The Silent Enemy of an Entrepreneur By Sharon Lechter
You spend years building success and your expertise and reputation within your industry and then your entrepreneurial spirit ignites! An opportunity presents itself to you or your own burning desire motivates you to strike out on your own and build a business that can create financial freedom for you and your family. The thought of being your own boss is intoxicating. You are familiar with the common pitfalls of entrepreneurship, like having insufficient capital to get the business up and running (let alone profitable), accepting the financial risk of a potential failure, thinking too small, creating a job for yourself instead of building a business…just to name a few. You are proud that you have carefully planned your new venture so as to avoid those pitfalls. In your prior position you may have participated in an R&D group where you and your co-workers met regularly to brainstorm and bounce ideas off of each other. Or maybe you were a C-suite executive in a large corporation where you participated in regular management meetings.In either case you were working with your peers…and they had respect for you and your contributions to the group. Your very identity may have been based on the position you held and the influence you wielded. But your vision of being your own boss in control of your own future was so exciting that you didn’t even think twice about the possibility of experiencing a lack of self-confidence. Your passion and adrenaline drive you forward with great enthusiasm and your business is launched with great reception. Sales start flowing in, business is great, but something is not quite right. You find yourself at your desk, as CEO of your own business, surrounded by wonderful and enthusiastic
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employees…all looking to you for direction and the “right” answers. You should feel great…right? But instead, you have come face to face with the silent enemy of an entrepreneur… loneliness and self-doubt. You have made the decision to become your own boss but in doing so it meant walking away from the environment where you are respected and enjoy the camaraderie of your peers. You have heard the expression…”it is lonely at the top”…but what is worse is what that loneliness creates… an environment of fear and self-doubt that can become an entrepreneur’s greatest downfall. Your identity, both personally and professionally, is no longer tied to your former title. If your prior company was an active contributor in the community but your new company cannot contribute at the same level while it is in its growing phase, you may find that your influence in your community has suffered as well. So how can you avoid this silent enemy? Or overcome it if you are currently experiencing this loneliness and self-doubt? Consider the following steps to streamline your transition into a respected entrepreneur with great industry and community influence. As you are contemplating leaving your position, get involved in one or more professional networking groups and consider becoming an officer in one of them. This will allow you to replace your former prestigious title with another one of equal or greater prestige. Form a Mastermind of Peers to support you in the creation and strategic planning of your business. Then set regular on-going meetings (complete with agendas)where you can connect and brainstorm with your peers in your industry as well as other
