"What am I willing to sacrifice for what I want to become?" - Anon This may not be #1 top question that you are asking yourself as you embark on starting a new business--but it should be way, way up there somewhere.
Starting a new business can seem very sexy and exciting from the outside looking in, and it is indeed all of those things.
However, there are some potential downsides to starting your own business as well.
One of these downsides centers around the fact that you will more than likely have to sacrifice more than you ever have in order to be successful at your in your venture.
Most people come into business not really being used to this paradigm.
Typically we come from backgrounds where, whether we realized it or not, most things were handed to us.
As a child, your parents or some guardian probably made sure that you had a roof over your head and food to eat.
Even if you worked as a teenager and definitely as an adult, you probably didn't have to build the company that you were working for.
All you had to do was show up and exchange a certain amount of work for a certain dollar amount.
This is the paradigm that people are typically accustomed to when starting a new business.
Building an enterprise rather simply "plugging into" one takes a great deal more sacrifice.
The premise of the whole concept is that you must invest money, time, and other resources into something that makes you no money...
until it begins to make money (which still may not mean that it turned a PROFIT).
The other unfortunate piece of this puzzle is that life doesn't just come to a half just because you decided to step out and become a business owner.
Other problems and obligations will arise constantly as you are building your enterprise.
And almost invariably there will be times where you will have to choose between moving your business forward and handling some issue in your personal life.
Sometimes it may be as simple as giving up free time.
At other times i can be as severe as risking your life's savings.
You need to know in advance what the parameters and limits of what you are willing to sacrifice are.
There is a more popular, similar saying to the previous quote that goes "everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.
" The answer to the first quote, "What am I willing to sacrifice" is one that few people ever bother to answer up front.
At the same time asking yourself this question is all-important to the probability of your success.
In every entrepreneur's journey, there comes a moment of truth that will test just how bad you really want this.
And you don't want to surprise yourself with your answer while under that kind of pressure.
I encourage you to take some time to really think about what's at stake in your life and what you are willing to do...
and not do in order to make it happen.
Of course, a greater sacrifice yields a greater reward, but you must also know your own individual limits on both risk AND sacrifice so that you don't blow yourself out of the water.
Everybody does not have the cast-iron will (or stomach) to be a Richard Branson, all-caution-to-the-wind kind of business person, and that's OK.
Of course Richard has been able to experience HUGE rewards for what he has been willing to put on the line, but that doesn't mean that you MUST play at THAT level in order to attain the paradigm of happiness that YOU have created for yourself (its by YOUR design, remember?) So get in touch with where you fit in this whole entrepreneurial drama.
Yes, challenge yourself to stretch beyond your comfort zone, but most of all, KNOW THY SELF.
Put your stake in the ground and don't let anybody deter you from building your dream just the way you see fit to build it.