What separates the entrepreneurs who make it from the ones who don’t?
It’s a question that will never have the perfect answer.
Sure, there are plenty of notable business schools and higher education institutions that make entrepreneurship part of their curriculum; but despite students learning about how to devise a business plan or how to effectively market a new product, there are still many valuable lessons that simply cannot be learned inside a brick and mortar.
The reality is no one seems to spend enough time teaching students about the hardships of entrepreneurship, including its ups and downs, unpredictability and inevitable failures. Moreover, no one knows everything when they first start out, and it’s only from making mistakes that you learn valuable lessons.
Starting your own business can bring a whirlwind of emotions, one of which is getting ahead of yourself.
Entrepreneur Adii Pienaar made this mistake in the beginning.
“I was obsessed about always moving from point A to B to C, which meant I was never really present in any given moment. This also meant that the highs on the rollercoaster ride were fleeting, and the lows, always brutally around-the-corner. I’ve since learned to enjoy the journey itself (more than the destination) and appreciate small victories and special moments much more,” explains Pienaar.
Calgary, Alberta-based real estate investor and entrepreneur Ali Ghani also knows the challenges that come with creating your own company. An experienced founder himself, Ali Ghani understands the development business and has had success in growing developments from the ground up.
“To say that entrepreneurship is full of uncertainty is an understatement. It involves risk, making quick decisions, and it involves failure. The thing about diving head-first into entrepreneurship is that it teaches you about yourself and molds you into the person you were meant to be,” explains Ghani.
As you learn more about growing a business, you’ll learn more about how to overcome obstacles and discover that even though you may be the creator of a market disrupting idea, you can’t go at it alone.
Chef Dominique Crenn, who attained three Michelin stars for her San Francisco restaurant, knows the importance of asking for help.
“If you remain open to having a dialogue with people and ask them to sincerely believe in your dream, amazing things can happen,” she says. “But you can’t be afraid to turn to others, you can’t be afraid to make yourself vulnerable and put your dream out there. Strong and intelligent people will show up and support you.”
Ali Ghani concurs with having a supportive team of people by your side, adding, “A lot of ideas and creativity stems from the amazing team of architects, engineers and consultants we work with who tirelessly travel the world looking for great, creative, functional, and cutting edge real estate ideas to bring back to Alberta.”
Aziz Rahim, the CEO of Sabio Mobile, believes if entrepreneurs are going to be able to make it for the long haul, then they’ll need to maintain an even keel. This requires entrepreneurs to focus on the bigger picture.
“Don’t let the successful days or months make you overconfident,” says Rahim. “Conversely, don’t let the bad days or months make you pessimistic. Keep focused on your long-term goals and not the short-term fluctuations.”
Perhaps one of the most important lessons in entrepreneurship is to constantly improve and reinvent yourself. After you’ve developed a successful product or service, it’s not time to sit back and relax. Instead, you always need to be thinking about your next move and how you will outdo what you previously did. Case in point, fashion designer Mary Grant had to close down all of her brick and mortar stores when the COVID-19 lockdown first occurred. So, she put her mind to good use and came up with an online wardrobe challenge which has seen a major increase in website traffic to her e-commerce store.
At the end of the day, entrepreneurship can be both an exciting adventure and challenging journey. When you venture out on your own, you will have so much more to learn because the success of the company depends solely on you. The reality is no one knows everything about entrepreneurship when they decide to pursue it as a career. So – embrace failure, challenge yourself to take high-risk/high-reward opportunities, and keep trying no matter what.
Jaclyn DiGregorio, Founder of Cusp, says,“Successful entrepreneurs did not become successful in spite of their failures. They become successful because of them.”
Despite entrepreneurship’s downfalls, the payoff can definitely be worth it in the end.
