How long have you been an entrepreneur?

Days?  Months?  Years?  Decades?

No matter how many steps you’ve taken along your business journey, you’ve surely realized one truth by now…

When you choose the path of entrepreneurship, you choose the road less traveled.

And with that choice comes an onslaught of amazing experiences and some not-so-pretty experiences.  

After interviewing hundreds of super smart business women on my podcast, one major theme keeps coming up:

Entrepreneurship is the BEST Personal Development Course You Will Ever Take!

What does that mean, exactly?

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When I quit my job to pursue my life as a business owner in 2009, I was so confident that the savings I had earmarked for my “no paycheck” journey would be more than adequate.  I could live off of this for 12 months if I REALLY needed to…I’m good!  It would be easy, I thought to myself.  Just sell your books and make tons of money.

(Yup, that’s right…my life as an entrepreneur started with a product…a $47 eBook on how to find the true love of your life.  I had created it, put it up on my website and just knew it would be a bestseller within weeks, driving tons of cash into my PayPal account!) [insert thick sarcasm here]

Two months later and two – count them, T-W-O – sold books later, I realized that perhaps this thing called a “business model” was a little more complicated than I had originally thought.  Simultaneously, I was watching my then-boyfriend’s brand new business take shape and decided to “help out” on the side.  By the next month, I was fully dedicated to building out his company (he seemed to understand revenue generation a bit better than I did!).

That money didn’t last me a year.  It got stretched out with credit cards that enabled us to live off of no income for the first few years of our business.  

And I completely freaked out over this.  All the time.  I had regular crying jags completely stressing about our lack of money.  I was a corporate gal!  I was used to a decent chunk of dough in my savings account, a 401k that was fully maxed, an annual IRA contribution and, of course, a bi-weekly check!  And even though I could mentally “get” that I had to think about money differently, I couldn’t completely own this concept.  

I was miserable.  And constantly stressed about money.  I thought of my diminishing cash reserves as a ticking time bomb…I have 2 more months until I can’t pay my mortgage anymore.  

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Fast forward to the present moment and life is 180 degrees different.  I’ve figured out the sweet magic of revenue generation for business, but most importantly…

I have absolutely no stress about finances.

What changed?

I evolved.  I had to!  I had to learn about my relationship with money.  I had to become educated about value exchange in business.  I had to learn how to pivot my entire business model according to the market…many, many, many times!  

As an entrepreneur, you have to become the person who runs a successful business.  

Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and professionally.  

This evolution is what my guests have referred to.  This need to become the person your business needs you to be.

This is personal development at its finest.  And there’s no “course” you can take that will ever compare to you being active and present in your own evolution!

That’s why the smartest and most successful entrepreneurs know that the learning is never done.  You never truly master this game.  

But the game forces you to master yourself.  

How have you most evolved since you started your company?