I get asked a lot what is ‘the best advice I can give entrepreneurs?’ And most of the time I give the answer according to whatever comes to me at the time. But gradually, and particularly in the last few months, I’ve realised the same answer has been coming up for me each time. And every time I repeat it, I’m more certain about it.
So the best advice I can give entrepreneurs? Accept the journey for what it is.
Accept the journey that you are on as an entrepreneur. Accept the journey for what it is in itself, and however it’s going to be in the future. Because, if you’ve any experience in business, you’ll know what a rollercoaster that journey can be.
The caveat to that as well, is to appreciate yourself for all the steps you have to take in that journey. Whether those steps are challenging, disappointing or frustrating. All throughout the process, keep giving yourself the credit you deserve for doing the work. It’s important.
Accepting the Journey for What it is
An entrepreneurial journey will give you massive highs, and massive lows. It will turn upside-down, inside-out, backwards and reverse. It is incredibly challenging. But it’s important to know that heading into it. And accepting that.
If you’re trying to fight that, I honestly feel for you. Because that will be exhausting and you’re just going to burn out. So my key point is to just accept what you have embarked on for what it is. Accept that sometimes you’ll be up, and sometimes you’ll be down. Sometimes you’ll race forwards, other times you’ll get kicked back.
But that’s the journey. Know what you’re getting into. And if you truly accept it for what it is, it’ll actually relieve a huge amount of frustration and negative energy allowing more retention of positive energy for you to put into your work.
Appreciate Yourself
It’s really important to take a moment to recognise yourself in all this. This is what will help you keep afloat through that journey. Take stock of all of the time, energy and hard work you put in.
And also – appreciate the mistakes you will make along the way as well. I’ve spoken about the value of mistakes and how they can benefit us if we look at them in the right way. Mistakes early on will be formative and will help you refine your expertise going forward. So don’t make the inevitability of making mistakes even harder for yourself by beating yourself up over them.
If you keep beating yourself over time, you’re constantly knocking yourself and putting yourself down. And if you’re doing that, how are you going to find the self-belief you need to step up to the ambitions you’re aspiring to?
If you’re appreciating yourself every day – looking in the mirror and saying “well done,” that gives you that little drop of confidence every day that builds up. That means if you’ve had an awful day – saying to yourself “Well done. You had a bad day, but you got through it.” When you’ve had a good day, it’s far easier to congratulate yourself. But give yourself credit for getting through those rough days, too.
The Success
In the long run, the bad days are actually what is going to make you. So that’s why it’s all the more important to appreciate them, because they are going to make you into the entrepreneurial success that you want to be.
So. The best advice I can give entrepreneurs: Accept the journey for what it is. And appreciate yourself as you progress every day.
Be your biggest fan.
Because if you are, I guarantee that in a few years, you’ll be shocked by how far you can progress.