Following a passion can be very exhausting: facing constant setbacks, dealing with stressful situations and unexpected problems are just brief examples of all the daily struggles which most of the entrepreneurs face. Even the most motivated and inspired entrepreneurs can sometimes feel ready to quit on their dreams of turning their ideas into successful businesses.
There are countless moments in every entrepreneurial journey when the startup owners feel like they are compelled to quit and the reasons for this thoughts can be many. Indisputably, entrepreneurship is hard and challenging, time-consuming and stressful, but it gives fulfilment once you have your motivation and inspiration back on your side.
Finding the strength to pull yourself up when you feel down can be possible only if you manage to find the motivation from within and decide to continue pursuing your dreams, because this is the only thing that feels right. Before you take the extreme decision to quit your startup, take a moment to re-think your motives.
Are you having a bad day?
No matter what we do, there are always good days and bad days at work. Some days are better than others: you feel more motivated, inspired, satisfied and so on, which can be very beneficial for your company. But some days can be really stressful and empty, when everything seems so pointless and the results of your hard work are not getting even closer to what you expected. Before you decide to quit your startup and completely give up on your dreams, try to figure out are you having a bad day, are you having a succession of bad days or are you walking into a dead end with your project.
Even if you feel that you are going into a dead end, it doesn’t mean that you should totally give up: may be you should make some small (or not so small) changes, to think of a different way to do things and to experiment. If you have fallen into an unproductive routine, you must break it by thinking out of the box.
Patience is the key
Learn to be patient. Many people lose their motivation when they don’t see results from their hard work. It may take many years before you actually can say that your business have become successful, but this is how the greatest companies are built – with hard work, persistence and patience.
Look at the big picture
Before you take the major decision to quit your startup, try to track where “the last drop in the glass” came from. May be you have a specific project or aspect of your business that needs to be reevaluated. Sometimes we get frustrated with a small part of the whole picture and make unnecessarily general decisions. Before you quit your whole work and give up on your dreams, look at the bigger picture, find the small parts that are blurring it and concentrate on fixing them or…quitting them.
Concentrate on your success
Try to concentrate on your accomplishments before you concentrate on your setbacks and failures. When you have big plans for your company, when you dream big and have the ambition to change the world, you should be ready to have the biggest challenges on your way. Before you quit your dream, you should remember why you have started in the first place, how far you have come and how much more you would like to achieve. Dreaming big is scary, but so is the thought of letting go of your dreams.
Take time off
Before you quit your startup, give yourself some time off: may be you are just burned out and need some time to recharge and get back your strength. Try to reach out for help and advice from your mentor and from your support group. Many of your fellow entrepreneurs have experienced this feeling of despair and desire to “just quit”, but some faster than others have gained back their entrepreneurial spirits. You can do it too!
