I have been going strong with this entrepreneur life strong for 6 years now. It would be an understatement to say this journey has been a roller coaster! It has been fun, grueling, scary, exciting, and rewarding all at the same time. One of the things I learned is that entrepreneurship can look different in many ways. Most people think Entrepreneurship means you have taken a leap of faith and gone to pursue the dream while eating ramen noodles and living in a cardboard box. OK OK I am exaggerating but you know what I mean! What I learned over time that you can also be an entrepreneur as a side hustle and still do a 9 to 5. It doesn't make you any less of an entrepreneur.
When I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, how I was going to do it, etc. I just knew I wanted to do something in the arts. I quit my corporate job of sales and started as a waitress so that I could work on my business during the day and work at night cause the bills weren't going to pay themselves! I knew that one of the reasons I wanted to be an entrepreneur was the flexibility and to enjoy making a living through my passion. And the only way to be able to do that full time was to work hard, make sacrifices and make sure I held myself accountable to meet deadlines so I was making progress.
The first 2 years were the most difficult, especially since everyone around me thought I was crazy and were not supportive in my decision to the point they kept trying to persuade me to make a better intelligent decision. What they didn't know about me was my determination, conviction and passion for going down this path. I think the circle of people around me started coming around the idea of me pursuing my dreams and instead of supporting me just sat back popcorn and watched to see when I was going to fail, give up and get a job. It's hard when you meet strangers who believe in you and support you more than your own family and friends. My passion and conviction is what kept me going.
3 years ago, on July of 2016 I finally quit waiteressing and took the leap of faith and full time as the CEO and Founder of The Malkan Group, LLC. Hallelujah! A lot of people ask how did you do it? How did you make the transition? There really isn't a magic answer and there really isn't one thing that just helps you get to that full time entrepreneur status. But one thing that I learned along with having mentors, taking classes, writing a business plan, marketing/pr, sales etc was not procrastinating!
Procrastination is kryptonight! Especially for entrepreneurs. I meet many people who have the talent but don't have the work ethic to get there. They make up excuses, and while they all may be true and legit, this is the point of whether you make progress or wait for more time to go by before you make progress. Every entrepreneur faces this probably multiple times a day, or at least I do. We constantly are assessing our to do list to see which one becomes top priority while managing our day to day life stuff.
What I have learned is that it is important to stay the course and make sure you do what you are going to do and to meet your deadlines! However, at the same time it is just as important to have a balance whether this is a side hustle or a full time gig. Like everything there should be a balance, entrepreneurship is like a marathon not a sprint.
Enjoy the journey, trust the process, and cheers to entrepreneurship!