Chapter 2
COMFORTABLE WITH BEING UNCOMFORTABLE
For aspiring and young entrepreneurs, it is important to understand that despite how nice the word entrepreneurship sounds and how nice the terrain might seem to be simply by looking at the present lifestyles of successful entrepreneurs, it is not a bed of roses but actually a rocky bed, which your successful role models have dressed with roses.
You have to first come to terms with being comfortable in uncomfortable situations with regards to your entrepreneurial journey.
Everything from the hassles of incorporating your business, nurturing and developing your business ideas, developing business plans, building your team, waking up by 4AM and sleeping by 10PM, meeting and satisfying angry customers and many more unpleasant situations that come with the terrain should all sound very palatable to you if you have a desire to truly succeed in this journey.
It is worthy of note that true business success is not served on a platter of gold, but you have to fight your way through to it and bring it all the way home fighting your way through once again.
Understanding well ahead of time that this entrepreneurship terrain comes with ‘uncomfortable jackets’, will prepare you to learn to wear it and still appear attractive to the eyes of everyone.
Take for example you owned a printing business and the bulk of your customers come to print at your shop as early as 7AM and so you must wake up as early as possible, get yourself readied for the day and ensure your office is set up to receive your customers. You deny yourself an extra hour of sleep to come to serve your customers and here comes an angry customer shouting at you over a poor work done that was done for him the previous day. You may have had a poor time at home the previous night with your family or friends but being comfortable in uncomfortable situations and circumstances such as this unexpected outbursts from an angry customer in the morning is key to winning your customers over, helping you grow and sustain your business over the long term.
This trait will help you prepare yourself well ahead of time to effectively address and manage uncomfortable situations as this and even worse along your entrepreneurial journey.
This trait is what eventually helps you achieve the outstanding business success, which your role models have achieved in business, helping you coat with roses that ‘rocky bed’ of entrepreneurship into a ‘bed of roses’, which you can enjoy and which other aspiring entrepreneurs will admire in you.
It is important to note that this activity is never a onetime event but what entrepreneurs must accept as a daily routine across all board with regards to their entrepreneurial journey in order to achieve lasting success.
The can-do attitude, which you have developed as an entrepreneur will enable you deal effectively with uncomfortable situations and circumstances and still come out a better and a well-refined entrepreneurial product.