Have an idea for a business.

Do more than have an idea.
Execute on it.
Build the business plan.
Figure out how to fund it.
Find a space to rent.

Start it in that spare bedroom.

Maybe on your living room floor.

Get a loan from a bank.
Get a loan from family and friends.
Get money from your credit cards.
Get a customer to believe in your idea.

Just one customer.

Fight for your idea.
Please that customer.
Find that first employee to believe in your idea.
Spend countless nights awake trying to make that first customer happy.
Do that while trying to build your own business, office, culture and nurture your team.

Do that while the ghosts at night question your every decision.

Spend money on hiring.
Spend money on culture.
Spend money on making your employees better people.
Spend money on a website.
Spend money on marketing.
Spend money on advertising
Spend money on rent.
Spend money on insurance.
Spend money on coffee.
Spend money on winning more customers.
Spend money on not losing the customers that you have.
Spend money.

Keep fighting for your ideas.

… for more traction.
… for more attention.
… for better products.
… for better services.
… for better relationships.
… for better team members.
… for a better future.

This is the heart of the entrepreneur.

The one who has to look an employee in the eyes and fire them.
The one who has to look at themselves in the mirror every morning.
The one who has to figure out what’s next (and how to get there).
The one who has to make it look like they knew what they were doing the whole way along.
The one who has to decide to keep the doors open.
The one who may be forced to close those doors.
The one who has to decide to sell their baby.
The one who has to decide to not sell their baby and keep at it.

The one who has to watch the dream…

… grow.
… fade.
… change.
… expand.
… contract.

… come true.

Year in and year out.

Don’t believe what you read.
There is no overnight sensation.
It is ten years (at least) in the making.
No matter how you slice it.

A decade.

A decade and it’s still a brand new baby.

Everyone wants to start something.

Everyone wants to be their own boss.
Everyone thinks that they can do it.
Everyone thinks that they know better than those that do it.

Everyone knows everything.

Until…

It’s time to be the one who is supposed to know everything.
It’s time to really run at that dream.
It’s time to make difficult decisions.
It’s time to realize how little is left in the bank.
It’s time to open up a new office in a different city.
It’s time to open up a new office in a different country.
It’s time to find more team members to grow this up.
It’s time to find someone to partner with.
It’s time to make decisions you never imagined making.

Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of heart…

… and brains.
… and guts.
… and courage.
… and empathy.
… and talent.
… and learning.
… and asking for help.
… and asking for forgiveness.
… and seeing a future that did not exist before.

That’s the heart.

The heart of the entrepreneur.

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