The Skill Every Entrepreneur Needs to Keep from Failing

Many people dream of being their own boss because they get tired of being told what to do and having a limit on their growth. They see the awesome potential in starting a business of their own, but too often, they don’t understand what an entrepreneur really is.

There are also many people that as children, have dreamed of running away and joining the circus because it looks like so much fun! They don’t see all the work, self-discipline and practice that goes on painfully day after day behind the scenes!

Working for yourself is much like the life of a circus performer – it’s a balancing act and there are many balls to practice keeping in the air! When you become an entrepreneur, you take on the job of a juggler!

In the skill of juggling, the most important goal is to not drop a ball. The whole point of the juggling act is to keep all the objects in the air. When you’re juggling rubber balls, it’s okay to drop one occasionally because it will bounce and you can catch it again, but when you start dropping those balls too often and not catching them, your act is done!

Often, when an entrepreneur fails, they can’t see how it happened. They need to understand that all the balls in their business are important. For instance, your company has a main focus, for example, designing and producing activewear. The main things you do, like design and production, are like your orange balls, but in juggling and business, there are many balls. You can’t just focus on those few key colorful ones. You have many white balls also – balls like accounting, HR, sales, marketing, legalities, etc.

In entrepreneurship, your main thing is important, but if you drop even one of the balls, then you don’t get to do any of it!

You might think, “I’m just one person, I can only do so much!” The reality is though, that when you are an entrepreneur, you are responsible for everything. You need to make sure it’s all getting done. At the beginning you will probably be doing it all unless you use outside contractors, joint ventures or some other sources like family and friends to help out.  As you start to grow, you can hire more people to juggle some of the balls for you.

The key thing to success as an entrepreneur is understanding that it’s always a juggling act, and that your main things – your orange balls – are important, but all the other white balls involved in running your business are just as important and can’t be dropped or the show will be over!