Resilience Is The Key Ingredient In Entrepreneurship

Resilience is a common trait among entrepreneurs. The degree could differ among individuals depending on their needs, but plenty of it is required at the start.  

The modern entrepreneur has plenty of resources at their disposal that the older generation wish they had a fraction of. Blogs, YouTube tutorials, incubation hubs name them, and yet still click on suspect links that urge them to make fifty thousand shillings in a week. What they fail to understand is that life on the proverbial fast lane takes years to build.

The ‘10,000 hours’ concept is quite simple. You work on a craft or skill by dedicating 10,000 hours to it then maybe you become a master at it. There’s no way around amassing a fortune unless through corruption or theft. This ethics go all across the board into pop culture where famous actors win awards after so many years of doing low budget films away from the limelight. Even TV reality stars gain their names by putting in hours of work. Resilience is what allows business owners and brands to keep at their ideas and not give up even when they make dismal profits.

The transactions of an entrepreneur do not end with sales of a product or service. An entrepreneur wants to learn the market and identify gaps for innovative products and services. Besides, how else will you spot a gap if you don’t painstakingly conduct due diligence?

Persistence spurs action. How, you ask? It presents opportunities to engage directly with your potential client. You are asking them to take a chance on your product or service and therefore will get used to being hanged up on or even insulted as you conduct one on one sales. If you strategically keep marketing you will recognize what works to your advantage and how to gain a profit.

The hustle will consume most of your time especially when you’re starting out. You will be knee-deep in accounts and before you know it, a week is gone! Then you scroll through your social media feed and see your friends colourful pictures in events you were dying to attend which might further depress you. Then your bills will jolt you out of your misery because they need to be paid which again comes back to your determination to succeed.

A successful entrepreneur will learn how to cut costs and plough profits back into the business for growth. The success of this decision could be affected by investors other than you. This is why vetting to find partners who share your similar ideas and goals is important.

The laser focus that comes with the resilience trait distinguishes people who start ten businesses and fail at each of them or focus time and energy on few at a time and do them well. This growth will help an entrepreneur decide if they will pursue it or if the business isn’t viable anymore. Spreading yourself too thin affects creativity and production if you’re a sole proprietor.

When you believe in the brand you’re building there’s so little that can move you. The confidence you have in your business inspires others to want to do business with you because they trust your person to person interaction.

When you narrow it down further to creative entrepreneurship, personal character defines individual artists even as they transact their art for profit. You could say the rules change for entrepreneurs in different fields but they actually remain the same. The setting may be less formal but still has peaks and dips like other sectors.

More young people are looking for freedom to express themselves creatively and have found a niche in this market. They have to constantly reinvent themselves and be extremely good at what they do to remain above the pack. They do all this and insist on ‘passion’ being the driver of what they do.

The creative industry is structured such that the profit earned from a service provided is paid to the ‘artist’ or through their representative. The split allowance is then ploughed back to learning another skill and the cycle continues.

At the end of the day it is all about resilience.