Momentum

Creating a business takes hard hard hard work. Like really hard.

Some days you work 10 hours without getting a single positive result, other than seeing your list of to-do’s dwindle slightly. Some days that list doesn’t even dwindle.

Most days are full of marketing efforts, curriculum building and all kinds of busy-work. I’d say that about 10% of my time spent working for myself is spent doing what my business does (training summer staff). Maybe less. The other 90+% is me putting in the work to get me to that other 10%.

And my business isn’t even that complicated. The thing that makes this all difficult is that I’m a one man operation. I am the finance department, legal team, advertising agency, curriculum developer, CEO and janitor.

So how or better yet, why do I keep going down this road?

Momentum.

There’s something so incredibly satisfying about seeing your hard work pay off and get some momentum going. Positive results just make us want to get more positive results, especially when you’re your own boss. Each dollar means so much more. The highs are higher but also the lows are much lower. You have no one else to blame but yourself and often you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

This idea of momentum is similar to earning a college degree. You pay for it in more ways than one (money, time, effort) and the knowledge gained builds upon itself to get some momentum going. This momentum can lead to landing a great job in a cool place with good friends or family.

So this week I’m doing all that I can to celebrate little wins, like checking off the to-do’s and starting promising new projects. Also some clients are starting to show real interest which is huge cause of celebration. But it’s not just enough to celebrate the good things…we must also not get too down when the results seem limited or non-existent. We just need to analyze our efforts, recalibrate and push forward with a faith that good times are coming.

I firmly believe that if you put in enough hours you will inevitably build momentum. I don’t always work smarter (I try to), but I do always work harder. And that hard work will inevitably pay off.