If you’re in business, it’s more than likely you’ve been warned of the ominous statistics. 85% of small businesses fail in the first twelve months. If you’re past that milestone then chances are you’ve had your fair share of down moments, tough decisions and financial and emotional pressure. I loved my first few years of business because of the naivety that I had. I would walk around in the rosiest of rose coloured glasses and it felt good.
The difficulty I believe is to go through the battles that we go through as business owners, but not to let it prevent us from being daring and bold in moving forward.
The battle scars you have to endure are there to test you and to teach you so that as your business grows, you have the necessary skills and resiliency to handle the pressure and to use your knowledge to make the right decisions. There’s the old saying, ‘Tough times don’t last, tough people do’.
When you are facing trying times in your business, change your viewpoint.
Focus on all of the awesome progress that you’ve made and continue to make every day. There will always be negative side effects of business, no matter what point you’re up to. A great mentor of mine once said something so true to me when I was telling him that I just couldn’t wait to get to the next stage so that my problems would ease. He said that with every new stage of business comes a new set of issues to deal with. It’s just the issues that you’ve dealt with and the scars that you have that will make you capable of dealing more effectively with your next level of business. That has proven itself time and time again. Things got easier the moment that I accepted that if I wanted to grow and push new barriers and achieve more, then I also have to accept the flip side that is growing pains and not let them send me on an emotional roller coaster. The alternative is to have a job that you go to every day and do the same thing with no room for growth or innovation (in some cases, there are some exceptional intrapreneur companies). I would take business any day, both the good and the bad. Where else do we have the opportunity in life to create and become anything we want to be?
The world is amazing and you have the ability to shape it, so that it’s even more amazing.
I will carry the memories of my business battle scars with me, but I hope that you to will continue to focus on how much you have achieved and grown and the permanent impact that you have made on the future of our world.
