Whenever you set out to build something, whether that is a community, a business, a hobby, or some other project, one of the things people often overlook in their moment of inspiration is the fact that sheer dogged determination and perseverance are major keys to success.
Perhaps this doesn't come as much of a surprise to people. After all, if you look around you can usually find an ocean of failed, half finished, and abandoned projects everywhere. But usually we only see that they failed, not how they failed.
Why Things Turn Out...
Looking in from the outside, we may examine this and think to ourselves "why didn't this go anywhere? It seemed like such a good idea it should have totally succeeded!"
And perhaps that is entirely a correct statement, but there is more to creating success than simply having a great idea and executing it. Having started a number of businesses and projects and communities over the years I've always found that the single most challenging thing is to keep myself interested in what I'm doing in the long run. And yet? This long run perspective is absolutely essential!
As I sit here and write these words, I am now on day eight of a 30-day blogging and engagement challenge I sent for myself. In the greater scheme of things 30 days of daily activity is nothing! Many businesses and projects take 3 to 5 years to come to fruition. And there's no slacking off! You have to show up every day and be on your game every single day for what could potentially be 2000 days... or more!
Do you have that in you?
Of course, many of us can't readily answer that question and we won't actually have an answer to it until we're in the middle of pursuing our ambition.
I mentioned the 30 day blogging challenge because when you're not feeling motivated and inspired, even a month can feel like an eternity! We live in this increasingly rapid-fire world of "always-on" and instant service so even our environment is conditioning us to NOT have patience!
Ideas vs. Execution
Hidden in here, is a lesson about success and what it takes to succeed. We often start new things, having seen somebody else become really successful with something similar... but the truth is that even though we may have the ideas and the motivation the part of the equation we don't have is knowing just how much work that other person we're admiring had to put in in order to get to where they are.
Perhaps it's one of the ironic truths of business (and other projects) that most of them would not even get started if their principals actually knew the extent of the "drudgery" that might be required to succeed!
My oldest blog is 22 years old. Some part of me is proud to say that I have actually added posts to it every year — even if infrequently — since 2002! But I must also confess that I don't approach it with the same level of dedication and enthusiasm I did in the early days. And that is one of the challenges we face: How do we stay interested in what we're doing?
Of course some people have the capacity to emotionally disconnect entirely from what they're doing, and simply treat it as "work that has to be done," drudgery or otherwise. But for many people that becomes a problem because the type of entrepreneurial spirit required to create and start a business or a project typically is not as well suited to long-term day-to-day running of something. Creatives typically crave variety and change and new stimulation for their brains.
Passions That Don't Feel Like Work!
Which brings us to one of the important points many business and work purpose experts talk about:
It is really important — if you care about the long-term survival of whatever you're undertaking — that it is your genuine passion because that is the only real way you can stay interested and engaged and feel enthusiastic about what you're doing every single day, in the long run.
Even so, no matter how much we may love what we're working with, we're still going to experience periods when things slow down for us. Even though we may be enjoying a considerable measure of success, we end up pausing and questioning whether it's all worth it. And that's only natural.
I say it's natural because we often read news stories and magazine articles about people who enjoy great success and they evidently just "sailed" to that success of smooth waters... but what we must remember is that news is built around the exceptions, rather than the norm.
The vast majority of ventures people undertake (that survive in the long run) just end up performing "reasonably well."
For example, I owned and operated an import/export business for 13 years. While I definitely made a living, I would never go so far as to say that the business was "highly successful." I enjoyed what I was doing and I made a living. End of story. Which, ironically, was probably better than 80% of business ventures out there!
If there is a "moral" to this story it is that staying interested in what you're doing is often easier if you start our with enthusiasm but also with realistic expectations. If you're seriously caught up in hype, it might be wise to check yourself and consider whether your head is in the actual game, or in the clouds!
=^..^=
Curator Cat, January 27th, 2024
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