Is it Supposed to be Easy?
The answer is (probably) … NO
The short answer to this question in regard to entrepreneurship is NO … and yes.
If entrepreneurship was easy, everyone would be an entrepreneur. Building a business takes time and strategy and deep dedication. Many entrepreneurs don’t come to business ownership from a place of knowing exactly what their getting into — let alone the steps to get it done. At least the first time they dive into the entrepreneurship pool!
All of my clients, and they are all entrepreneurs, come from a place of passion. Which sometime makes entrepreneurship look easy from the outside. After all, we’re out here livin’ the dream, right?
Many days, yes. Some days, not so much. It’s how you carry around the days that aren’t so easy that probably influence how you’d respond to the question: Is it easy?
What do you know about you?
There are things I find incredibly difficult in my business. These are usually the things that go against my natural preferences or talents. They are had because they are not easy for me even outside my business. Knowing them helps me carry these more difficult tasks without it taking a toll on my confidence and happiness.
Let me give you an example: Accounting. I don’t like accounting. First of all, it feels like judgment on all cases. I am well aware this “feeling” is a response to some trauma left over from my family of origin. I am working on that. And this goes deeper. I am dyslexic, which makes numbers hard. I sometimes flip them and that means totaling lines of numbers risky business. Did I see it right, or flipped? So there’s an added level of anxiety around accounting.
As a veteran entrepreneur, I know I need to be in touch with the numbers around my business. It is important. I have to have the information to make decisions and to guide the futured of my endeavors. I can’t just hand it all off an accountant and ignore it completely.
So how do I carry this?
First, I work hard to recognize when my family trauma is tripping me up — and give myself a huge break, because so much of that doesn’t even belong to me. It belongs to my ancestors (and their culture) who passed down judgement of worth based on the income/loss column. In business, there are ups and downs, I remind myself of this. The numbers shift, and judging myself by them is not only ineffective it’s inaccurate.
I understand numbers a deeply about details — and yet, my temperament is not set up for deep details. My natural strengths lay in panoramic views and strategies. I cut myself some slack, and here is where I bring in that accountant, who IS deeply detail oriented, to help me out. I cut myself slack, because I can’t have ALL the superpowers!
I also am aware of my dyslexia. I don’t hold it as a handicap, I hold it as just the way I am built and that means I need to double check when I do math — I look away and look back to check to see if that’s still the same number. I take a day away if I’m doing book work, and then go back and recheck. I automate and use tech to shore up my number work.
The bottom line is that I use what I know about me to move through the “hard” part and am okay with it not being “easy.”
Are You Willing to Explore the Hard Things?.
When something in my business presents itself as difficult for me, I get super curious about why.
To do this, I call on my Gestalt toolbox. Gestalt knows there is a foreground (what’s happening in this moment that is difficult) and, possibly, a background (what happened in the past that is charging this particular thing as more difficult than it should be.)
Let me be clear, some things are hard. There is no way around it. That said, sometime things that should be easy, or at least not hard, are incredibly difficult. If you recognize that in a situation in your business, it is a big sign that whatever it is to be Gestalted to its core!
The goal is to trace the “difficulty” cord back to the outlet that is powering it and unplug it so it doesn’t continue to make things more complicated than they need to be.
I’ll be honest here, too. Sometimes you can’t find the outlet because of the myriad of cords bungled up in your life. Here is where a Gestaltist (like me!) can help guide you.
Don’t Fall Into the Trap of Entrepreneurship is ALL Bliss ALL the Time
Our culture is really good at telling entrepreneurs they should LOVE living their passion and that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
I’m sorry, both of those things are basically bullshit.
Yes, there are many days I LOVE living my passion — but frankly, there are days I struggle. We all do. It’s good to remember that we are not alone.
Want to explore more of this topic? Check out my Work with Me page.
