The 5 Negative Phases New Entrepreneurs Will Experience

The moment you venture into the world of entrepreneurship, you entire with hope, excitement, and confidence! You have done your research, you know your market, you know the opportunity and you are passionate about spreading the word. You can’t wait for your friends and family to jump on the passion train with you and you know that what you have can change the world! You’re a lion — you’re a hustler — you’re going to make it happen! Right? Well….probably not. Welcome to the “supportive” world of being a new entrepreneur.

Phase One: “You’re Crazy & It won’t work”

One by one you share your vision with your close circle of friends and family and you quickly realize — they want nothing to do with your “amazing idea.” They are quick to be skeptical, judgemental, and they will fight to find every reason why what you’re doing won’t work. Sound familiar?! :) I struggled with this when I first started bc for everything else I did in life — everyone was excited: I bought my first house! Amazing, great job! I’m going to college and getting my degree! That’s amazing — you’re so successful. I’m getting married! OMG — so excited and happy for you! I’m starting a business! ………. hello? ……anyone….

Here’s the deal. Today entrepreneurship is easy to enter and more and more people are starting to invest and build their own business. We all know people who are starting something and are pushing it out to social media and approaching us about their new idea. It’s human nature to doubt and be skeptical. It’s a knee-jerk reaction to “I started a business.” What do you expect people to say? “Oh my god, that’s amazing. Sell me what you have. What can I do to make sure you’re business is successful?” No….they will say, oh — well careful because most business fail in their first 3 years — oh those things don’t work — I had a friend that did something similar and it ruined their life. They will do opposite of what you hope they will do. Expect it and succeed anyway!

Phase Two: “That’s all you earned?”

Some time goes by from your initial launch and now you have some profitable results! You start reflecting on your efforts and the challenges you’ve overcome and now you are building confidence! The same people in phase one see what you post — they ask questions as you continue your journey and you have something good to report — You’re profitable! And then comes the question? So it’s working — wow — so how much money have you earned?” Now any intelligent person knows that starting a business is not to make profit tomorrow. Many businesses don’t make $1 in profit for their first 3–5 years. The whole concept of a business is you invest to build a successful profitable company years down the road and you reinvest any profit back into the growth of the business. But, you’re friends won’t see it that way so you tell them the good news and how much you’ve earned — they’ll ask how long it took from when you started to earn that and then the famous response….That’s it?

Most people don’t understand what building a company takes — they don’t understand you’re not working trading time for money and you’re building something much bigger than yourself. Most companies don’t make a profit in their first 3 years. They will only look at the limited profit you’ve made bc they don’t understand that you’re doing a lot of work for little profit in the beginning — but that leads to large profits for less work in the end — the pill every entrepreneur must take.

Phase Three: “You should slow down, you work too much”

Okay, first they doubted you and now they see you’re doing what it takes to be successful so naturally the next thing is — you must not be happy investing all that time into the thing you love so “Slow down — you’re working too much — come hang out — lets party — lets just relax” is the next phase of advice. At this point I think you realize, you can’t win. No matter what you do they will find the reason WHY you shouldn’t continue.

Most people work not out of choice or passion — they work bc they have debt. Yes they may have found the strength to find something they “like” about working but if they had the ability to not have to do that job to pay for their debt — most would choose not to work. They can’t comprehend why anyone would stay up late to finish “work” or why you would sacrifice that adult soccer league you used to be a part of with all your friends to invest the time into a company — they see you WORK WORK WORK — and in their world WORK is a bad word. But as Brittney said — You want it…you gotta work B$%*H. “You should slow down” No, you should speed up. It’s not work if it’s your passion — If you love what you do then it’s all living anyways — there’s no “clocking in”

Phase Four: “Careful not to earn too much”

This is my favorite phase and the one I least expected. You experience this phase when you finally reach a level of success that most people would respect or view as impressive. You are successful, you’re company is doing incredible and you have profits that are admirable — you made it. So what could those people say now — yup…..hey man, careful not to make too much money — you’re going to get crushed in taxes — or some other thing they view negative now about earning too much….

All I can say about this is 1st — they don’t understand the tax code and 2nd — they’re limited in what negative thing to say now….so what the heck — “don’t make too much.”

(The first time someone said this to me I laughed so hard that I had tears rolling down my cheeks — it’s when I knew that it never mattered what I did — some people will support you and some will never support you — at this point these comments are pure entertainment)

Phase Five: The final Phase — “You’re Lucky”

When there is no more vulnerabilities or uncertainties left to criticize — instead of congratulating you and perhaps even supporting you — they will simply say, You’re lucky. Your success couldn’t be because of the hard work you put in — or the sacrifices you made — or the lack of support and having to overcome countless problems — or having to fail over and over again till you succeeded — or having to live through the doubts and become emotionally strong and develop your weakness — no….couldn’t possibly be any of those things — because that would prove them wrong — and no one will admit that.

So when you hear “You’re lucky” — you’ve made it. Take a minute to celebrate bc it truly is a great complement. You are lucky in one way — you’re lucky you didn’t listen them :)

Entrepreneurship takes you believing in you, your vision and the platform you’re building to achieve your goals. Realize that so many relationships you have may never support you or see your vision — and no matter how hard you try, how successful you become — it will never change that…. My guess is you never started what you started to impress others — you’re doing it for a greater cause. Make that your focus — make that your WHY — make that your drive. Whatever support or lack of support you have — it’s there for a reason and it’s part of your process. Enjoy the process and if you believe — that’s enough to make it!

Be one of the lucky ones :) Cheers from a fellow entrepreneur

If anyone needs that lift or that little bit of support — feel free to reach out ryan@thestackgrp.com