The Fuckup Files Series - Episode Seven: "I Will Die For This Business, It's My Child, I Can't Let Go"

2-3 years after I started my own business, I became more conscious about how deeply involved I was. To be honest, during the first 2-3 years I was mostly in survival mode. When I wasn't into hyper-excited mode, that is. But once the processes started to run without too much intervention, once there were more than 1 person running the show, once I could finish the work day before 8PM (a huge accomplishment in and by itself) I started to see some patterns.

One of these patterns was related to how much I was identifying myself with the business. Because I was putting so much time, energy and creativity into it, I felt somehow that I was entitled not only to it, but to some sort of inherent success. "Well, I did worked hard, you know, for the last 2-3 years I didn't have holidays, of course I care and of course I expect this thing to go to the Moon." That was my mental talk, roughly.

It took me a lot of time to understand how things really are. I was fortunate to "hit it" with my first business, meaning that after 9 years, I could sell it for a profit. It was a good timing, a relatively good price, but, most of all, that deal was my escape into the real life. It allowed me to "close the book" and move forward in a way that was congruent with my expectations.

But, surprise-surprise, the next businesses weren't so predictable anymore. I tried a few more, but none with the extent of energy and duration of the first one. Some of them were successful - for a while - some of them died in the first two months. It was a mixed bag, to be honest.

And that mixed bag offered me the perspective to look at - and to correct - that very toxic mental talk that followed me in the early years of my first business. It's a mental talk that I encounter many times in discussions with young entrepreneurs, who get so entangled in their own dream, that they can't understand reality anymore. Or at least they can't understand a reality in which the business they created won't exist anymore.

News flash: the world will continue spinning without you very well, my friend. The Sun will rise and set, seasons will come and go and people will continue to grow up, fall in love, make mistakes or be happy. The usual stuff, you know.

There's nothing good in identifying with your business so deep, that your own sense of meaning will come only from that source. It's great to be useful to other people. It's even better if you can make some money out of it. And if you can become a millionaire at some point, well, congrats!

But your business is not you.

It's just a collection of processes you run and which can be managed, if need will be, by somebody else too. He or she may not be as charismatic as you are, but hey, the world will keep spinning, seasons will come and go and the Sun will continue to rise and set.

Find a few moments to enjoy that part of life too.

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This post is part of an experiment I run on Steemit.

Each of the posts related to the entrepreneurial mistakes will be set up as "Decline Payout". But if you like the post, you may contribute directly, by sending me whatever amount of SBD or Steem you consider appropriate. I will keep 20% of the proceedings and the rest will be redistributed equally among all the contributors.

I will publish the reports in the following day, in a separate post, which will NOT be setup as "Decline Payout". The proceedings from that post will be redistributed equally to all the contributors as well (minus what I get as Steem Power, that I will keep).

You can read more details about the methodology and metrics of the experiment here.

Previous posts in the experiment:

• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number One
• The Fuckup Files Series - Episode One: "I Thought I Was Really Good"
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 2
• The Fuckup Files Series - Episode Two: "I Thought I Got This Covered"
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 3
• The Fuckup Files Series - Episode Three: "It Must Work, I Just Know It"
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 4
• The Fuckup Files Series - Episode Four: "The Slow Death"
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 5
• The Fuckup Files Series - Episode Five: "I Know How To Do Everything"
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 6
• Preliminary Results Of The Fuckup Files Experiment - Or Why We Need A Mix Of Tipping And Reward Pool To Strengthen The Voting Algorithm
• The Fuckup Files Experiment - Report Number 7

So, if you like the experiment, if you think it will bring value, you can start participating in it right now, by sending me Steem or SBD using the following memo: "fuckup files episode seven".

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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

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