Posted: 12 Dec 2009 04:06 PM PST
Entrepreneurship looks easy, glamorous and fun from a distance. When you’re in the thick of it, risking your name and credit, things get a little less glossy. When you’re deep in The Dip, when everything seems to be going wrong, when the world doesn’t care, you start to think about quitting. After all, you left a comfortable job with great benefits. You get no vacation days now. Everything is shipping late and costs much more to make than you anticipated. Cash flow just isn’t materializing. Quitting seems the reasonable thing to do.
Would you do it all again? I don’t mean doing everything the same way you did this time. You’ve learned some valuable lessons from your mistakes. I mean more deeply, does entrepreneurship still matter to you? When you have the next big idea, would you risk it all again?
If yes, you’ve given yourself permission to fail. There is great freedom in that. With whatever runway you have left or Plan B, you can behave with a touch of reckless abandon. You can go “balls to the wall.” You don’t need to be embarrassed by your crazy idea. Nothing can stop you now because, win or lose, you’d do this all over again. Funny thing, this posture increases your likelihood of winning.