Behind the Scenes of an Entrepreneur
Many people see entrepreneurs’ lifestyles as grand and exhilarating due to their money and the freedom to do whatever they want. Little do people know all the hard work and hours entrepreneurs put in behind the scenes to have that big success and lifestyle. Social media only shows the best sides and not the downside of entrepreneurship.
Being an entrepreneur comes with many rewards, but you must face many challenges and obstacles in return for those rewards. It’s not just rainbow and unicorn all the time. The entrepreneur’s life is difficult since every decision you make can change everything.
Building a successful business takes time, money, and effort. It’s not possible to create something overnight. There will be investments and sacrifices you must make in order to succeed. According to Investopedia, around 90% of startups failed in 2019 due to money, not understanding the market, target audience, and many more.
This is why some people are not cut for entrepreneurship if they don’t put in work, time, and money. Here are some behind the scenes decisions of an entrepreneur that people don’t know or see.
Behind the Scenes Of An Entrepreneur
Must Make Sacrifices
Entrepreneurs must make so many sacrifices to run a business, especially giving up their time. You only have twenty-four hours in a day, and you may think that’s a lot to get everything done. However, it’s not.
Are you going to work 10 hours straight? Will you be productive in those hours? You’ll need to take breaks, eat, and sleep. It’s impossible to get everything done in one day if you are starting out. If you have people you hire, you can get the majority of the things done, but it’s not going to be an overnight success.
You’ll see why most entrepreneurs have to sacrifice time and money in the beginning because there are so many tasks to get done. Rather than working just 40 hours, you have to work overtime around 60 or 80 hours behind the scenes.
You would have to sacrifice some personal time with your family and friends to continue running your business. When you are new to the game, you have to focus and not waste time.
Many people may not see it, but it hurts to sacrifice a lot of time. Imagine not seeing anyone for like six months? Most people don’t like giving up their time and end up quitting halfway. However, behind the scenes of entrepreneurs, you are working 24/7 to succeed within the next six months or the upcoming year.
There will be times when you feel burnout from working too much and not taking care of yourself. Most entrepreneurs start off doing things by themselves because they don’t have the money yet, so they have to give up their time. Slowly, they can ask for help to get things done faster. That’s when they have to invest their own money, whether good or bad.
Level Of Commitment
Being an entrepreneur, you have a lot of responsibilities and commitment. It takes a lot of motivation and energy to keep going and not give up. Having that self-disciple and patience to keep going is extremely challenging when you have doubts and fear.
It is a scary, challenging, and confusing feeling when you are an entrepreneur because there are a lot of uncertainties. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Your business might fail or succeed.
It takes a lot of determination and commitment to continue building and growing your business, especially if you are a new startup. Behind the scenes, you’ll have to work hard and train yourself every day to never give up on your goals and dreams.
Again, you’ll be working long and late hours as mentioned before. Since you are the boss, you have to keep the business running and active.
It takes a lot of commitment to keep going when you feel like your business isn’t doing well. Most entrepreneurs have to build new habits and mindsets to be fully committed and not give up.
There will be days where you want to cry and give up, and that’s okay. As long as you stay focused and remain consistent, you’ll get there.
Continuous Learning & Growth
You can never stop learning. The world is constantly evolving with new technology, skills, and knowledge.
Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new things to try that will help them with their business. They socialize and network with the right people to grow and develop their strong characters.
Most people don’t continue to learn, so they never develop their minds and characters. Unlike people who sit around and watch TV all day, entrepreneurs read books, attend webinars or masterminds, and connect with successful people. They are the ones that are always hustling so they can have a successful future.
Limited Time
Time and money are so valuable to entrepreneurs that they hate wasting their time on unnecessary things. They don’t like to waste time around negative people who don’t want to be successful.
There are times where they have to let go of some people out of their lives because it becomes too toxic or starts hurting their mental and physical states. It is sad to let go of some of their important loved ones, but sometimes, it is for the better.
To stay focused on running a business, they don’t want to waste time worrying about what other people think. Why waste time on other people when you can focus on growing and scaling your business?
Time is something that can never be replaced, so use it wisely. Money is something you can replace, so who do you want to spend the most time with? If you want to invest in yourself and become the best version of yourself, you must put in time and money.
What entrepreneurs love spending time doing are growing, learning, and investing in themselves. Of course, they take breaks and enjoy their lives. Overall they have goals and dreams they want to achieve so they put in the time and money.
Loneliness is Real
Whether you are starting a side hustle or a full-time business, the journey of entrepreneurship is one long and lonely venture. No one will cheer for you or support you. When you put your hard work and money into it without producing a steady income, everyone thinks you’ll never last.
Being an entrepreneur is like throwing yourself off a cliff where you fall into the unknown abyss. When you persuade people to join you, you are also asking them to jump off the cliff with you. The chances of you succeeding is rare and people might not want to join you because of that.
Families and friends will ignore you and don’t believe in you. No one will see your vision until you actually make it. Behind the scenes you are hurt and alone because no one sees what your dreams and goals are, and its hard. That’s the reality of the life of an entrepreneur sometimes.
Great Failures
When running a business, there will be mistakes and failures. It’s normal because you learn and pick yourself back up through all the mistakes you made. No one is perfect, and running a business is never easy.
You might lose many people, go into debt, or even go bankrupt. There are so many possibilities that can happen.
But you have to remember, without failures, how will you have the experience? To grow and learn, you have to try and experiment. Whether you win or lose, you always have something to remember.
Bottom Line
It’s not all just glam and fun as an entrepreneur. There are a lot of risks, failures, and happy wins along the way. Being an entrepreneur can be for anyone as long as they know what it takes to succeed. It’ll be difficult behind the scenes, but just remember that each day comes with little success.
Feature Image courtesy of unsplash.
