Hope Is Mandatory For Every Entrepreneur
Everything Else Is Secondary
Several years ago, during the not so Great Recession, I experienced the failure of a large business. The financial and emotional impacts that failure brought were devastating. The details of the loss are unimportant, but the importance of hope in the process of living through the failure is important.
Hope kept me moving forward day by day. Hope that we would recoup our financial losses. Hope the psychological turmoil would subside. Hope that one day the light at what seemed like a very long tunnel would one day get brighter. And then it didn’t.
Half a dozen years later the finances have remained static. At least once a month some days are dark from the strain of making it through months end. As difficult as these days might be I can always rely on the faint glimmer of hope, to ease the stresser's that might be present.
Failure is just as real as success. They are both important parts of the entrepreneurial journey. I’ve enjoyed many entrepreneurial successes. And now a failure. Even though I’ve lived through a devastating failure I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t have avoided taking the calculated risks that ended in failure if I could. I don’t regret. I don’t feel sorry for myself. I don’t begrudge those entrepreneurs who find success.
Instead I find hope in the failure experience. Hope keeps me alive. Hope keeps me hungry. Hungry to learn. Hungry to hustle. Hungry to succeed. I’ve learned 10x more about being an entrepreneur from my failure than I’ve ever learned from any of my success.
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The metaphorical tunnel mentioned above is the one thing I fall back on for strength. The light represents the hope of the entrepreneur. A faint glimmering light in the distance motioning to stride towards it.
Hope is not a simple word. Hope is the essence of survival. Having Hope is mandatory for every entrepreneur. Everything else is secondary.
Tony Robbins says “I don’t hope I’m going to wake up feeling great,” Robbins says. “So what I do is I concentrate for 3 1/2 minutes on just three things every morning that I’m incredibly grateful for.”
I’m truly grateful I have hope.
As entrepreneurs we calculate risks Vs rewards and if favorable stride out into the markets and strive forward. When our efforts meet with acceptance in the markets all is good. However, when the opposite occurs we fail.
The size of the failure is unimportant because the entrepreneur must learn to cope with failure. Coping with failure can be difficult, but when hope is present our coping mechanism is activated.
Having a present level of hope can propel the entrepreneur to continue on. S/he can rely on hope to provide them the strength, courage, and tenacity to continue to move forward towards making that next courageous effort, producing a next product, or improving their process.
There is an age old saying that hope is eternal. I believe hope is integral for every entrepreneur.
