Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” 

— Anonymous


The entrepreneurial journey is filled with twists and turns causing some to hold on for the ride and others to run for safety. There is no denying one fact, it sure is worth the effort.

For those who journey successfully, their lives will never be the same. They create abundance for themselves, their families, communities, and they thoroughly enjoy the fruits of their labor.

In this article, we’ll look at three mistakes some make while beginning their entrepreneurial journey.

1. Thinking Ideas Are Enough

Though it’s a fact that ideas are necessary, ideas alone can’t pay Edison or put food on the table.

Yes, they provide the much-needed spark, but they are limited in their capabilities.

In the Shark Tank era, everyone has an idea. They are truly a dime a dozen. Your friends, family, or even yourself, may believe they possess the next “big thing.” An idea worth millions!

Yet, at the end of the day, they are only half the battle.

For ideas to come to fruition, we need execution – the more important half of the battle.

Execution is a grueling and painful process (at times) and is why so many entrepreneurs fall short.

To execute means having the heart, stomach, and guts required to handle the twists and turns experienced on the entrepreneurial roller coaster.

You see, everyone, and I do mean everyone, has ideas. We’re not in short supply. But not everyone can execute. You can never think ideas alone are enough. You must follow through with execution.

2. Not Setting Proper Expectations

I’ve heard before our happiness is the difference between our expectations and reality. When you think about it, there’s definitely truth in this saying.

Without the proper expectations, we tend to wake frustrated when things are not on the “expected” path.

Kahneman and Tversky discovered our inherent tendency to underestimate the time required to complete tasks. Which not only affects time but other areas such as money and energy.

What does this mean? It means we’re fairly bad at setting proper expectations.

As far as timeframes, we tend to believe, rather optimistically, things will go as planned. So we forget to build in time for obstacles or learning curves, and therein lies the problem.

We do the same for money as well. We never think of designers creating subpar work and having to hire another. Or malware crashing our system, which now requires an expert to fix.

Finally, our ventures take more energy than we could ever image. Sure the beginning is excited and we have an abundance of energy, but that bubble bursts when we hit our first set of obstacles.

With all this in mind, whatever timeframe you have in mind, how much money you believe it will take, and whatever energy you think will be required, make sure to double or triple it.

Setting the right expectations from the start means you won’t be knocked so far off track when things hit you on the blindside.

3. Not Creating a Point of No Return

I’ve heard someone say, “If “Plan A” doesn’t work, then there are 25 more letters in the alphabet.” Yes, it’s cute and in some life situations applicable, however, for your entrepreneurial journey to work you must only have a “Plan A.”

Everything begins when you create a point of no return, or as some say “burn the boats.” It’s where you declare your commitment as though your life depended on it. Because your life does depend on it right?

Keep in mind, nothing great was ever accomplished half-heartedly. It’s either all in, or not at all.

You won’t make real progress until you fully commit, but when you do, something miraculous will happen. You’ll begin seeing opportunities everywhere.

Suddenly, with this level of commitment, you’ll focus on essentials and filter out the noise. You’ll possess a level of energy to tackle anything that comes your way.

With no backup plan, you find the necessary strength to push through adversity.

Think about it, if you’re life depending on succeeding, do you think you can undergo 10, 20, or 100 rejections? Could you continue moving forward? Would you go to prospect 101 and ask for their business?

Of course, you would!

Create a point of no return, burn the boats, and when you do nothing will stop you.

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