Your Entrepreneurial Journey
You and I are on a journey of one kind or another. I know it’s such an overused expression and yet, it describes what business owners and leaders like you and I go through every day. Until I find another word that so aptly describes following a path from A to B, I’m going to have to make do with ‘journey’. Sorry! What is your entrepreneurial journey?
To be clear from the outset though, your entrepreneurial or leadership journey is a very winding path with lots of dead ends, cul-de-sacs. It requires frequent u-turns, three-point turns and the occasional skid to avoid a collision. Rarely is it straight and smooth. You know I’m right because you’ve probably taken a nano-second out of your day today to read this. You know that when you return your desk, laptop or smartphone, there will be a great big pile of ‘stuff’ to get through.
We created Tricres because I love entrepreneurs and the myriad of shapes and sizes they come in. There are as many kinds of business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs as there are stars in the sky. Or at least it appears that way from where I’m sitting.
What’s Common on Your Entrepreneurial Journey?
Entrepreneurs and business leaders have many things in common though and it’s those elements that I’d like to draw your attention to today. It doesn’t matter whether you’re opening your first poodle parlour, coffee shop, high tech production facility or bank, the process of how you experience your journey is broadly similar for everyone involved in such an undertaking.
If you work for a larger business, this model applies to you too, particularly when you’ve earned a promotion and find yourself slightly out of your depth whilst you adjust to your new role and responsibilities. As I was writing this, I bumped into the new Chair of IoD Scotland – he was 7 days into his new role and had only just found the coffee machine, let alone worked out the workings of the new organisation he was now running. He was at the beginning of his new journey.
Where are you on yours?
The Entrepreneurs Journey
I have observed in my clients a number of elements are so common that I’ve created an entire model out of it. I’ve done this for the sole purpose of letting you know that what you’re experiencing right now is perfectly normal. It also helps you to see what’s coming next and hopefully pre-empt a few things and to work out how you’re going to pick yourself up after being knocked back.
Rest assured that whatever you’re experiencing right now will change. Sadly, that goes for the good stuff you’re experiencing today too! However, you can shorten the time you spend in the doldrums by applying a bit of self-care, my model shows you what to focus on when the chips are down.
The growing band of Tricres subscribers have told me they look at this model often because every time they look at it they see something different in it that they relate to. I would add that THEY are different every time they look at it because they’re in a different place on their journey. And they’ve gathered experience they didn’t have before. In fact, I invite you to review our courses regularly because you change and grow as your business changes and grows. Each time you watch a video, listen to an audio or read one of our PDF’s you’ll experience them differently. You’ll notice things in them you didn’t notice before.
The point of your entrepreneurial journey isn’t to arrive at your destination, your goal or achieve your vision. It’s to grow and develop as a human being, a business leader and an entrepreneur. So that when you do arrive at point B you do so in one piece, with your colleagues, friends and family next to you.
Love entrepreneurs. They’re people too.
