Being An Entrepreneur Is Hard...Very Hard

One of my favorite people to follow, read on and watch his videos is Gary Vaynerchuk. You either like him or you don't, there's nothing in between. He's blunt, he's honest and he curses every few sentences to get his point across but that's just who he is. I watch some of his YouTube videos over and over again just to remind myself of the process I'm going through.

While he's in the business of sports, media and marketing, along with being an author himself, we share one big thing in common...we're both entrepreneurs. Being an entrepreneur is hard...very hard, and for many reasons. There's this false sense of reality that it's yachts, parties, pretty girls, champagne and living the life. The reality is, it's nowhere near that. It's work...a lot of work...and every single day.

Most people want to be entrepreneurs, run their own businesses and do whatever they want as far as work hours. You don't get breaks, there's always something that has to be done and within a short time frame. Given the fact that I'm an author, writer, blogger and hopeful screenwriter, people assume that I can just write whenever I want, and post content whenever I want. While that holds true, there's also the laziness factor that kicks in when you don't write consistently.

Even though I do write at my own pace and I don't force the issue (because most of my books are already written in my head), I do make sure that I'm consistently writing and challenging myself to the fullest potential that I can be. It's not because I have to, but because I want to. Every. Single. Day. There aren't many breaks for me.

I work a full-time job, plus do YouTube videos, post content on social media, write my books, edit and proofread them, record my own audiobooks and I put a timeframe on when I want to complete things. It forces me to be diligent, hone my craft and keep my mind stimulated daily.

So I'm meticulously planning things on a regular basis. I'm constantly writing, "to do" lists weekly so I stay consistent in what I'm doing and the reason why I'm doing it. Some weeks I have to invest in things, some weeks I don't. I have to budget, I have to plan release dates for books, sometimes I have to rearrange the order in how I want to release my books. I have to plan marketing strategies, get book reviews, do book exchanges sometimes and constantly stay afloat with what's going on in the social media space.

It's very time consuming and it drains me mentally, physically and emotionally. There are days I don't want to go to work and I want to just sit home and do things at my own pace. But, that's not how life works (at least for now). Eventually, I will get to a place where I'm just focusing on writing for hours every single day instead of a few days a week.

While I love the grind of this, it's hard and it's challenging. Everyday, I put in bare minimum of an hour into something and some days, I'm going at this process for 5-6 hours a day. No I don't work like Gary Vaynerchuk for 18 hours a day, that would burn me out. He's dedicated to his game and his process and I am dedicated to mine too.

Just know that if you ever decide that you want to be an entrepreneur and control your own destiny, it's a lot of work and every single thing will fall on you. You can enjoy the successes but there will be failures, bad investments and time wasted on projects you didn't need to do.

Along the way, it's all a learning process and you have to be ready for the grind. You have to be ready to be tired, drained, pissed off, angry, mad, happy, sad, depressed, stressed, gleeful and every other emotion and feeling that you can think of. Just embrace the journey, continually make goals and don't celebrate too much when you accomplish things. Also, don't share everything with the world, not everyone wants to see you doing better than them.

Be good, go accomplish your goals and remember entrepreneurship is hard...very hard.

Jamell Crouthers

Aquarianmind