The Only Answer That Matters

I was at a large family gathering over the weekend. While sitting around and talking about life in general one of my in-laws asked what was the hardest part about running my business. I thought about it. My response was "deciding to keep doing it every day." I could see the look of confusion cross their face. Why not production, time management, budgeting, advertising, or something more mundane? What do you mean deciding to keep doing it every day? Does your job suck that bad? Your business must not being doing so well.

My father has a saying. "Working for yourself is easy. One day you get out of bed and decide to not go work for any one else. The hard part is that every day after that you have to get out of bed and decide to not go work for any one else."

Production times get better as I do. Time management is something that will sort itself out. Budgeting and advertising are all problems that can be solved. The plague of questioning yourself is something that will never go away. Am I doing the right thing? Is this worth it? Wouldn't it be easier to just get a normal job? Should I feel guilty for not just going with the flow? Could I be doing better?

I love my job. I love what I have done so far. I love all the possibilities it presents for the future. I also have days where I wake up and think, "am I really going to do this again today?"

When you are your own boss you have to learn to be your own cheerleader. You have to learn when to give yourself a break or cut yourself some slack. You have to learn how to keep going. You have to learn to remind yourself that today you took a step forward from yesterday. Tomorrow you will take the next step forward again. Every morning when I wake up my business is failing until I get up and get it working. I have to ask myself, "am I really going to do this again?" Then I get up and do my best to make sure that when I have to ask myself that question again tomorrow I can think "Look at what you did yesterday. What can you do today?" Because if you are your business then without you there is no business. Take pride in your work and keep one eye on tomorrow. The future is filled with uncertainty and questions with out clear solutions.  The only real answer is, "Yes, I'll try again today."