photo credit: Faithful Chant

Becoming an entrepreneur may have been the last thing on your mind, when you first dreamed of coming “home” to work, long before actually taking the Big Step. There are many motivations for turning our back on the corporate world; some common, some unique. Common reasons include:

• Wanting to be there for our children
• Wanting to be our own boss
• Needing more flexibility
• Being frustrated by limitations to creativity
• Wanting to work in an area we’re passionate about

But there are two more reasons hardly anyone talks about…

• Wanting to hide
• Not being able to “cut it” in the “real world”

These latter two reasons are at direct cross purposes with the spirit of entrepreneurship. If these reasons featured in your decision, do stop to take a long, hard look at your motivations – and check out the truth of confidence-crashing assumptions you may be secretly making about yourself.

The truth is, maybe the “real world” just didn’t cut it for you – and was it so “real”, to begin with? If so, you may have good reason for feeling like wanting to hide for a while. Burn-out will do that to you.

What is an entrepreneur? Someone who thinks “outside the box”. Someone who always takes things that one step further – he’s the one most liable to put a slice of mango on his burger, just to see if it works better than relish or mustard.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for that extra way to tweak something past “great” into “outstanding!” While everyone else is busy looking for ways to make their business more complicated, the true entrepreneur is focusing on making the same service brilliantly simple and more accessible to her target market than anyone than anyone else.

Most of all, a true entrepreneur looks at mistakes and failures as tremendous learning opportunities. And this is such an identifying entrepreneurial characteristic, it’s become almost a cliché!

So if you’re at home, staring at your computer screen, wondering where to start and fending off thoughts like, “I’ll never figure this out” and secretly being afraid that you’ve already “failed” – relax. It’s time to shift your mindset a little. After all, you’re reading this article just now, right? You haven’t given up. You’re not hiding.

Maybe you’re just having a bad day.

When you’ve had that rest, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, look in the mirror and lift your chin. Say “I am an entrepreneur! I freelance because I love it!”

Trust yourself. Trust your values and reasons. Then stick your Viking helmet back on your head, mount your muscly white charger and head back into the fray.

After all, it’s much more fun.

About the Author: Marya Miller is a freelance copywriter based in Canada. Formerly a scientist wrangler, Marya is compulsively addicted to both writing and marketing.

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