I was writing this FounderTalk article over the weekend and during that I realized something: I'm never alone.
In the past I've encountered so many challenges that I just didn't know what I should do about them. On numerous occasions it felt like I was out of my depth and that I would never be able to be an entrepreneur. I always needed answers, but instead every question seemingly just lead down a rabbit hole where I'd uncover even more complicated questions.
Part of why it is hard to be an entrepreneur is that there never seems to be an absolute, 100% correct answer to anything. That sucks, because it means that we're basically progressing by trial & error at all times and our success rate mostly just comes down to: a) how quickly we can iterate; and b) how much we can mitigate the down-side of any error.
It's great that we can access online resources, learn new skills and figure out things on our own. There's so much content out there to do so, and services like Clarity are an effective way of getting specific answers to our questions and challenges too.
None of this however considers the emotional aspect of feeling alone, feeling like we know nothing and that we're ultimately only stumbling forward in the dark.
When entrepreneurs reference the "rollercoaster ride" that resembles their journeys, they're not talking about a revenue graph that goes up and down. Instead they're talking about their emotions and how everything that happens within their businesses tends to cause an up or down emotion.
It sucks that it took me almost 5 years, a heated argument with my wife and a diagnosis by my therapist that I'm mildly depressed, for me to finally start dealing with those emotions. And I mean really dealing with them; not using revenues or traction or good publicity from my business to plaster over the very obvious, emotional cracks.