In 2011, during my last semester of college, prior to our wedding, I was working remotely for a tech startup company in Seattle. I was promised hours at the company when after I graduate and married. Maria and I were eager to start our lives together and just signed a lease for a new apartment. It worked out the apartment building was behind schedule in construction, so we took a month long honeymoon road tripping around the US visiting 12 National Parks, camped everywhere. It was a lot of fun! After our honeymoon I reached back out to the company in which I was promised full time hours only to find out there was no work for me.
The promise of a bright future quickly became not so bright. What I thought was a secured job to start off our marriage just suddenly vanished. The income that I was relying to pay rent in this new apartment lease that we just committed to, all the sudden vanished. That’s when I realized my college education did not adequately prepare me for the changing landscape of life. This was during the time of the recession, the number of jobs available was low, and the number of highly qualified college educated individuals looking for a job was high. Fresh out of college, I was used to the safety net the routine of going to classes and living off of student loans, to come to the realization that life post college is a lot more challenging than expected.
So what do you do when there was no jobs to be found? Coming from a family with many entrepreneur relatives, the next logical move was to just create a job. That was the genesis of our entrepreneur journey. In 2012, we started our photography company, Magnified Joy, out to provide an elevated wedding photography experience (one that we didn’t have for our wedding, but that’s a whole different story). Fast forward 6 years later, we are running two small businesses. There is a lot more I can share about our journey as small business owners, but I wanted to share with you today the 5 lessons that I learned from being an entrepreneur.
1. You have the best job security.
Being an entrepreneur is probably the best “job” out there because you can never get fired. You are your own boss and you get to define the direction you want your organization to run. Although the job security is there, the income security is not necessarily always there, which lead me to point number 2.
2. You are responsible for your future.
As the CEO of your company, you are 100% responsible for the future of your company. Starting out, you may be wearing many hats. You may be the sales guy, the advertising department, the field worker, the customer service representative, all in one day. When the company is not showing profit, you are responsible for that. On the positive side, you have a lot of control over the outcome of our company. The lesson in this is to be quick to pivot in the ever changing landscape of business. Be quick to recognize a campaign is not working, therefore you need to change rather than throwing money at something that is not working. Similarly, you also need to recognize that sometimes YOU are the piece of the puzzle that is not working, therefore you need to change something about yourself. Which leads me to point number 3.
3. Your company will grow only to the point of your own growth.
Investing in yourself is crucial to the growth of the company. We hear a lot about #selfcare these days, but what does that really mean? I recently watched a video from Will Smith that self care is self love. He goes on to explaining that because you love yourself, you will do whatever it takes to keep moving forward. For example, you have a health goal, self care would look like not eating that donut at church because you love yourself too much to allow yourself to do that, because you know how you are going to feel afterwards. In order to grow yourself, you need to look at it from a holistic perspective. Are you growing spiritually? How is your relationship with God? Are you asking Him for guidance? Many times the obstacles we face in our business comes down to a spiritual warfare. When we lean into Him to guide us in all of the aspects of life (including our business), we start growing. Who else is more qualified to be your life coach than the creator of life?
Beyond spiritually, there is also physically, emotionally, mentally. Physically is a hard one for me, when we work from home, we sometimes don’t have the healthiest work/life balance and find ourselves not taking breaks or taking too long of breaks. Setting a routine of work hours is crucial. Time block your time of when you are sitting behind the computer, when you are out and about getting your body moving, setting time aside to prepare your meals and eat healthy. When we routinely treat our body well, it will prevent a lot of issues in the long run.
Emotionally, are you setting boundaries from work to prevent feeling burnt out? Our bodies are intelligent and know how to properly process emotions when we let it. Sometimes the key to working through things emotionally is allowing the emotions to flow through. It is normal to cry, it is okay to feel angry, it is okay to feel depressed. Equip yourself with tools that can help that transition from negative emotions to positive emotions. From feeling depressed to feelings of joy. Because I promise you, entrepreneur life comes with a lot of days of depression that will keep you from getting started. We use essential oils to help us work through our emotions. Diffusing essential oils at your office can really shift the energy and aid with that emotional transition.
Lastly, mentally. We cannot grow ourselves without talking about personal development. A lot of our success is hindered by our own limiting beliefs, when we grow ourself mentally and train that muscle and rewiring our thought patterns, we become a better version of ourselves. The best personal development book of all time is the Bible. This goes hand in hand with spirituality. Studying the life of Jesus teaches you so much about being humble, servant leadership, and influence. There are additional personal development books that really helped us in our journey. Here are just a few to start with.
- Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
- How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
- Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
4. Give yourself grace.
Embrace your imperfections and know that you are only human. Give yourself plenty of grace when things don’t work out the way you want it to. You have to be persistent and keep on going with the journey in order to go far. So when things don’t work out, it’s okay, give yourself some time to evaluate the situation. What is the lesson you needed to learn from the experience? How can you improve the situation? Now go do it, but don’t beat yourself up to it. Goals are great, but when you don’t meet your goals, it does not mean you are a failure. It may mean like you need to set more realistic goals, and setting better expectations for yourself.
5. You need boundaries from your work.
It’s very easy to allow your work to define you, especially when you are self employed. Keeping a healthy boundary is so important for your wellbeing. Where your attention goes, your energy goes. When your livelihood is dependent on you, your attention and energy goes to your business a lot. It is very easy to live and breathe your business. Unfortunately, when all your attention goes toward your business, other parts of your lives can suffer. Keep focus on what is important in your life. Do not let your business come in the way of relationships in your life. Relationships such as your spouse, your kids, your friends, your community, and most importantly with your Creator.
You didn’t leave your 9 to 5 to work 24/7. Your work does not control your life. Your worth is not defined by the success or failure of your business. Keeping your priority straight and healthy boundary around your work will create a much more enjoyable entrepreneurship journey.
Those are the 5 lessons…
When you remind yourself of these 5 things, you are setup for success. Entrepreneurship is fun, its a lot of hard work, and its definitely worth every ounce of energy you pour into it. Know that you have the ability to create whatever you can imagine, it may not happen the first try, or the 1000th time, but all things are possible.
I would love to hear from you on your thoughts on this subject. Comment below. Where are you in your entrepreneurship journey? What have you found to be helpful to help you stay focus and find joy in your journey?
Photo by Anna Sullivan
