There is a not-so-bright side to entrepreneurship that some people forget about while they are busy counting in the benefits of becoming a successful entrepreneur. And while fancy dining, traveling, and living the good life might all be possible with your entrepreneurial venture, to get there, you will need to do more than just sit and ponder the dream-like-side of the life.
Pure passion and true love can get you there, but like all the other forms of passion and love, sacrifices are involved.
Here are the top sacrifices every entrepreneur must make, at least in the early stages of a business, in order to succeed.
Better Pay
If you are going to compare the financial benefits received at a day job prior to starting your new business, the picture won’t be pretty. In the beginning, a 9 – 5 is going to seem like a much more lucrative opportunity. This is due to the fact that you haven’t yet started capitalizing on the benefits of your venture. You can’t compare your start-up earnings to a day job because most businesses take a considerable amount of time to develop before the product/service offered can reach a maturity stage.
Nevertheless, leaving your day job pay, retirement benefits, and health insurance will seem like a huge sacrifice to make in the beginning. It is only when you start producing the fruits of your business that you will realize the sacrifice was more than worth it.
Sleep
I hate to mention this one, but it is true. Entrepreneurs don’t get a lot of sleep. In fact they lack sleep. During the start-up period, entrepreneurs are over-consumed with the success of their business. Sometimes, this worries them so much that they can barely sleep and instead spend hours working, networking, replying to emails, etc.
Personal/ Social Life
Entrepreneurs have a tough time managing their social lives due to erratic work schedules. Any sense of a personal life dwindles until you reach the point where you barely have one at all. You will be thinking about your business even when you are away from home and busy with another non-business related activity. You might receive frequent calls, messages, or emails that you have to attend to immediately. This might blur the line between your work life and personal life.
Free Time
Did someone say free time? When you’re an entrepreneur, there will be less of that in the early stages. Much less! For a very long period of time, an entrepreneur’s free time is the only time he gets to think over his next move when it comes to handling the business. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, free time is de facto work time.
Sanity
Dealing with the recurring hindrances, rejections, failures, and countless bumps in the road is not everyone’s cup of tea. In fact, many people just want out because they can’t handle the emotional and mental stress. People might even give you those questing looks or tell you that you are crazy. At times, you will question your own sanity. But then, there are the examples of the Wright brothers, Albert Einstien, Copernicus and many more. They may have also questioned their sanity at some point, only to let their passion take over and accomplish what people (or even they at times) thought was impossible.
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