When You Wake Up Secretly Wanting To Quit (A Letter Of Encouragement To Entrepreneurs)

If misery loves company, I’ve got a spare bedroom. But before I get into that, a business parable…

One early summer morning, a poor old farmer came out to discover his one and only horse had gotten out sometime in the middle of the night. A valiant search turned up no trace of the horse. The neighbors offered their condolences and said, “What a shame. Your only horse is gone. How unfortunate you are! How will you work the land and prosper? You don’t have the means to replace him! This is very bad news indeed!” The farmer replied, “We shall see.”

Two days later, the horse came back with 12 new younger and healthy horses in tow, which followed it into the corral. The neighbors came to congratulate him on his good luck. “How fortunate you are! You must be very happy!” Again, the farmer said, “We shall see.”

At daybreak on the next morning, the farmer’s only son set off to train the new wild horses but was thrown to the ground and broke his leg. Again, the neighbors arrived during the day to bemoan the farmer’s latest misfortune. “Oh, what a tragedy! Your son won’t be able to help you farm with a broken leg. You’ll have to do all the work yourself and he may never walk again. How will you survive? Surely this is very bad news!” Calmly the farmer answered, “We shall see.”

Several days later a war broke out. The king’s men arrived in the village demanding that all young men come with them to join the army. The farmer’s son was deemed unfit because of his broken leg and was given a pass. “What very good fortune you have!” the villagers exclaimed as their own young sons were marched away. “You must be very happy!” The farmer once again said, “We shall see…” As it turned out, the other village boys died in the war and the old farmer and his son were the only able-bodied men capable of working the village lands. The old farmer became wealthy and was very generous to the other villagers. They said: “Oh, how fortunate you are! God has been good to you! You must be very happy,” to which the old farmer replied, “Who knows? We shall see!”

Like any high achieving, driven individual, I am almost daily frustrated, unhappy, tired, p.o.’d, and annoyed, awash in deadlines and urgent projects with multiple things going sideways simultaneously. A post I recently shared on Facebook that hit a nerve was, “If you don’t wake up once in awhile secretly wanting to quit, you’re probably not striving to accomplish much in your life.”

As entrepreneurs, there are ALWAYS things going very, very wrong…but if we’re honest, there are a lot more going very, very right. Some of the things that look “bad” right now may, in fact, turn out to be blessings in the long run. And I get it – one problem may not in of itself be too hard to handle, but when they GANG UP on you while you’re already exhausted from running full speed down the field, it can overwhelm. That’s why it’s helpful to remember that MOST problems don’t last, so don’t give them more attention than they’re worth. A penny held close enough to our eye blocks the sun – and if you allow yourself to only focus on the things that are going wrong you can lose sight of far more things that are productive, that are actually working.

The life of an entrepreneur is FULL of these kinds of days where the elevator goes UP and DOWN in the same day, the same HOUR. Take comfort that you’re not alone. Great businesses and all achievements are firmly rooted in the ability to persevere in spite of the problems, setbacks, frustrations. Be careful not to focus only on the bad things or you’ll end up putting yourself in a state of uncertainty, fear and depression, and THEN the repercussions multiply because of your crappy state of mind. The problem or situation you are facing right now may be tough – but so are YOU, and never, ever forget that that quitting is the only way to certain failure, and that's not an option for YOU.

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