You Can Do It

The Daily Stoic for June 10th. “You Can Do It”.

“If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible—for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.19

Success, failure, and the process of being an entrepreneur and building a business seem to be the theme of the daily stoics lately. Or more probably, the interpretation that I’m giving to them.

Anyway, some days ago we were talking about when to stick and when to quit -in life, but especially in business, too-. And then, yesterday the conversation revolved around how we need to split big problems into smaller, solvable pieces to avoid being overwhelmed and lose all hope of solving them.

Entrepreneurship is not an easy road. The freedom it gives you, and how it makes you evolve and become a stronger person alone, is worth it. However, it’s not for everyone.

Don’t Be Fooled

Some days ago, I started “UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship” just two days ago. 60 pages later, I don’t think I am going to continue reading it. Why?

When I read Mr. DeMarco previous book, The Millionaire Fastlane, and I had the same problem with it. Apart from Mr. DeMarco showing some sexist and homophobic comments that don’t belong -in my humble opinion- on a business book, my mine gripe is that the book becomes a boring repetition of “why you are a loser if you have a job and why you should become an entrepreneur”, while adding little in the sense of useful information for -aspiring- entrepreneurs.

And don’t get me wrong, I am on the entrepreneurial side. Since I quit my job and became an entrepreneur, I have gone through good and bad times, but haven’t repented once. I know I won’t be able to get back to a cubicle ever.

However, it’s not as easy as screaming “Just quit your job, become an entrepreneur, and you’ll be happy and earn 6 figures a month!!!”.

No. It’s not that simple. And it’s not that easy.

It’s actually bad advice to blindly tell someone to quit their job and paint them a “promised land” picture full with a luxury car into the garage of a gorgeous mansion somewhere in California, and a life of joy on a permanent vacation.

You Can Do It

Being an entrepreneur is hard. Especially, being a micropreneur is not easy. If it was as easy as quitting your job, finding a need to solve and putting together a website, or writing a piece of code, we’d all be millionaires.

But that’s not the truth.

Of course, you need to work a lot, and most probably you will fail a lot during the process. There will be Sundays when you will find yourself in front of your laptop, and many nights when you will wake up stressed and anxious, incapable of sleeping.

However, if you spend enough time and energy, you will eventually make it. I know from my own experience that it can get hard. But you can do it. A lot of people with fewer resources, less luck and fewer contacts than you made it.

You can do it.

And if not, that’s ok. You don’t need to be a successful entrepreneur. Actually, you don’t need to be an entrepreneur, and you don’t even need to be successful (whatever that means). You just need to find something that makes you happy. And there are many ways of getting there. We are never too old to change our lives.

Conclusion

For today’s Daily Stoic, “You Can Do It”, I wanted to write a reality check on all those books depicting entrepreneurship as an easy road to success, while also conveying a positive message to anyone who finds in this path.