I was recently chatting with a friend leading up to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit (Blog/ Podcast next week) about my excitement for the conference and my long term vision for La.Rue. We were talking about the upcoming community launch in 2024 (join the waitlist here) and what the programming would be like. I asked her what she would like to see? She mentioned how a lot of people doing these types of things aren’t always hitting the mark on the difficulty aspect of being an entrepreneur. I found myself reflecting on how ‘honest’ I’ve been with you in regard to my challenges in entrepreneurship. And while I don’t think I’ve fallen short, I do think there are always areas to improve. With the upcoming launch of the La.Rue Community, my focus has been on developing out exactly what this community is and who it will serve.
I believe we can create a dynamic intersection of life and business without having to give up everything. The La.Rue Community is being built on the belief that “women can have it all.” As entrepreneurs, we’re taught that to be successful in our business, we have to give up our personal lives. I refuse to accept this as the norm. However, this doesn’t mean I’ve never made sacrifices for my life and my business. The challenges I’ve faced in entrepreneurship are abundant. The journey has by no means been perfect over the last three years. So I thought I’d share with you the three biggest challenges I’ve faced thus far in my entrepreneurship journey.
The Hardest Challenges I’ve Faced in My Entrepreneurship Journey
Mindset
Despite this being the most obvious, it’s not to be overlooked. People who decide to become entrepreneurs have a lot of everything: determination, passion, resilience, luck, etc. Everything about being an entrepreneur requires an element of guessing and betting on yourself. You don’t have a boss or someone telling you what to do everyday. You learn everything as you go and take a lot of educated guesses along the way. It takes a major toll on your mindset in both a good and not great way. Feelings of imposter syndrome were coming up every single day for me. I unlocked a new level of fear and self-ridicule. For such a long period of this journey, I woke up everyday feeling like I was faking it; like everything I was doing wasn’t a real effort to succeed, and one day I would realize this and have to get ‘real job.’
My mindset has had so many highs and lows over the last three years. There have been periods I was sure I wouldn’t succeed and wanted to give up so greatly. So many days I didn’t know how I was going to get the work done because the anxiety of failing was taking over me. My positive mindset has been something I have fought to maintain every day of this journey; and some days that’s failed.
Timing
Your mindset is a consistent struggle, but something you have more control over than a lot things on the entrepreneurship journey. The biggest struggle I faced with things (mostly) out of my control was the “timing of success.” When I made the decision to bet on myself, I also had a conscious understanding that I had absolutely no clue how long it would take me to reach any sort of success. It was over a full year before I started to make some money. And it wasn’t until over two years in that I was making enough to call it an income. Having patience as an entrepreneur can feel utterly impossible. It can feel like everything and everyone is betting against you. We have no control over the timing of our success. There are so many things that contribute to the pace of that timing; but nothing is guaranteed.
So many days on this journey I cried or woke up with crushing anxiety because I didn’t know how long it would take for me to get out of that place of fear. There were days where that fear overwhelmed me and made me feel so small. And as someone who very much enjoys being in control, it felt impossible to release that aspect. I did everything in my power to try and become successful, but timing of that success isn’t up to us.
Comparison
In my career as it is currently, I’d say comparison is where I still struggle the most. I will say that over the last few months and since attending the Forbes conference, this outlook has changed significantly. But in the last year, this has been something I’ve struggled with more often. I think as you continue to grow in the entrepreneurship space, you realize how difficult it is to find a truly original idea: something that will make you stand out, something that solves a problem. I’ve more recently gotten to a point where I see the clear vision of how I’m starting/creating something new, but it hasn’t always been that way. Comparison and imposter syndrome typically go hand-and-hand in the entrepreneurship journey.
We struggle to find our place, our voice, or our idea that will be a cause for change. In the beginning years of this journey, I had absolutely no idea what this dream and this business would evolve into. I compared every action I took or idea I had and compared it to someone else. I was creating a cause for measuring my success based on the success of others.
Moving Forward
A major concept behind the creation and launch of this community is to address these fears and offer solutions or advice that can help you overcome them. These are all very normal fears to have as an entrepreneur. But there are ways to combine the practices of intentional living with business that help you overcome them. The challenges in entrepreneurship are abundant. The La.Rue Community will be a destination for female entrepreneurs to help them overcome these fears and succeed. If you’re interested in letting us know what programming you’d like to see in this community, fill out the Community Questionnaire! We look forward to seeing you there in the New Year!
