For the discouraged solo entrepreneur.
This one's for you.
All 100+ posts The Reluctant Tarot Reader are paywall free to read. To support me, become a free or paid sub or buy me a coffee. Thank you!
I generally don’t publish another Substack within the same week but this morning felt a strong pull about this one for solo entrepreneurs, so if you beamed out a message — I heard ya!
What are three common regrets of the dying?
I did not live the life of my dreams.
I did not share my love.
I did not forgive.
Here are a few reasons why you are amazing as an entrepreneur.
1. You’re brave and courageous, especially if you are single.
It takes guts to start your own business and believe you find the collaborative energy to help you succeed, not to mention all of the ins/outs that a solo entrepreneur has to face: taxes, bills, bank loans, clients, marketing, staff while also juggling personal responsibilities such as mortgages, car loans/repairs, rent, groceries, pets, kids, elderly parents, student loans, etc.
You are willing to face the maw of an open day/week where the calendar is empty or restaurant 1/4 filled. You are willing to show up, positive and open for whatever greets your morning. You are willing to believe in yourself, day after day, year after year. This is especially true for a single person who carries the load themselves. It’s easy to forget just how tremendously brave you are when it often feels like a slog. Not many would have the courage and stamina to do this but choose to stay behind the relative comfort of a paycheck. Not you.
2. You trust and have faith every single day.
On top of that, you trust in yourself enough to believe that your bills will be paid and food will be on the table. Perhaps you also trust in the spirit that guides and protects you — and continue to build the evidence, month after month, that you will be okay.
You may a person who begins with cash in the bank after a long corporate career and then strike out on your own. That also takes a measure of faith because you will most certainly invest some of that equity in your biz that may take years — or never — to return. We do it with the stock market; why not ourselves?
It doesn’t matter whether you have 20 months or 20 years as a solo entrepreneur. You will trust and have faith every day, whether you want to or not! If you expect a steady road, then you are setting off in the direction of disappointment. Ask any established entrepreneur and they will tell you the same thing: you will ride every up and down, every strong wind and calm summer day as an entrepreneur and may not see the fruits of success for a decade or more. Even then, you will trust and have faith — or will give up.
3. You are willing to face your fears and perhaps “fail”.
If you’d like to face every inner fear — known and unknown — then being a solo entrepreneur is the perfect career for you. If there’s one thing we can see in this present world, those being born are creative sparks. They do not want to be held to the strictures and structures that even my “relax, dude” generation has around them. (I was born decades too early because no doubt I’d try the #vanlife movement in my 20s, monetizing videos of my adventures.) Now I say out loud, Thank God they are here. Thank God for their sense of freedom and autonomy. We can finally break away of the archaic Get a real job and then die because being an artist/creator doesn’t PAY b.s. programming of previous generations. Good riddance!
Does failure mean debt? I once did — but don’t believe it now, despite whatever wisdom Dave Ramsey or my parents hold as their vision of a perfect life. I’m not their generation and they don’t shape my life.
You choose to invest in your particular vision. Does failure mean being an artist building an oeuvre? No. Your life is your own to create and do with what you will. No one owns you — and no one has the right to shape it as they please. They only can do that if you give them the power.
You can see failure as failure — or view everything in your life as experience. You may choose to close your business, step away or return to the corporate life. So what? All of those choices take courage. It’s your life and I bet you’ll look back and say, Wow. I’m so glad I took that chance. I was so brave, even if I thought I was foolish at the time!
It comes down to whether you are capable of taking care of yourself, which means that you have to trust. You will struggle — not may but WILL — but that increases your inner strength. I often say to myself, I have 20 years of examples to prove that I will be okay and all is well.
Being a solo entrepreneur takes tremendous courage in the face of the doubters and bitters who do not want you to succeed because they do not have the same courage.
You do.