We’ve all heard it before.
In conversations with our peers about the burnout, the dissatisfaction, the struggle with life. It makes us wonder – is this what entrepreneurship is meant to be?
As young entrepreneurs who are a part of the gen XYZ, it should hardly come as a surprise. A study called “What Millennials Wants From Work and Life” by Gallup found that this generation of workers desires high standards of well-being. We want good jobs that pay well but provide a good work-life balance. We also crave an emotional and behavioral connection to those jobs and seek a purposeful professional and personal life. However, more than 70% of the millennials surveyed by Gallup did not feel engaged at work at all.
70% of the millennials surveyed by Gallup did not feel engaged at work at all.
– Gallup
When we lose the sense of purpose in our jobs, we find ourselves increasingly dissatisfied. We long for progress, fulfilment and hopefully even success.
They say when life throws you lemons, make lemonade.
But if you don’t like lemonade, make a lemon meringue tart or a lemon pound cake.
Find something else that you can do better with what you’ve been given.
It’s okay to be constantly on the search for what makes us tick.
What matters more is that we keep looking.
If we’re not happy with where we are and what we see, do something about it.
Change comes when we allow it. It comes when we prepare ourselves for it.
And it all starts with the first step, the hardest step: getting started.
Many of us are afraid of the risks involved, the judgement from our peers and most of all the fear of failure.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where success is glorified, and failure revered only in the presence of the success that followed. Once you have succeeded, your failures are seen as stepping-stones and lessons learnt. But if you have not yet succeeded, your failures are signs of incompetence and evidence of bad decisions that grow more worrying by the day.
It’s harsh and it’s cruel, but on my own journey as an entrepreneur, I found that the key to looking past the desolate nature of this route had a lot to do with perspective.
Without the devasting consequences of failure, success – especially for an entrepreneur – wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Those failures that were once merely evidence of incompetence became the very experiences that brought about success.
It definitely is a battle of the mind like it was and still is for me, but if we stay engaged with our original motivations; our desire for purpose and meaning, perhaps then the first step wouldn’t seem so difficult.
After all, it is Your Time, Your Sweat and Your Life.
Do what makes it worth it.
