by Kulani Shiluvane, Founder and Chief Consultant at Shiluvah
Be an entrepreneur they said, it will be fun they said – said no one EVER!!!
And that is because entrepreneurship is hard and guess what, it’s meant to be hard and that is exactly why only a few that start actually ‘finish.’
Many of us are sold the entrepreneurial dream, but as a friend of mine and fellow entrepreneur Tiyani Majoko likes to say: “the dream is free, but the hustle is sold separately.” What we are often exposed to or interested in; in those entrepreneurs we admire, is what I like to call the ‘finished product.’ Seasoned entrepreneurs basking in the sun of their HARD work, work that involved sacrifice, persistence and failure. But if we took the time to study and not merely looked into the entrepreneurial journey of those we consider our role models, we would learn that this journey of entrepreneurship that we have embarked on is hard.
And just in case the word hard doesn’t quite bring across the message I am trying to hit home, here are a few synonyms for the word hard: tough, demanding, harsh, brutal and grueling. But hard doesn’t mean impossible or that it can’t be done. Therefore, even though it is hard, that doesn’t mean you should give up – dare to finish! So here is what you do when it gets hard, and believe me it will get HARD!
NEVER GIVE UP – I’m sure you have heard this line countless times, it being the cliché that it is. But as I always like to say clichés are clichés because they hold so much truth in them. Giving up gets you nowhere, it means blurring your dreams and embracing your failure, failure is meant to be a lesson not the end of the road. So, as Dory said, “Just keep swimming.”
Find New Solutions – change is a concept that many of us have a hard time embracing, but as an entrepreneur change needs to be one of your board members. It is in the ability to embrace change or having a change mindset that allows us to find new solutions for the challenges you’ll face. After all, finding solutions often times involves some kind of change.
Hear Someone Out, Talk to Someone – your business is your ‘baby’ and like most mama-bears, taking advice on how to nurture your ‘baby’ isn’t always easy. But some advice and input from someone that is not in your business might be just what you and your ‘baby’ need. Allow someone, in fact allow a few people, to come in and hold your head as they tell you all the necessary things you don’t want to hear but need to hear.
Never Grow Tired – being tired is a great sign that you are doing something right and heading in the right direction. Tired means you continue to put in the work even when there is little result or nothing to show for it. The seed you planted might not be ready for harvest when you are but when it is ready it is better than you could have ever imagined.
Dare to finish but not only finish, finish well, finish strong, finish in a manner that is impactful to you and those around you. Just finish, because entrepreneurship being hard isn’t an excuse not to finish.
Kulani Shiluvane is the founder and chief consultant at Shiluvah. She is an accomplished business development professional with a post-graduate qualification in Management from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is a skilled operation, logistics and strategic professional with experience in strategic planning and implementation, stakeholder engagement, human resources and public relations. Kulani served as Chief Operations Officer in a medium-size organisation in Johannesburg for 9 years and in 2017 she started Shiluvah. Kulani has a keen interest in conflict resolution, problem solving and organisational relations and development. Accredited as a mediator by Conflict Dynamics in 2018, her mediation interest areas are: commercial dispute, workplace, management and labour.
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