Are You an Aspiring Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship can beat you down if you let it. I’ve seen it happen to others as well as myself. I suppose there’s a sort of “weeding-out” process that takes place, to determine if you’re going to be an entrepreneur & trailblazer, or whether you’re going to go the route of the 9 to 5′er.
The entrepreneurial bug hit me long ago. I started working around the age of 13 or so. I spent my summers working, while other kids were running the neighborhoods, playing baseball doing all the fun stuff. I didn’t mind working because I always enjoyed having money to do stuff or buy things. At some point though, and I don’t remember exactly how old I was, my dad and I were in the car one day driving somewhere and he told me….”you know Chris, the only way to really get ahead in life, is to work for yourself, be your own boss”. This was coming from a man that had worked hard his entire life to provide for his family. And he provided for us well, but I could tell there were times when he knew he’d have been better off if he had gone out on his own. I think most everyone probably feels that way from time to time.
So I’ve always liked the idea of working for “me”. Lord knows I’ve tried more than one business idea over the years. All of these ventures were attempted “part time” while I worked a full time job as well. Let’s see…there was the…
- Computer repair & maintenance business – FAILED / Too impatient – thought I should have customers ringing my phone off the wall for help within a week. Didn’t happen so I lost interest.
- Pressure washing & steam cleaning business – FAILED / I actually invested quite a bit of money into this and really tried to make it work. Eventually I lost interest and got tired of losing money because of under-bidding jobs just so I could get work.
- Real estate agent – FAILED / Got my license and decided to try this for a year or so. I just knew I’d get hordes of business from the people that I worked with at my full time job. The hordes never came and I got tired of having to work when everyone else was off. Figured out that I wasn’t cut out for sales.
- Lawn equipment repair – FAILED / I don’t even recall why this failed? Lost interest and didn’t make any money would probably be two good reasons?
- Hypnotherapist – Semi-FAILED / This is actually an area that I remain very interested in and have a website dedicated to helping others learn about hypnosis. The actual business didn’t succeed because quite frankly…people are skeptical of the service I was trying to provide, and customers were few and far between. When I was successful with clients, it was a tremendous feeling! When I wasn’t successful, I felt like I had failed them and myself and it was depressing. Decided to give it up.
- Online Pet Supplies – Semi-FAILED / This started as an ebay business and quickly developed into me starting my own website. I enjoyed this business for a while. I liked the fact that I worked the business out of my home and didn’t have to deal directly (ie. face to face or on the phone), with customers. This was my first taste of selling on the internet which had some good points and bad. I still ended up having to deal with customer complaints though
. This business simply got too overwhelming. I learned first hand how much time a business like this could take! If I wasn’t working my “real” job, I was running this business…weekends included! This just started consuming too much personal time and was draining me both physically and mentally. And I wasn’t making nearly enough money. Shut the business down.
That brings me to where I am today. All these failed ventures have taught me a LOT! When I look back, I’m actually happy that things turned out the way they did. One thing I learned is that I didn’t “really” have a great love or passion for any of those things I was doing. The bottom line motivation to all of them was centered around making money and being able to quit my day job.
You’ll note that I marked my last couple of ventures as “SEMI-FAILED”. This tells me that I was getting closer, but just hadn’t found my real passion yet.
So what have I learned from trying my hand at being self-employed? It’s hard to be your own boss! The hours are long, but if you find something you love doing, you’ll find that you really don’t care how long the hours are because you’re enjoying yourself.
I’ve learned that I generally don’t like dealing with the public when it comes to business and I wouldn’t want to have to deal with employees. I always wanted to do something where I could just “create” a product or a service, and people could buy it or use it if they wanted. Take it or leave it. No customers whining and complaining because what they got wasn’t good enough. Here it is…if you want it, fine…if you don’t, move on. Writing has long been a passion of mine, and it fits nicely into that mold.
I like “techy” kinda stuff and creating websites. I really don’t know any programming, or how to code, but I can usually figure something out. I’ve been around computers long enough to know and understand the jargon. Lets see….computers, websites, writing/blogging…we’re getting there!
I enjoy helping other people and I try to show my sincere appreciation for those that help me. It’s a good feeling to know that you’ve helped someone solve a problem.
So if I can take a knowledge of computers, create a website and write something that will help another person, the I feel like I’ve found the ultimate way to make a living! And I truly believe that when you’re helping people and doing something you love, there is no way you can go wrong!
I still work a “day job”, but for the last 6 months or so, I’ve been doing what I really love to do, whenever I can do it! I still have a ton to learn about being a great blogger, but I have no doubt I’ll succeed.
If you’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, hopefully you won’t have to experience as “many” failures as I have. If you’ve tried and failed in the past, don’t let that discourage you from moving forward! That experience has toughened you and put you a step ahead of everyone else.
As always, if I can ever help, please don’t hesitate to ask! Have a great day!
Chris
