I came across the infographic below about the struggle that every entrepreneur goes through and I thought it was worth reposting. It has been created from a chapter within Ben Horowitz’s book titled “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” which has received so many great reviews from the startup community and is definitely on my reading list! (Here’s my review).
I am yet to experience many of the phases mentioned, such as employees losing faith, but there have certainly been times where I have had severe self-doubt and wondered if it would be easier to just quit in the past. Startups are an absolute rollercoaster – rarely an average day – they’re either great, or terrible and I imagine I might have to face a lot more of the struggle in the future. I don’t think any startups or entrepreneurs are immune to this. As the infographic points out, the struggle is something that every entrepreneur goes through and it’s worth being reminded that the hard parts, the struggle, the failures are rarely discussed or mentioned in the press; they don’t make for good stories.
It’s like when a company appears to be ‘crushing it’ in all the press and everything is going swimmingly well for them. Or so it would appear. Of course, their struggle is not discussed and nothing is ever as good as it seems so don’t believe the hype.
When things get tough it’s difficult to maintain focus. They say that determination and perseverance is one of the only characteristics that truly differentiates successful entrepreneurs from unsuccessful ones.(I would guess this applies to success in nearly anything in reality). I particularly remember the Y-Combinator partners at Startup School saying something along the lines of (not an exact quote) “most of the successful startups just avoid failure for long enough to eventually give themselves the time and the chance to succeed”.
That’s why this is one of my favorite quotes and I keep it on my wall:
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
For anyone going through a rough patch, having doubts or experiencing the struggle in pursuit of what might seem an impossible goal then bear this mind and keep persisting. You have to go through it to become truly successful!
I came across this infographic on www.growtheverywhere.com.