Entrepreneurship is my lot

I have been an entrepreneur for almost 20 years. During this time I have done a vast array of different things, and to varying degrees of success and failure. About 9 months ago I had reached a point at which I truly believed my days as an entrepreneur were over and done forever! Needless to say 9 months later I am still an entrepreneur, despite my words about quitting it and getting a job. I have subsequently realised that, for some of us, being an entrepreneur is our lot in life, no matter what we might tell ourselves. This is true for me. After all, I do not fit with employment, or with having a boss. 

This is how it felt back then:

Being an entrepreneur is hard and many don’t make it. Choosing to become an entrepreneur is a tough decision but deciding when to quit is an even harder one. Believe me I know from personal experience. 

How do you know that it is time to throw in the towel and get a job?

This may seem like an obvious thing to realise but it isn’t that strait forward. Taking risks, going out on the edge, sweating blood and tears, it is all part of the journey of becoming a successful entrepreneur. It is easy to get lost in all of the hardship and challenge and lose perspective on how you are really doing.

Do you take the knocks and carry on or are the knocks getting too much to handle? The truth is that often the entrepreneur is blind to the difference because he / she is so invested in the dream and the idea that you want to achieve that you lose sight of the danger zone.

What is the danger zone? The danger zone is where you lose yourself in possibilities and delusions and you become detached from what is really going on around you. You might be facing financial bankruptcy or you might be so stressed out that your health is deteriorating. You might have major personal problems developing at home because your entrepreneurial desire has driven you to be working 60+ hours a week and you are never at home with the wife or kids. You might also be relying on unhealthy habits to sustain your already depleted reserves just a little bit further. Whatever these warning signs are you need to think about them seriously. Is my entrepreneurial drive and passion (or delusion) driving me over the edge of sanity and preparing me for a whopping mental breakdown?

You need to think about the danger zone because without this conscious consideration you can go too far.

So what are the main things to consider if you are starting to have doubts about continuing on this path to entrepreneurial prowess? Here are some of the ones that I think are most important to consider very seriously indeed before you make your decision to walk away:

Is your heart still in it?

This is probably the most important one of all. It is easy to lose sight of what is driving you to try to make it happen. Perhaps you have lost sight of your passion and you just can’t stop telling yourself that you need to keep going to find it again? Find it you may, but you also might need to consider the very real possibility that you have lost the heartfelt passion you once felt for your reason in starting this journey in the first place. So ask yourself “Is my heart still in this?”

When you don’t care anymore it becomes very dangerous to carry on. Stress and major self deceit can completely cloud your judgement and it will eventually bring you down in a spectacular fall from grace which can bring others tumbling down with you. It is okay to lose heart in something. You are not a failure, only human.

So ask yourself again “is my heart really still in this?”

Are you experiencing unmanageable debts?

Getting into debt is often part of the journey in getting there, but getting into levels of debt that you cannot handle is definitely a reason to consider walking away. It is all very well telling yourself that you will make the debt go away when the business goes cash positive, and within reasonable limits this may be true, but there definitely comes a time where the debt is exceeding your potential to repay it. Signs of this are when you are defaulting on credit card payments, your friends won’t lend you any more money, and you are too fearful to open any of your mail for fear of really seeing the level of debt that you are in. If you are here then it is time to take a wander away from your business ventures and toward some debt counselling and a stable job

The stress is too much

Stress is a real killer. Don’t be fooled by the notion that you can handle anything. Stress is one of the biggest factors that cause entrepreneurs to go completely off the rails. If your health is starting to show signs of deterioration then you really should seriously consider whether being an entrepreneur is for you. This point is not necessarily related to a lack of success but rather a lack of ability to handle the pressure of running your own business. While Steve Jobs built an amazing company he also worked himself to death. Is your entrepreneurial success or failure worth your quality of life and health? If you are not sleeping well or at all, if you are feeling more and more on the edge, if you have unexplained physiological conditions, if you are relying on medication or recreational drugs to numb the pain, if you are becoming more and more prone to irrational outbursts or rages (especially within your family environment) you need to sit down and think carefully about whether this is for you.

Have you isolated from friends and family

Perhaps you find yourself in a situation where caring friends and family have tried to suggest that you consider some alternatives, and you have decided to disregard this feedback as ‘a lack of belief in you’ or as ‘ignorant advise from people who work for a boss’. You may have chosen to isolate your exposure to people that matter because you don’t want to hear the truth. We all understand work getting in the way of personal relationships from time to time but there is a clear difference when it becomes about avoidance, especially of people who know you well and on an intimate level. If this is happening then you need to take a good long look in the mirror and consider packing it in.

Has you family started to take the toll 

In my opinion there is not much point of pursuing entrepreneurial greatness if your family dynamic suffers as a result. If you are married with a family then it is certain that your are not the only one bearing the stress of your entrepreneurial venture. If you are finding a growing tension at home and you are creating major and repetitive cycles of tension and disagreement between you and your spouse which continues to escalate, you should really ask yourself “ do I want my own business more than I want my family?” Many personal relationships with wives, children and friends have been degraded and lost by entrepreneurs who don’t know how or when to quit and walk away. 

Conclusion

There is always a bone of contention about quitting. Somehow it is something that we see as a major weakness in ourselves and in society. There is so much inspirational material out there in the world about ‘never giving up’ and ‘always carrying on’ and ‘don’t stop moving forward’ but sometimes I think this narrative is misplaced. I think there is a very real place for the phrase ‘know when it is time to quit’

Sometimes it is better for yourself and everyone around you to decide to quit and walk away. This doesn’t mean that you are failing, it means you are saving yourself from something that isn’t right for you so that you can find the right environment to shine!

People convince themselves of false truths all the time, not the least of which can be ‘I am going to be an amazingly successful entrepreneur’. Surely the true sign making it in life is in being able to see, hear and feel when things are not right for you, so you can take a step in the right direction - which might just be getting a job.

Just because you are employed doesn’t mean you cannot be great!

This was how I felt 9 months ago. I realise that for me, I have no option, as being an entrepreneur is my lot in life.