How to reignite your inner fire by becoming a battle born entrepreneur
This is an Entrepreneur Spotlight guest post from Maren Donovan from Escaping the 9 to 5
I’ve been on an entrepreneurial path since the age of 19, and its felt like I’ve been fighting an uphill battle for the majority of the time. People around me don’t understand why I’d rather work for 10 hours straight than go hang out with everyone at the river and enjoy a beautiful day outside. I tell them it’s because I’m battle born, which usually brings odd looks, but being battle born isn’t a bad thing and if you understand it it’ll change the way you do business forever.
Nevada, the place I currently reside, is nicknamed the “Battle Born State” after their induction into the Union during the Civil War. Similarly, the battle born entrepreneur is launched into struggles and challenges before they’re necessarily ready. It’s because of these hardships that the entrepreneur learns the value of patience, diligence, and persistence, attributes that you’d never find if your path in life was laid out for you nicely with a little map.
How I became battle born
My battle born story starts in college. I worked at bars after school to earn extra income and it was while cleaning grime from under beer mats that I realized “this is ridiculous” and something changed inside of me. I saw that I was trading my precious time on this earth for $7.00 an hour with the hopes that tips would be really good and my hourly wage would come up to something like $20 or $30 an hour. Now at the time $30 an hour sounded amazing, but after a year or two in the business I knew alll I was doing was wasting my time making someone else rich.
So shortly before graduating I decided taking the “traditional” path was the worst possible scenario and instead with no experience and only a burning desire to guide me I was going to build a business empire.
Now empire building is not as easy as it sounds. I spent a good 6 months hemorrhaging almost all of my savings trying to learn the ropes of starting a business. When it finally clicked (which coincided quite closely with me running totally out of funds) I realized the reason most people stay in a go nowhere job is because it’s far easier than fighting your way to financial success.
There is a dip in starting your own business (as illustrated in the book by Seth Godin) that most people never come out of, you have to claw your way up and out, but when you do you’ll realize that things will be easier from here on out mostly because you’ve built confidence in your own abilities and proven to your subconcious that yes, you can do it.
Being battle born doesn’t leave you after your first win
I’ve passed through fires again since then, over and over in fact. Times where I have laid on my bedroom floor staring at the ceiling and wondering if not becoming a lawyer or mid level manager after college was the worst choice of my life. During those lows you’ve got to let the negative feelings wear themselves out by taking each “disaster” scenario to it’s logical end.
Usually after I panic for a good hour or two before I realize “worst case I sell all my stuff and couch surf for a few months until I get back on my feet… maybe I’ll have to bartend to make enough money to start another business”. But heck, that isn’t so bad. Once you visualize the worst and see that in fact it isn’t life or death you know you’ve reached it - you are a battle born entrepreneur and you’ll always be okay.
Being battle born keeps you from going soft
It’s good to pass through lots of fire early on because it refines you and keeps you from growing soft - a killer in both the animal kingdom and when you’re starting a business. Being a battle born entrepreneur means is that you know what the bad times look like, so in the good
times you can celebrate… you’ve known want so when there is plenty you’re all the happier. But it also means that you never completely loose the war time tension within, regardless if your profits are $10,000 or $10 million, you’ll always be sleeping with an eye open.
Try never to loose that fire, if you weren’t battle born (i.e. you fell into a cushy position or have family money) I’d suggest you try to fake it for a while. This means don’t allow yourself all the slack of a big nest egg or investor fund to fall back on, try to put yourself mentally in the position of a struggling entrepreneur. If you do this you’ll find many areas in your current venture that you could ‘tighten the belt on’ so to speak and minimalism in business is always a good thing.
So check yourself, are you in the midst of a battle right now? Are you weary, does it feel like there is no relenting from the forces you are up against? It’s alright, this is totally normal. Success is just past the “I can’t go on any longer” mark, if you can make it there you’ll reap the sweet fruits of true entrepreneurship and you’ll be able to boldly brag generations later that you indeed were battle born.
Maren Kate is an entrepreneur striving to live an extraordinary life, she blogs about her experiences at Escapingthe9to5.com
As my man David Deida says, everything in this world is either a celebration or a test. I choose to think of it as both simultaneously.
Why?
Being “battle born” means that you relish the grind of combat, or, in this case, building the business. You love the little things - because you respect them. You wake up, ready to do work, and you go to bed soundly because you know you made today count.
On the other hand, you have to know how to pick your battles. You might have to quit things that eat up too much of your time for too little results. You might have to go to sleep earlier and miss an hour you could’ve spent working so you can recharge your batteries. You might have to put your latest and greatest idea on hold so you can focus on the projects you already have on your plate. If you choose to cut something short, you’re not a quitter. You’re just doing what’s right.
Or, put another way - you’re picking which battles you can win while retreating from the ones you can’t. That’s what experience will do for you.
I like that: picking the battles you can win and retreating from the ones you can’t. Great insight
Thanks!
Hi Maren,
Good to see you guest post on Jun’s blog!
May I ask a couple questions?
1) If instead of making $7/hr, you got the opportunity to start off making $45-50/hour would you still have the fire to be an entrepreneur? In other words, if you were offered a more satisfying job with a lot of upside potential, would you still have the same passion?
2) Can you guide us to how much you make now, and around what age you are to give us readers a sense of reference?
Thnx!
Sam
1) Yep definitely - even starting at $45-50 an hour it doesn’t change things for me because unless I run the company and have a vested interest in it’s long term success I’d just be pumping a lot of time and effort into something that wasn’t worth it for me. When you think about it $50 an hour sounds like a lot - but my hourly rate is higher (As an entrepreneur) and I like to know I’m making money even when I’m sleeping - something you can only do as an biz owner.
My businesses brought in 5 figures the last couple of months but like with any new business a lot goes back into building it bigger. Still I support myself, have a nice car, a nice condo and can do what I want so I’d say $$ wise I’m doing decent for my age.
2) I’m 24, about to turn 25 and I right now keep my time at $150 an hour - and I work a lot
Excellent insight! So by simple calculations, if you only work 40 hours a week, you’re killing it at $312,000 a year!
That is very inspirational. I didn’t breach that figure until my mid-to-late 20’s, but it sure felt rewarding.
Keep it up! I love hearing motivational stories as I try and build something self-sustainable as well online while working full-time. It’s so much fun!
Best,
Sam
Wowza… I’m not even close to that number.
Late last year I calculated how much I needed to make to live “happy.” I think the number came out to $200,000 per year. You guys are way past my happiness line.
Sam, Maren is visiting Norcal sometime soon. We should all get together when she gets here
I love your story and your burning desire, but one thing you have going for you is you are still very young and don’t have a lot of responsibilities (at least I presume based on your article here). Those of us with families while laying on the bedroom floor staring at the ceiling are thinking about how we’re going to take care of our spouses and children. That does become life and death for someone who can’t take care of themselves. Just wanted to add that perspective.
You should check out Adam Baker’s story at http://manvsdebt.com. He has a family and was able to travel the world for almost a year while paying off his debt.
Great guy with a great eBook and blog. Let me know what you think
I agree with Jun, there are people at all stages of life who have broken free of the “business as usual” life and made their own dreams come true - listen to http://www.mixergy.com there are stories of those kind of things happening all the time there
That’s interesting Maren,
it seems like you get more battle prepared when the pressure is the highest - your instincts kick in and you have to find a way out, no matter how.
You really have to push yourself, and push yourself even further - each and every day to keep moving forward.
I agree - I really do work best under fire and that is kind of a hard concept to teach people. Sometimes i wish i was different too since it’d be nice to get things done way in advance vs. last minute.
i needed this. a reminder. thank you for writing.
Yo Jun, sounds good. Comparing to me is probably not so much apples to apples since I’ve been in the game longer. I would think that as an entrepreneur, it’s all about investing with nothing to show for for years, until one day, BAM things start rolling in. The bigger your project, the bigger the BAM!
I love the “bam” and things start rolling - it really, really does just happen like that - you work so hard for so long then within a month everything changes. And then you wish for the days where you had nothing to do
Funny - This is exactly what my business partner and I have talked about many a time!
We refer to this as “The Entrepreneurial Switch.” For some time there’s nothing happening to the point where morale dips and you are wondering if anything will ever happen. And then, all of a sudden, just like a light switch, the switch flips and things get overwhelmingly busy. Interesting how this seems to happen almost instantly and is a common story among many entrepreneurs.
I do like the BAM though
Nice post. I refer to your “battle born” spirit, as hunger. Whatever one wants to call it- for me it’s essential to success and a fulfiling entrepenurial life.
Good luck!
So true, that hunger or fire is what every great entrepreneur never lets go of - it’s what gives one person an edge over the next.
Wow. Reading the words “battle born” would let you know right away that the author behind this is one feisty person. I would like to believe that whatever circumstances we have in life, there is always, always a way to make ourselves happier, more succesful, and of course, richer.
Haha, I am feisty thanks!!
Maren - Nice surprise seeing your work on this blog; definitely appropriate. I like your “battle born” analogy and tying in Seth Godin’s Dip philosophy. It seems that this is a common tale among successful entrepreneurs - pushing just beyond that breaking point where money and motivation seem to be at an end - to the rewards at the other side! I wonder how many entrepreneurs have given up, just before that point and not even realize it.
Probably waaaaaay more than we realize. But often that means that either A. it wasn’t their ‘time’ to shine or B. they were just moonlighting and trying on the ‘entrepreneurs’ shoes and found out that it was far harder than it seemed at first glance.
Great points. Prior to starting my business I had talked about it for some time and even started checking things out on the side but not much really happened. When I took the leap and quit my corporate job, created a business, and devoted full-time effort to it I found people took me seriously and I started attracting other entrepreneurial type individuals. I have found other like-minded entrepreneurs essential for traversing the Dip; I would not have connected with these individuals if I had just moonlighted - I believe an important point that many fail to realize.
There are some gorgeous kid’s footwear around at the moment, manufacturers appear to recently found a creative spurt. I’m particularly liking Italian Lelli Kellys.