Personal Risks Entrepreneur’s face and how to Overcome them
Entrepreneurship is an exciting adventure, although a stressful one. Your business will likely face ups and downs, achievements and challenges, and more twists and turns than you could ever expect. Your business partners will come and go, competitors will rise and fall, and your core idea will undergo an evolution until it’s almost unrecognizable even for yourself. But despite all those obstacles, stressors, and points of vulnerability, the riskiest and most dangerous part of entrepreneurship isn’t what can happen to your business–it’s what can happen to you.
I asked my friends on my instagram page to enumerate the challenges and personal risks which they are facing in their own job so we can begin to discuss these issues. I am humbled and ever so thankful for the participation and efforts of my friends on Instagram who inspire me daily. Below you will find my own list of risks you’ll take on when you become an entrepreneur, many that I have experienced personally throughout the course of my career. I hope that the advice that I have underlined at the end of each point proves fruitful for you and that you do not have to face any of these challenges as I have. But even if you have or you will, know that there are steps you can take to be less stressed and to live a better quality of life, all while still pursuing your passion.
- Depression. Being an entrepreneur, solely responsible for countless decisions and under pressure to be positive all the time, gets lonely. You’re often physically and emotionally isolated, unable to share your struggles with others for fear of showing weakness as a leader or admitting defeat. Meanwhile, the stress and pressure around you grows and you don’t have as much personal time as you once had to recover. Be sure to take personal time, and don’t be afraid to talk to your friends and family members. Seek help before it becomes too big of a problem.
- Financial Risk. You might have invested all of your personal capital into the business or you might have sacrificed a steady paycheck from a more reliable long-term career path to start the business. On top of that, your business revenue will likely be inconsistent, leaving you with unpredictable paychecks and often shortages. If too much of your own capital is tied up in the business, the fear of failure is very real and could leave you with limited options for recovery, so do what you can to limit your financial liability. Seek outside funding, and find a supplemental source of income so you aren’t wholly dependent on entrepreneurial returns.
- Overworked. When you’re in an entrepreneurial role, you’ll have more responsibilities than you’ve ever had before. You’ll be in full control of how much you take on. It’s a point of pride for many people to work as hard as they can for as long as they can, but the truth is that an overworking lifestyle will ultimately do more harm than good. Working too long on a consistent basis can leave you exhausted, leave you susceptible to common diseases, and put you at risk for a number of physical ailments. Don’t be afraid to delegate, and try to keep your work schedule reasonable.
- Relationship Decay.Working long hours means you’ll be away from your friends and family. Being obsessed with your ideas requires commitment to those ideas and to achieving those goals. This means you’ll have less time to share in your relatives’ passions and interests. And when you do have free time, you’ll probably be exhausted. It’s no wonder why so many entrepreneurs have suffered from decaying relationships in one form or another. If you want to prevent this from happening, set your relationships as priority one–your business can take a close second.
- Burnout. An end result of pushing yourself too hard, investing too deeply in your idea, and comparing the reality of your business to what you imagined can be occupational burnout. After as little as a year, you may feel yourself far from your original ideas and passions. Your interests may start to shift, and you’ll no longer enjoy some of the tasks, processes, and ideas that captivated you initially. The big problem with burnout is that it tends to persist even after you walk away from the business. To prevent burnout, be sure to take breaks and measures such as taking a step away to gain different point of view to keep your work interesting and keep your passion at its peak.
No matter how passionate you are about your business, your personal health and well-being have to come first. If you allow yourself to deteriorate, your business won’t be able to survive, and you’ll be left with almost nothing to carry forward. If you make the time and effort to take care of yourself, entrepreneurship is a rewarding, enriching journey.
Prioritize yourself, and everything else will follow.
