Starting your own business in your college years sets an outstanding precedent for the rest of your life. It proves to the world (and yourself) that you don’t need to wait for opportunities to come your way. You’re happy to create your own. While your peers party, you’re dedicating your free time to learning new skills, establishing relationships with clients and making money hand over fist. All while making sufficient time to prevent your business efforts from impinging on your studies. You’re even finding time to let your hair down and party on occasion. Yet, while you’re proving yourself a success in all kinds of ways, you need to be mindful of your limitations. When we’re young, we can think ourselves indestructible. But the simple truth is that you may not be able to sustain this pace of life forever.
Indeed, after a few years you may start to show signs of burnout which could seriously impact on your mental and physical health. In this post, we’ll look at some of the reasons why so many entrepreneurs burn themselves out so that you can avoid forming bad habits while you’re still at the start of your entrepreneurial career…
They try to do everything by themselves
A big part of entrepreneurship is learning that you can’t do everything by yourself. While there’s nothing wrong with having faith in your own skills and being passionate about doing things “your way”, it’s important to remember that delegating is a skill. And when you don’t learn it, you’re doing your team, your brand and yourself a disservice. Whether it’s investing in your own team or third party providers like IT Outsourcing, you need to take a leap of faith. It’s trusting in others that will help your business to grow.
Their passion becomes obsession
Passion is essential in entrepreneurship. It’s your passion that will provide your motivation and resolve when times are hard. But there’s a fine line between passion and obsession. Obsession can keep you awake at night, prevent you from ever being satisfied and focus only on your failures.
They focus on working harder instead of working smarter
Entrepreneurs tend to power through adversity, and while this is admirable, adversity also challenges us to find new ways of operating, eliminate inefficiencies in our procedures and defer to others who know more than them. In other words, it should encourage you to realize that the key is not in working hard… but in working smart.
They don’t make time for themselves
Finally, entrepreneurs are consummate people pleasers. They focus on making themselves available to others including their customers, their employees, their kids and their spouses. But in so doing, they neglect to make time for themselves. And this can prove detrimental to their wellbeing. They need to learn to make time to do the things that bring them joy and satisfaction, every day. Even if it’s just spending an hour pumping iron in the gym, getting stuck into a good book or having a long soak in the tub.
Sometimes the results you get are not at all what you want. And of course, it can be disappointing and burnout. But probably never anyone has complete control over their business and this happens to everyone.
The main thing, I think, is to remember why you started it and what you’re striving for and never give up on your views and ideas. There is a quote: It’s not how many times you get knocked down that count, it’s how many times you get back up (I hope I remember it correctly).
When I feel overwhelmed, I always try to motivate myself and recharge my energy. One of the sources of motivation is quotes from young entrepreneurs: https://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2020/01/24/inspirational-quotes-young-influencers/ The experience of other people makes me confident that I will also be able to achieve success. And it helps me to avoid burnout. And of course, rest is necessary for all of us!