Cranky customers annoy you and late supplies frustrate. The daily grind associated with marketing wears you out and there are days when you lay your head on your pillow and wonder if all the hassle is worth owning your own business.



There are moments when you may long to go back in the safety of 9-5 where someone else had to make all the tough decisions and you simply performed a job and left it behind at the end of the day.

Owning your own business often means you don't have some of the freedoms you may have experiences prior to becoming an entrepreneur. And there will be days when you can feel the proverbial boot print where it seems you are prone to be kicked by the circumstances of business ownership.

There seems to be an implied promise that when you become a business owner you will find yourself in the perfect Shangri-La where every dream comes true and every desire is fulfilled.

This is an inadequate picture of business ownership.

The truth is there will always be more work than you thought possible, more joy than you have ever experienced and perhaps a better nights sleep (although that's not a promise).

Some burgeoning entrepreneurs are surprised at the amount of work involved in launching their idea. There are so many details to attend to that the big picture is obscured by gnats. Each proverbial gnat represents a problem encountered, a frustration developed or perhaps an old fashioned crying jag endured.

Yet for every difficulty faced and conquered there is a heightened sense of fulfillment and joy. The realization of a dream is not the stuff of fairy tales that promise a happy ending. The answers are found in the hammer and chisel of a sculptor that simply removes the barriers between solid granite most observe and the masterpiece found within or a woodcarver eyeing a piece of wood that has an object of beauty hidden inside.

Business is hard work. You'll pardon me for using artistic analogies, but to me that best illustrates the labor of love that is needed to make a business work. Each step forward is like adding another mosaic to an artistically tiled floor or a piece of colored glass to a stained-glass window.

I guess you could say that business ownership is not for the weak willed. If you are easily discouraged you may want to carefully consider business ownership. If you are thin skinned then entrepreneurship may not be for you.

If you have been able to face complex life challenges and have found the strength to endure and thrive in the midst of great difficulty then you may have had a potent preview of business ownership. You will likely experience great joy in your business endeavors, but there will always be a personal cost up front.

Owning your own dream has a powerful effect on the way you view the rest of life and it's a grand journey that most never regret taking.