It seems like every person I meet these days wants to be an entrepreneur. They hear all the amazing success stories about young individuals who started their own companies and become millionaires. But what they don’t hear about is the extremely difficult road it takes to get there –the fight to survive, the never-ending persistence and the many sleepless nights.
Launching and building a startup is a nerve-wracking journey that will change your personality and alter your very essence. You may succeed and you may fail, but the wild turns and gut-wrenching drops along the way are as predictable as they are frightening.
This is what my life had been for the first year of building a startup.
Periodically I encountered a hurdle of doubt and fear, and needed a little “pick me up” now and again. Personal favorites was going onto YouTube and typing “Motivational Video”. I selected the video that had the most views, and started to watch: Dream – Motivational video.
This got me thinking about some of the significant similarities that exist between successful entrepreneurs and pro-athletes.
“The people who are living their dreams are the people who know that if it’s gonna happen, it’s up to them. If you wanna be successful, if you wanna have and do stuff you’ve never done before…I challenge you to invest in YOU.”
“Most people don’t work on their dreams. Why? One is because of fear – the fear of failure. “What if things don’t work out?”. And the fear of success. “What if things DO work out and I can’t handle it?”. These are not risk takers.”
“Not everyone will join you. Not everyone will have the vision. It’s NECESSARY to know that. You are an uncommon breed! It’s necessary that you align yourself with people and attract people into your business – people who are hungry. People who are unstoppable and unreasonable. People who refuse to leave life just as it is and who want more!”
“It’s necessary that you get the LOSERS out of your life if you want to live your dream.”
“I don’t know what that dream is that you have. I don’t care how disappointing it might be as you’re working toward that dream. But that dream that you’re holding in your mind – it’s possible. Some of you already know that it’s hard. It’s not easy. It’s hard changing your life. In the process of chasing your dreams, you are going to incur a lot of disappointment, a lot of failure, a lot of pain. There will be moments when you are going to doubt yourself.”
“For those of you who have experienced some hardships – don’t give up on your dream. The rough times are gonna come, but they will not stay, they will come to pass.”
“No matter how bad it is, or how bad it gets….I’m going to make it. I wanna represent an idea. I wanna represent possibilities.”
“Don’t let anybody steal your dream. You may fail, and fail, and fail again. But you’re still looking at your dream, reviewing it everyday and saying to yourself…“It’s not over until I win.””
“You can make your parents proud, you can make your school proud, you can touch millions of lives and the world will never be the same again, because you came this way.”
It’s not easy being an entrepreneur, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. The goals keep getting bigger and bolder, when something is not working, they do everything in their power to fix it. They blame no one but themselves. They wake up early each morning because they are excited to execute their skills and ideas. There is never enough time in the day.
That sacrifice, passion, and drive is what separates those who are successful from those who are not.