As an entrepreneur there are times especially in the infancy of your business that you will go through extremely dry spells.
My husband and I have owned and operated our media company for the last 4 years together and we’ve never had a dry spell like we had from June-September.
It was a hard time! It was a time of re-evaluation, questions, doubts, reminders, and encouragement.
We felt towards the end of the period that we may need to give up on the business. We thought it, we said it. But it didn’t real right in the midst of saying or thinking it.
- We aren’t quitters
- We increased our value over the last two years and produced greater original content for our clients.
In the month of October we have received random calls from companies and organizations that wanted our services and their needs helped us redefine our business.
Looking back on that experience I am reminded of a few things.
In tough times we are being prepared to thrive.
God is concerned about our needs as entrepreneurs just He is regarding our daily lives.
Instead of using the tough time to soak in our lack we used them to serve others. We worked with a high school summer program and created a magazine publication that was printed and distributed in full color. We helped our friends with their passion projects and made them look pretty and legit! I mapped out the podcast, re-designed the blog and studied our craft.
If you are in a tough season don’t give up! It’s during the tough times that you see what you are made of.
- Imagine if Henry Ford gave up after his first car model flopped.
- If Steve Jobs gave up after his attempts with Apple failed and he was ousts from the company.
- If Walt Disney gave up after Disney went bankrupt.
- If Albert Einstein gave up because he was mentally handicapped.
- If Oprah Winfrey never pursued her dreams after getting pregnant as a teen and the child being born stillborn.
- If Steve Spielberg gave up after being rejected from film school.
What’s your dream, passion, destiny that is hard right now but worth the fight?
In order to start and finish you have to press through the tough times when you and everyone else is telling you to give up.
Success isn’t birthed overnight. Success grows through consistency and long-suffering.
The secret to consistency is creating an actionable plan. Far too often we create plans out of ambition that aren’t actually possible. You over promise yourself, under deliver to yourself and then become discouraged.
What can you do daily to work on your dream? Is it writing 500 words a day?
Do you have a daily community that you are apart of that you receive and provide value to?
Do you have a mentor?
Do you have someone your are accountable to?
We often look at others and think there success came overnight. However, it doesn’t! It takes hard work, planning, failing, getting back up and CONSISTENCY!
The secret to success is not giving up when you don’t see it happening. If your idea, dream, project, business adds value to people sooner or later it will produce fruit. Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers gives evidence that the average successful person is one who has invested 10,000 hours into their craft.
Don’t give up until you have put 10,000 hours into your dream. Until then keep at it. You may have a Purple Cow on your hand that has a Tribe waiting for it. If you give up now you will never discover the beauty of your dream.