How to Survive a Punch in the Face

As an entrepreneur you will get punched in the face, question is will you get up off the mat after?

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy; a lot of days are not fun. Today seems to be one of those days. But that comes with an important message, if this was easy everyone would be doing it, you need to be prepared to take it some days square in the nose. It’s funny a while ago one of my mentors sent me this book by George Foreman (Knockout Entrepreneur), admittedly I never finished it. I tried and tried to read it but just didn’t care for it; it was pretty basic and referenced a lot of the expected clichés. Today however it kind of fits.

Here’s the thing about being an entrepreneur, it doesn’t come with a road map or an instruction manual, you really are an adventurer and explorer working to find your own way. When times are tough or you experience failures they can be really trying but you really have two choices give up or persevere.

To be honest once you “get it” you may never look forward to failures but you easily begin to recognize their importance. Each failure means you’ve been hit with or identified a major problem. We refer to these problems as “holes in the bucket.” As an entrepreneur your job is to generate a cash machine and figure out how to provide a great, sustainable, long term product that provides you and your team income to live the life that you want. Unfortunately as you will learn building a bucket with no leaks isn’t easy, how many buckets have you seen with dozens of moving parts?

So today I’ve taken 2 or 3 big consecutive square shots in the nose, my eyes are watering, my lip is puffy at present I don’t even have the answers but I can tell you one thing is for certain. I am getting up off the mat I am not out of this fight, are you?

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end-which you can never afford to lose-with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever that might be.” -Admiral Jim Stockdale

Whatever it is, however hard it gets, the days you feel like you “can’t” believe me when I say if you just get up off the mat you are closer than you would ever believe to your next big breakthrough to success. The risk is high but the freedom of being an entrepreneur will always be worth it.