Being an Entrepreneur is difficult. Some say it is worst then having a 9-5 job. We hear so many motivational speakers and experts throw around terms like “commitment”, “sacrifice” and “getting out of your comfort”. But for Entrepreneurs their passion makes them work that extra mile to achieve something no can see but them.
Here are some sacrifices that I think are more commonly underestimated. Keep in mind these aren’t absolute rules. There very well are people out there who have figured out how to have their cake and eat it too. But if you’re going to step into the ring of entrepreneurship, you need to be prepared to fight.
I. Social Life Killer
Running a business takes most of your time making decisions and making sure everything is in place but while taking care of all of this; you probably miss out on your friend’s birthday or a trip you wanted to take with your friends. Social Life is officially killed and its worst during startup’s as everything is on stake and you have to let your parties to wait.
II. Sleep
If there’s one aspect of your life that will be impacted most by becoming an entrepreneur, it’s probably your sleep habits. Hopefully you don’t need a whole lot of sleep. If you do, learn how to get by on less. I sleep 5 hours a night and I have many successful friends who sleep even less than that. There are only 24 hours in a day so when you are putting 14+ hour days at the office, those hours need to come from somewhere.
III. Mindless entertainment
While it may be thrilling to watch the latest season of your favorite Netflix show or see that new movie at the theater that everyone on Facebook is talking about, it’s a far more valuable use of your time to be reading and listening to podcasts that improve your skills, raise your game and keep raising your standards for success. You only have 24 hours in a day, don’t waste them on consuming content that doesn’t help you grow.
IV. Their comfort zone
Your comfort zone is a deadly place and should become your public enemy #1. Any time you are starting to feel comfortable, you are probably not growing fast enough. One good indicator of whether or not you are falling back into your comfort zone is looking at the problems you face. If you have no problems or the same problems, you are stuck. If you are constantly creating new problems for yourself, you’re growing, and that’s where you want to be. Don’t do what’s comfortable or reasonable. Karl Wallenda said, “Life is lived out on the wire. The rest is just waiting.”
V. Sanity
There will be many times when you feel like you are sacrificing your mental sanity. People will call you crazy, weird, insane and obsessed. Sometimes you’ll even question the risks you are taking. All I can say about this is a quote from George Bernard Shaw, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Pull this quote out whenever you feel pressured to conform to what’s “reasonable”.
VI. Popularity
This is tough for many founders, but leadership is not a popularity contest. As a leader, your responsibility is to make the decisions that are best for the long term success of the company and the team. This includes the tough decisions that nobody else wants to make or embrace. There will be many times when a tough decision makes you unpopular in the short term. This is part of the price of leadership and as an entrepreneur, you need to be comfortable with being unpopular sometimes.