How to Recharge Your Entrepreneurial Drive After Set-Backs

If there was a published mantra that would fit every entrepreneur or a recipe for success, it would read like this: get creative, stay focused, work hard and have faith. Those four fundamentals are really at the core of every successful entrepreneur I have ever met, and they function like rocket fuel to keep business owners moving past obstacles, and growing in the right direction.

No matter how successful or well organized you are, at one point or another, it’s going to feel like nothing is going right with your business. But when problems arise, you may question whether you should pack it up, and find the income path of least resistance. Something more traditional like a salaried job, with all the perks and benefits that can make life a lot easier. Do you go through the same tedious turmoil?

If you have been down this path recently, don’t feel bad, because you aren’t alone. In fact, ask any seasoned entrepreneur and he or she will tell you that it’s a cyclical, repetitive and predictable reaction when things go wrong in your business. But interestingly, this defeatist feeling can be the precursor to ramping up, with the stubborn determination needed, to innovate creative solutions. Problem-solving insights that will navigate your business to grow through obstacles, and achieve success.

1. Accept Responsibility (But Be Fair to Yourself)

Let’s be honest; when things are going great with your business, it’s easy to be enthusiastic about your life as an entrepreneur. For most small and medium size owners, their business is a personal extension of themselves. The experience of creating, launching and nurturing a business can feel a lot like raising a child. You work hard, with high expectations, and when it begins to pay off, you’ve earned a powerful sense of accomplishment, because you own that success.

Consequently, when things start to go wrong, an equally powerful emotional deflation happens. You built your business and you want it to thrive, but when business owners experience significant problems, it is hard not to take it personally. Whether you have a staff, or you are a ‘one-person-show’, when things go wrong as an owner, there is no one else to blame. Not that it’s an issue for entrepreneurs; they are always quick to criticize their own instincts, performance, and insight.

The same passion and energy that it takes to run a business, can also work some serious negative mojo against an entrepreneur when things don’t go well. It’s important to accept responsibility, but business owners should also be fair in their evaluation of blame, and move through it with a balanced perspective.

2. Turn Hurdles into Valuable Learning

When something bad happens to your business, and you experience a tremendous setback, where do you go next? It is completely natural for someone to react with disappointment, fear or even anger, when they experience a major setback. Even though we ‘like to win’, entrepreneurs are in fact, still human, and we need to remind ourselves of this fact, from time to time.

What can you learn from the experience? It was Thomas Edison who said it best: “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.” Fail upward, remain flexible and open to improving your skillset. Look at every obstacle as an opportunity to strengthen both your business and your leadership capabilities.

3. Dial Down Perfectionism to Gain Powerful Perspective

An inner dialogue or voice drives entrepreneurs to be divergent in their approach towards life, and income. It is a talent to be able to think beyond societal norms and to apply creativity and determination to build something unique, like a successful business.

Some sobering data from the 2016 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ‘Business Employment Dynamics’ provides a real perspective on what it is like to create and drive growth as a small business owner. The survival rate of small businesses is most challenged during the first five years of operation.

• Approximately 80% of American small businesses with employees survive the first year.
• Only 66% of small businesses survive to the second year of operation.
• Less than 50% of businesses are still operating successfully, after the fifth year.

The information helps to paint a clear picture of the challenges that most small business owners face. No one is perfect (despite what your personal inner critic tells you). Owning and operating a business means accepting personal limitations, and other random and uncontrollable factors that can impact success and growth.

Instead of focusing excessively on personal flaws or small failures, allow room for compassion and true personal growth. Creative problem solving begins the minute we shut down the negative self-talk, and divert that energy into the development of innovative new strategies.

Some of the world’s most successful and inspiring entrepreneurs admit that avoiding mistakes is impossible. What defines a true entrepreneur is what they do immediately after a problem occurs, to dust-off and start again, with renewed faith in their own personal and professional abilities.

4. Recommitting to Your Passion

One of the most powerful leadership tools is to complete a self-evaluation; one that reminds you of all the facets of entrepreneurial life that invigorate, challenge and inspire you. While the exercise may seem redundant to some, writing out a list of the positive and negative aspects of owning a business, can have numerous benefits. It can help reboot the positive mindset you need, to regroup your resources, and win.

What happens when you write out that list? Many realize that some of the most challenging aspects of being an entrepreneur are also exciting, and deeply rewarding. That we all learn through trial and error as human beings, and no matter how many concepts come and go, that the pride of self-employment is what truly drives us.

If walking away does not feel right for you, then double down and fight your way back to the top. Recharge your entrepreneurial drive after every setback, and you will get your feet back on the path that leads to success.