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I mentioned my recent motivational slump, which caused me chagrin. I’ve had to work really hard to get myself back on track, and I’m finally on my way to getting caught up. Since I’ve been my own boss on and off for almost eight years, I know all too well the challenges that face entrepreneurs.
They fall into the following categories:
- Inability to switch gears effectively. This includes both working too much and taking too much downtime. When I get too much momentum going in one direction or the other, I have a very hard time swinging things back to the center.
- Burnout. I know the early signs of burnout to halt myself when I find I’m working way too hard. But unfortunately, I know those signs from experience, and sometimes the only way to figure out your burnout threshold is after you have crossed it.
- Lack of return on investment of time/money/effort. I love going after the carrot. But when the carrot just keeps moving farther and farther away, it’s hard to continually work for something that takes so dang long to come to fruition.
- Lack of self-discipline. This by far is the hardest to overcome for me personally and also threatens my business the most. I can be very disciplined, but when I don’t maintain that discipline, things get out of whack fast.
- Time management. I’ve gotten much better at time management over the years, thanks to lots of practice. But this is the consistently the number one challenge reported by the readers of eMoms at Home.
So I’m curious: What are your challenges as an entrepreneur? What solutions have you found so far, and what things are still holding you back?
This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.5 Responses to “What are Your Motivational and Inspirational Challenges?”
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February 15th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I’m far too familiar with all of the categories mentioned in your article. However, I differ in part because I’m still an employee, even though in my heart I know I am an entrepreneur.
I left corporate America in summer of 2007 and almost purchased a business, but after much research I found the business was not doing well, so I ran as fast as I could the opposite way. Sitting at home I felt bored and eager to get busy, so I posted my resume on monster and found a great web designer gig. I am paid consultant salary and I feel under stressed, happy and comfortable, but I know the work is temporary for me and it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m highly educated, BS and MS and I love to earn good income.
Every day I think of business ideas and things I would like to do and/or invent, but those ideas do not seem good enough and therefore I keep tossing ideas and keep waiting for the one idea that will make me sacrifice everything, but that idea doesn’t seem to come. Am I just being impatient? I feel like I’m in an idea slump and I can’t seem to be able to get out. I guess in a way I’m afraid of failure. I know that being a consultant will pay me well, which is very important to me, while owning my own business may not. I don’t want to spend time in something that will not make me more than I’m earning now and so I keep tossing around ideas only to end up back to step one. I don’t have any kids yet and I feel like I’m wasting time when I could be starting a lucrative business. Can I have a successful business when I don’t even know where passion is?
I guess my challenge is: how and when do I know my idea is good enough to drop everything and run with it, or do I simply run with one idea and jump to the next one if that one doesn’t work?
Lost Future Entrepreneur.
Monica, NYC
February 16th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
All this is good but what if a person has a new workable idea to produce electrical energy and no one will listen? They say that it is impossible but I say I can recycle an expended energy to produce millions og megawatts of energy. This would create the biggest corporation in the world, worth trillions. Hey out there , are you all deaf?
February 18th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
[…] week I asked my Entrepreneur.com readers what are their motivational challenges, and would love for you to weigh in on this one, too. While you’re there, you might want to […]
February 21st, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Good to see you back Wendy. I’ve been worried about you.
http://digg.com/business_finance/What_are_Your_Motivational_and_Inspirational_Challenges
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:03 am
I have discovered of recent times that im no longer comfortable with my current job position as an employee because i have a craving for execellent service delivery, relationship building between employers and employees but im undecided in channelling my desires to where it will find peace? could this be monetary reasons or insecurity?