Know your Calling
Passion.
To be an entrepreneur, you have to have passion. A driving passion. A love of “something” that keeps you going, 24 hours a day, through good and bad, through the ups and downs.
Being an entrepreneur – starting a business working for yourself – is a crazy endeavor in and of itself. Why put yourself through the stress and trials to barely make ends meet, if not for the passion? Honestly, there are easier ways to make money, and happiness can easily be found in the off-hours of work.
But it’s not the same.
I am not sure if I am in the majority, but – to my detriment – I don’t do it for the money. Engineers typically don’t enter the field of engineering for the money, but for the love of the challenge. The creativity, the opportunity to make something out of nothing, and the inner happiness that what came out of your own brain can successfully work.
But for me, even that’s not enough.
I have to take it one step further. I have noticed, that for me, I enjoy what I do even more when I am working for myself. Started with tinkering with machinery and electronics. Then doing projects for people on the side of my regular job. Then I got a taste of entrepreneurship, and talked to other people who worked for themselves.
I had to have it all.
So I went for it! And do you know what? I absolutely loved it. Every minute of the 16-hour days, weekends, sleepless nights – all of it. Of course, it stressed me out, and it probably seems better looking back. That is probably what keeps people trying again and again – they forget the pains of the travel, only remember the parts that they loved.
But in working for myself, I feel alive. More awake. More passionate. It’s all I would talk about, think about – and I loved it.
That is how I know my calling. And I know it doesn’t make financial sense, especially since I have a family to support. But it’s my calling. Somehow, it’s what I have to do. I’ll figure out how to make it work – working on the side of a real job for a while, saving money, building up clients and making a name for myself. It’s not as fun as just jumping in with both feet – I’ve already tried that – but it is a bit smarter.
Really think about what you love to do. What keeps you passionate, and motivated.
That’s what being a small business owner is all about.
