Last Christmas I was chatting to business guru and great friend of mine Bharat Bhise about my dreams of one day opening a business. At that time I was still working in my position for a digital marketing agency and truth be told, I was ready to move on to something new. The risk of a failed business was what put my off starting my own company, especially as I , like many of you, had personal responsibilities back home. Bharat offered me some amazing advice and really inspired me to bite the bullet and just give it a try. I spent January setting up the business whilst still working, and then I quit my job in February and never looked back. If you have a dream to open a business of your own, here is why now is the time to do it.
YOLO
The harsh reality is that you only have one life, you don’t get a do-over and there is no way of knowing which day is going to be your last. Instead of looking at that fact, and it is a fact, with fear or anxiousness, look at it as the motivating factor to do everything that you can to achieve what you want whilst you are still here.
Regret
Bharat told me a story about a friend of his who had always wanted to jack his job in and become a cattle farmer. He had financial responsibilities in his life which held him back from doing it, and he retired having never accomplished that dream. In his later years he was in a care home and all he could take about was his great regret in never pursuing his dream, and how all the obstacles that seemed so important at the time, were in fact easier to get over than he realized. Regardless of what people say, you will have these regrets when you are older, but wouldn’t you rather regret trying and failing than never trying at all?
Happiness
I was never miserable in my old job but the happiness which I feel now, knowing that every day I get the chance to wake up and go work for my very own business, is far greater than anything that I have ever felt. There is a lot to be said for happiness and how it affects your life and since I have launched the business, I have changed as a person in all aspects of my life, and that is down to the happiness that I feel.
So What
The normal fears for people who want their own business is that they are going to find themselves in financial ruin, that they may fail or that they just may not be good enough. The fact of the matter is, how are you going to know until you try it? And most importantly, so what, if you fail, you regroup, you find solutions and you go again, life is nothing without risk.
