With the imminent & exciting launch of my first online business start-up training programme ‘The Ten Week Start Up’ I have been reflecting on all that I have learnt in recent years from helping hundreds of people launch and grow their new businesses. Supporting and coaching these ambitious entrepreneurs has highlighted what I am referring to as ‘tough truths’, those things that have led to unexpected success for some, along with breakthroughs, life lessons and pivotal moments.
Why ‘tough’? Well, it is my observation that success doesn’t come cheap. It comes tough. And tough can be experienced as different things and in different ways for different people. Tough lessons, tough insights, tough realisations, tough feedback, tough talk. And what makes these things tough? In my view, the toughness comes from it not being easy, natural or comfortable for us.
I think we all reach the point in our business start up where we hit that moment that asks more from us than we’ve ever had to give before. Maybe we need to be bolder than is in our nature naturally, maybe we need to be leaner, meaner than we usually like to be known, maybe we need to be riskier than we like, more unpopular, more noticeable or more vulnerable. Maybe we need to follow a path that we hadn’t anticipated or invest more than we feel we can afford.
Business start up can force us into tough decisions, uncomfortable acceptances, the gradual dawning that things are not quite as we imagined they would be and that someone shifted the landscape when we weren’t looking! Its tough when we need to accept that we might be wrong when for so long we have thought we were right, or when we face the fear that arises from recognising that change is needed now. Confusion can take hold as we lose sight the goal, our sense of purpose or our reason for starting the business in the first place. These are what I call tough truths.
If we find a way of navigating these times then what emerges can elevate us and our businesses to exciting new levels of success, enlightenment and ambition! Tough truths are like life lessons that exist to make us better and better at what we do. If it is too easy we get complacent, lazy & slow to adapt. Working with toughness can be a blessing..the very fact that it can feel painful, exhausting and like wading through treacle is that we area facing with something that we haven’t get devised a strategy for dealing with. We can’t possibly have a set of rules or a ‘how to’ kit for every tough situation we will face in our lives and work. What we can have is an attitude and maturity that helps us to reflect, observe, question and learn. It’s tough because we don’t like it and maybe haven’t done it before. But if we embrace, open our thinking, mindset and attitude then just imagine how much we can take from the tough truths that life and business start up throws our way! And think too of the good, no, great work you can go on to do achieve because of everything you have learned and the way you have expanded your thinking.
The Ten Week Start Up is a ten week online business start up programme that provides a structured and supported step by step approach to launching your business. If you would like to find out more about how to be part of our first programme and take advantage of the massive discount we are offering the ‘programme pioneers’, then drop us a line on info@skillstogo.co.uk.
If you liked the article, let me know by leaving a comment below 🙂 I’d love to hear about the steps you’ve take to navigate the tough truths of your business.