Self-reflection: Lessons I learned on my entrepreneurship journey

When I started as an entrepreneur, I knew the journey was going to be an arduous one. But, the satisfaction of witnessing a distant dream turning into reality and blossoming into a thriving enterprise was very fulfilling. But drawing from my own experience, being an entrepreneur is not an easy one. Every moment you will find yourself facing some new challenges and grappling with new issues. There is quite a long dark tunnel before you would finally see the light at the end of it. So today, I would like to enlighten you on what my entrepreneurship endeavors have taught me.

Setbacks

Take them as stepping stones to success and not as stumbling roadblocks. There will be things that won’t work out. But you must believe in your vision. Remodel your business offerings, cater to the exact needs of your customer and market, but don’t give up. Learn from the failures and grow with those lessons.

Be Agile

While you are embarking on your entrepreneurship journey, being flexible helps a great deal. You need to be comfortable with those temporary blank periods where you feel only chaos reigns and nothing seems to be working out. But, things take time to settle down and eventually everything will find its own rhythm. You need to devote consistent efforts without being intimidated by short term hitches. It‘s a long term project. Don’t rush into too many things at one time.

Recruit right

You cannot travel alone on this entrepreneurial journey. You must hire people with the right skillsets and aspirations and trust them to do their job. Learn to delegate and try avoiding micromanaging. You need to decide your priorities right and outsource the not-so-critical tasks.

Technology

In this digitized world, you need to keep up with technological advancement. Set up systems, automate tasks and save on precious human hours that can be devoted to creative aspects. Building a strong and positive social media presence can also help. 

In the end, being rooted and keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground always helps as you are carrying the weight of expectations of so many people who have chosen to associate with you in your dream. Have courage and grit and dream not only to survive but also thrive. Just like the famous rock song goes (Yes, I do listen to rock songs) “It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll.” Wish you all the best!