Sometimes I look at entrepreneurs who have been in business for 2 years and I feel like a fat failure because I have been in business for 4.5 years and am nowhere near as far along as they are. They have higher sales, more Instagram followers, more and better blogs, a whole team working for them....
Super irritating that insecurity. Everyone suffers from it from time to time. In my previous blog I already explained why failure is part of entrepreneurship and why you should embrace your mistakes just so. And today, especially for you: an inside look at my entrepreneurial life and the flaws that come with it + kick ass motivation!
'Play time is over. Now it has to be perfect'
I have been registered with the Chamber of Commerce since September 2016 and have been doing business part-time since then - in addition to a failed attempt to become a pro surfer in Bali and in conjunction with my bachelor's and master's degrees. I worked about 20 hours a week on my business (both my own business and all my client work), volunteered 5 hours a week and then 20 hours a week of a digital nomad existence or study. With part-time entrepreneurship, my mindset was: this is a side job in addition to my studies/travel and here I can experiment with everything I've learned - how and when I want. And that went well.
By the summer of 2020, I had graduated and suddenly had 40 hours a week available for my business. Now was my time to shine, I told myself, because now I had twice as much time and so I had to do at least twice as well. You guessed it, I didn't do twice as well. I put so much pressure on myself that it stressed me out. It felt as if I could no longer make mistakes, because lack of time was no longer an excuse. Part-time entrepreneurship was for experimenting and now that was over. Now it had to be perfect.
It was a hot summer day (in lockdown) when I was working outside and it suddenly became completely clear. Why does it suddenly have to be perfect? It's just a learning path, isn't it? Things have been going heart and soul over the past few years, haven't they? I earned much more than my classmates and also gained relevant work experience. Not to mention, I was doing what I really liked and could do it wherever and however I wanted. There was nothing wrong with that, was there?
Because it was such a hot day, I treated myself to a vegan Magnum, stretched out my milk bottles to the warm sun to get a nice tan and told myself, "Entrepreneurship is a learning experience and as long as I do what I love, keep developing myself and do my very best, I'll do it perfectly.
'No one else knows what they're doing either'
Comedian Ricky Garvais was once advised, "No one else knows what they're doing either. In other words, all those people you look up to so much are just doing whatever. Some are more structured than others, some with a team and others as solopreneurs, some with years of experience and others in the start-up phase ... everyone in their own way, but no one in the way you envision. Everyone is struggling and inventing life. Let go of that urge to do it all perfectly and see it as a learning experience.
Don't compare yourself to someone else's shop window
Another quote I read somewhere, "Don't compare your storage cubicle to someone else's window display. Of course that influencer's YouTube channel looks slick and enviable. Then you look at your own video library with eighty videos that you have yet to edit and where Premiere Pro can't find your source files all the time and you wish you had a channel as nice as that. But you don't know how much he or she had to struggle for that. Trust me that Premiere Pro or After Effects crashes on him or her every so often too and there are (have been) many more stumbling blocks 😉
Social media is wonderful, but also far from reflecting reality. We only show what we want to see. Those 8 failed shots for an intro because a cat walked by, someone had to sneeze, the light was just wrong, the neighbor started drilling, etc.? You don't see those unless there's a blooper edit or piece.
Don't let someone else's success make you insecure. Let it inspire and motivate you to be the very best you can be without ignoring who you are and what your body is telling you.
