By Solomon Thimothy
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. While we can all be passionate about something, overcoming the many challenges that come with entrepreneurship is not something that can be taught or picked up overnight. That's why many great ideas don't make it far. Many businesses fail within a year of starting.
Having started my own business over 10 years ago, I feel that I still have to work just as hard at being an entrepreneur as I do at being a business owner. In that long journey, I have found that there are three things that dictate the success of any entrepreneurial endeavor: patience, persistence and perspiration.
Patience
They say that Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither was a business. While there are some overnight successes, the majority of long-lasting businesses take time to grow and thrive. If you're just starting out as an entrepreneur, it's important to be patient.
I can still remember when I started my own business right out of my living room. I didn't have overnight success with hundreds of clients lining up outside my door. It took years before I lost track of the number of clients our small agency had. Thankfully, I was patient enough to keep going. Had I not been, I would have probably ended up as just another employee at some corporation.
Persistence
Persistence, just like patience, is not natural for everyone. Let's be honest, you'll hear a lot of "no"s before you hear a single "yes." Without persistence, entrepreneurial dreams can go up in smoke.
When it comes to entrepreneurship, persistence is crucial to overcoming some of the biggest challenges early on. Whether you're trying to get a client or another sale, persistence is key to success. Imagine if you'd given up when that partnership or loan fell through. It's easy to give up, but it's a lot harder to keep on trying.
For me, the biggest challenge has been growing the business. Just when everything seems to be going in the right direction, you take a step back. That, however, should not divert your focus.
Perspiration
If anyone ever tells you entrepreneurship is easy, they're either lying or aren't a real entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur, business owner or CEO takes a lot of hard work. That means countless sleepless nights, meetings, phone calls, emails and even hard labor.
To be successful, entrepreneurs have to be willing to work hard. It's important to note too that hard work doesn't necessarily end with time; it just evolves. As your business grows and matures, the hard work will be different, but hard nonetheless. In my case, I may have employees who do a lot of the work I used to do, but I still have more than 16 hours of work a day on my plate.
Entrepreneurship is something that every individual has available to them. But to be truly successful, entrepreneurs need to make sure they have more than passion. Like marriage, entrepreneurship requires patience, persistence and a little perspiration. Don't worry, though -- if the passion is there, the payoff is far greater.
As the founder and CEO of OneIMS and Clickx, Solomon Thimothy has built his career around his passion for helping other businesses grow an online presence and thrive in the digital world. Solomon works with clients big and small to develop uniquely customized and highly effective marketing strategies that meet every company's individual goals.