Ever felt like an army of one in your business? I get it. It is both tremendously powerful food for my ego and poisonous for my mental health. Today I share three ways to combat LES (lonesome entrepreneur syndrome) and win the battle of entrepreneurial solitary confinement.
Do you ever feel totally alone and like no one could possibly understand the pressure and the weight of being in what the world sees as the best business to be in right now?
The business of being an entrepreneur.
From the outside, being an entrepreneur looks sexy, it is freedom and opportunity abound...what could be better?
Well, they are right, being an entrepreneur is sexy and it is freedom and opportunity abound, but like anything good there is a balancing dark side which can creep up on us and mug us when we least expect it. I like to call this perpetrator LES. LES is a bad dude and he brings more of us down that we care to admit.
No matter how amazing our entrepreneurial life is, it can be lonely. Even if you have a partner, loneliness can creep in. Some thrive on the weight and responsibility this can provide -- the lonely, ever-responsible Atlas of the company carrying the world on his/her shoulders. I used to be one of those people. Then the weight of the world caused me to become a real jaded nasty person who even I did not want to hang around with. You probably know someone just like I was, admit it...even if it is not you (and more so if it is).
I changed my lonely ways by incorporating three things into my entrepreneurship journey -- they are easy and you can do them today -- within five minutes, in fact. Better yet -- I challenge you to do them. I challenge you to choose yourself and your business over the solitary loneliness that serves to keep you trapped and isolated.
Here is my challenge:
1- Make a list of 10 things you alone feel responsible for.
2- Now, look at the list and remove the things that you alone do not control.
Pause and reflect on who you can share the experience and responsibility with for hose things you are carrying in solitary confinement.
3- Connect to others who get it -- join us in doing this thing together. You have three options here.
Option One: Forward this to a colleague in entrepreneurship (maybe another business owner or someone just looking to start out, perhaps a friend in a corporate job who desperately wants freedom) and let it act as your invitation to connect with them -- have a coffee, drink, email back and forth about the things that keep you feeling trapped and alone. Do not be afraid, we all feel this way at one time or another (and sometimes all of the time) unless we do something about it.
Option Two: Tweet it out and I will be your wingman today: Don't be an Atlas. The world you carry might get heavy as more populate it. @kelseyramsden
Option Three: Join that course, sign up for that webinar, get a ticket to the networking event or speaker series. Get out of your office, connect to others like you, find a colleague in entrepreneurship and develop a relationship with someone else who gets it. We all need people around us who get it. Go on, it's not a treat for yourself, it is a part of doing good business. Consider it tuition for maintaining entrepreneurial sanity.
With truth and trust...from the Barefoot Boardroom,
Kelsey Ramsden
P.S.- You will notice that the Barefoot Boardroom will become a familiar phrase around here. It is a place for corporates and creatives like you to find the resources needed to build the business and life you want -- to have freedom, independence, stability and success as defined by you...and to start getting it now. I am personally thrilled you are here.
I am tucked away in a cabin in the Canadian woods with my amazing right hand and left brained teammate. Beyond making me coffee and amazing dinners, she also makes me pause in my creative obsession (we are finalizing details for the next year of courses, launches, books and tours -- oh my) and get outside.
And people wonder why we all want an entrepreneurial lifestyle...
With love xo
P.P.S.- I know I keep things on the business tip here but just for a second let's talk music. Know of a band you think I might like to find out about? I hope you do and would be ever grateful if you would share the name of your fav band with me by tweeting or replying to this email.
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