Why Is Being An Entrepreneur So Hard?

Ok, so we know that being a business owner and Entrepreneur is tough work.  It has its perks, yes.  These may include personal freedom, self worth, not answering to an employer, building value in your own brand, and many other good things.  Alas, there are many pitfalls along the way as well.  You may not be able to get the startup funds that you need to get your idea off the ground.  You may not be able to get the employees that see your vision and are able to be autonomous with implementing your plans.  As John wrote a few days ago, you may actually peak too soon and burn yourself out!

I have been self employed with different projects for different amounts of time in life.  I have worked in technology, securities, retail, and health & fitness.  Most of the time, I was grinding.  it was not the glamour that you may see at the award shows and parties that happen on an annual basis.  It was day in, day out, grinding.  I almost compare it to a football game.  When we watch a game on TV, we see the big plays and the glamour.  What we do not see, is 95 percent of the work.  The countless hours of practice, drawing schemes, playbooks, learning routes, defensive assignments, and audibles.  All we see is basically the product of the hard work.  This is also true in being an entrepreneur.

If there is one thing I have learned from many of my most successful friends in business startups, it would be that it is worth it.  The very close second lesson they have taught me, and I have learned as well, is that you must be willing to lose it all, over and over again.  I have lost count of the number of times I have seem close friends and mine give every penny and waking minute we have to an idea that could make huge waves, and lost every single last one.  I was the guy that it hit right between the eyes.  I couldn't see past the loss, whereas the guys that I was fortunate enough to be friends with were able to pull me up to their level of basically learning from their mistakes, shrugging it off, and doing it again.

Entrepreneur = Hard

There are other losses that can come momentarily for entrepreneurs.  These may include losing some of your friends.  Some of these people may be truly looking out for you and are misguided, and some of the may have not actually been your real friends in the first place.  One bridge that many startup owners end up having to face is being able to separate their business life from their work life.  This is subjective to many people, as for some, their business IS their life for all intents and purposes.  Regardless, when you have friends involved in business, they many times will not be able to separate the business part of your relationship and the friendship part of the package.

Taxes is another part of the business world that more recently has made things much harder.  Starting a small business does not come with the tax breaks that it used to.  Unfortunately, no matter what your political affiliation, I think it is safe to say that it is not likely to get any easier any time soon.  Despite this, we soldier on anyway.  Despite ALL of the above reasons why it is hard, we keep on keepin' on.  Why?  because entrepreneurs have it in their blood to do until they succeed.  So keep on the grind!