking for career advice, a job, an internship. I make warm introductions. I try to connect people as much as I can.
I am doing everything possible to stay close to my market. To study it from multiple angles. To understand changes as they happen. To get under the skin of my market.
When I was an employee at a big firm, my day-to-day jungle was my firm. This is where I had to put my best survival skills in action in order to stay alive and progress. Now, I have moved to another jungle. A much bigger one. A million times more adventurous: the Market.
What Does It Mean?
Once I start to understand my market better and better, I increase my market knowledge. This is why I talk to a lot of people. Then I start developing superpowers. Like laser vision for opportunities that not everyone can see or simply catch. If I can position my business to catch and serve these opportunities, I have an edge. It means that I am starting to curve my market niche. It means that I am finding my market. It means that I am leaving the Red Ocean and slowly moving to the Blue Ocean. It means that I can beat my competition. It means that I can capture new market demand. It means that I can successfully grow my business. It means that there is still a lot of work ahead of me.
Entrepreneur, My Journey
Read previous episodes
Episode 1: Time to Cast Off
Episode 2: Taking the Plunge
Episode 3: Christopher Columbus
Episode 4: The Dark Night
Episode 5: Deep Breath. No End in Sight
Episode 6: Go alone, go fast. Go with others, go far.
Thank you for reading. I just want to share my journey as an entrepreneur as my story may help someone who is going through a professional life crisis or who simply has questions about what to do next. I have always fed on stories from others to help me in life. I hope I can help someone with my story.
Jason
