Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

There comes a point where you`re past the startup phase. You had The Big Idea, went through the agony of deciding if you should make it a business, and launched. You built a site, started selling some stuff, and had enough success to show that this is a viable idea.

Now it`s Year Two. It`s still hard...big time! Not much sales, not enough to live on the income from the business, bills are piling up, work is everywhere, problems abound, and you`re in it for the long haul.

One morning (evening?) you wake up and wonder, What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this to myself? This is unbelievable! All I have is nothing, and it`s surrounded with problems. Nobody likes me, I quit...I wanna run away!


Is it really hopelessness? Is it apathy? Or are you just burnt out?

A key aspect to life is having the ability to plan. Not plan what happens in an hour, but plan what will happen to you or around you in the next month.

But a new business owner often can`t plan that far ahead. They`re busy surviving. So how do you survive that period between "scrambling to stay afloat" and that next plateau where, once again, you can actually start planning on things with some sort of certainty?

Pamela Slim has an excellent podcast in the reasoning behind this. It`s a short listen, and well worth it.

It`s called RESISTANCE.

It`s your built-in nature to give yourself an out and prevent you from being the person you could be. The answer for overcoming this is to just DO. Do something, praise yourself for it, and move on. This works for me every time. Break your list into parts, do small things, praise yourself for each one.

Remember ... go big or go home?

Or perhaps you are not at the dip, but a cul-de-sac?

:-) And while in the cul-de-sac, or "in jail," as with the game of Monopoly, maybe there are other things available to do? Like.....go fishing?

While I`m not at the point described by CraigL yet, I am still in the "dog chasing his tail, driving myself crazy with every little detail" phase.

Fishing is a great past time... but I suggest paintball !

I have found nothing else that lets me vent all those pent up frustrations, while being able to legally, and without great bodily harm, "shoot" some one.

What great stress relief!

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~Dave~
Industrial Clean Air

We seem to have a common thought that when things get caught in that routine backwash of never-ending stagnation, do something totally different. That`s presumably why Monty Python was a leading-edge symposium on business development. They popularized that famous strategem: "And now for something completely different." :-)

I HAVE BEEN THROUGH APATHY AND KNOW FIRST HAND WHAT ITS LIKE AND I DON`T LIKE IT.  I HAD JUST GOT BACK FROM VEIT NAM AND I HAD NO FEELINGS OR EMOTIONS TOWRD ANYONE. AND MY WIFE KICKED ME IN THE BUT AND TOLD ME TO GET A LIFE AND I KINDA SNAPED OUT OF IT FOR A WHILE. IT WAS HARD TO RESIST FALLING BACK INTO THAT DEAD FEELING AND THEN OTHER PROBLEMS CAME ABOUT. LIKE ANGER AND HATE, ALONG WITH THE DISIRE TO KILL OREINTALS OF THE VIETNAMESE AND WHAT THEY DID TO MY BEST FRIEND AND OTHER BUDDIES OF MINE. I STRUGGELD WITH THAT FOR ALOT OF YEARS AND FINALY GOT OVER IT. APATHY IS NOT THE WAY TO GO BECAUSE IT LEADS YOU IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. BE HAPPY WITH LIFE AND THINK GOOD THOUGHTS OF OTHERS.

Don (Mayday)
There`s no question that apathy can disguise itself as boredom, tiredness, and other manifestations. You`ve apparently been fortunate to have people around you to, as you say, kick you in the butt and get you up and living again.

A problem for many entrepreneurs, though, is that they`re going it alone. They may not have any support at all, even from family. Like being in a war, never-ending stress, anxiety, and fear, eventually take their toll.

There comes that point, usually into Year 2, where there`s just enough proof that the business is a viable idea, but not enough success to make for a steady income. That`s where so many people "suddenly" get this feeling of apathy. Again, it isn`t actually not caring...it`s emotional burnout.

Anything taken to excess eventually becomes irritating. Even a passion for a business or idea, pounded on every single day and night, minute after minute, eventually ends up like eating the same ice-cream, day in and day out.

But emotions are how we value things. Logically, we know we value the business, but emotionally, we often feel as if it`s no longer valuable, interesting, or even useful. How do we re-stimulate our value of something?

It`s all well and good for someone to say, "Deal with it," or "Get over it," or "Get a life." Fine: But that`s meaningless in terms of *how* do we do that. It`s why I`m interested in strategies people use to rebuild their sense of value and worth in that difficult second year of a business.