Why You Should Listen to That Entrepreneur Voice in Your Head

I am typing this with ink-stained fingers and bloodshot eyes on a warm March Wednesday at 11:27 pm. I am speaking at my first national conference this weekend in New York City and have been busy preparing for the past few weeks. Today, I allotted a couple of hours to get my handouts copied and collated but it ended up taking me all day. My printer decided to reject the new ink I bought, so I had to make an unexpected Target run to get what I needed to make the color copies for the 88 people projected to choose my session on Saturday. Afterwards, I hit the ATM before heading to the library (which only takes cash) to make my black and white copies. Through a series of foibles too lengthy to detail, my allotted two hours for copying and collating quickly and painstakingly turned into nearly six. I pushed back the other items on my lengthy to do list to account for the extra time I needed to be a first time entrepreneur speaking at her first ever national conference.

When I first thought of going out on my own, I imagined it was a phase, like so many other phases I had previously had, so I did not pay much attention to it. I assumed everyone thought of starting a business at some point in their lives, so I decided to do what I assumed a lot of other people did which was to let the moment pass. But it didn’t. As time wore on, and that little voice in my head persisted, I finally decided to take my first baby steps toward becoming my own boss. Slowly and safely. I started setting up meetings with other people who had started their own businesses to hear their stories and learn from their experiences. I wanted as much information as I could get about the process before deciding whether to pursue it. But during one of these meetings, I silenced my voice when I was offered a job that I believed at the time I couldn’t pass up. On my second day, I already regretted it.

It wasn’t the job itself (though it was awful). It was that the voice inside my head was right and I had been ready to go out on my own. I just let my fear drown out my voice, allowing the volume of security to take over. But sitting in my office chair, working for someone else in a 9-5 environment that was so clearly not for me, I could barely breathe. I started to make a plan.

I read books, found a business mentor and took advantage of every free workshop and webinar I could. I did loads of self-assessments, self-analysis and self-reflection to figure out exactly what type of business I wanted to start. I learned about SEO and LLCs and 1099s amid this newfound entrepreneurial world I knew very little about. The deeper I entered, the louder the voice spoke and the more convinced I became that this was the right path for me. But what really solidified my decision was the conversations I started having with friends who were not entrepreneurs. I shared my excitement with them and shared my doubts, admitting that I wasn’t quite sure yet because I knew everyone else thought about starting their own businesses too. And then, my best friend very clearly assured me, seven ways to Sunday that she never thought about starting her own business and never would. There was absolutely nothing about it that appealed to her.

Subsequently, more and more people who I talked to shared that they had never been interested in starting their own businesses, and I began to realize that this wasn’t just a phase. That all of us didn’t have the same voice telling us the same things. Everyone’s voice was their own, crying out to do whatever it was they were being called to do. My voice, increasingly clearer and louder, was telling me over and over again, in 1000 different ways that this was something I simply must try.

What is your voice telling you? What thoughts and ideas keep popping into your head at seemingly unexpected times? What do you find yourself wishing, hoping and daydreaming about? What have you tried to deny or reject only to have it come back repeatedly? What longing have you tried to silence only to have it persist, a bit louder and louder each time?

We are good at convincing ourselves of things that aren’t true, but we are not great at it. To get through our days, we tell ourselves that no one really likes their jobs, or that we aren’t meant to enjoy our work or that it is too risky to follow our dreams. We justify and rationalize, and we get really, really close to believing our lies, but our excuses are never stronger than our truths. Deep down, we know what feels right to us and what does not. We know that it does not make sense to spend our time- our lives- doing something we care nothing about. We want better for ourselves, but….

We have heard all the clichés about seizing the day and regretting that which we don’t do more than that which we try and fail. That life is short, and that we need to chase our dreams. We hear them, and in moments we embrace them and are motivated by them. But all too often, we deny or reject them because of….

Fear.

It is always fear.

Whatever your voice is telling you, I encourage you- I implore you- to listen to it. If your voice is telling you to start your own business, it is time for you to explore that. Running a business is not for everyone, and many who initially deem it worthwhile, change their mind along the way. But not everyone thinks about it, so if you find yourself thinking about it, that means something. Take the time to figure out exactly what it means for you. If you continue trying to silence that voice, you are fighting a losing battle. It will never truly go away.

In your process of exploring, you may decide that starting a business isn’t for you after all. Which of course is perfectly fine. Or maybe you decide you aren’t ready just yet but will revisit the thought when you are. Which of course is perfectly fine. Maybe you end up starting a small business or a large one or 27 different business throughout your lifetime. Which of course is perfectly fine. The result is less important than the process of having honored that voice inside of you and trusting it to lead you where you are meant to go. As you think it through and balance your dreams with your doubts, just know that, no one who does this is ever 100% ready and all of us experience some level of fear. There are lots of good reasons not to start a business, but these are not two of them.

Today was a tough day. In a sense. But the chaos that was my copying and collating was just a piece of that day, albeit a large one. In between Target runs and frustrated phone calls with customer support, I received an email from a new client who is ready to begin working together. And after I stapled my 90^th packet, I returned a phone call from a current client who would like to expand the scope of our work together. In the end, it was a day filled with frustration and elation. Exhaustion and joy. It was the day of an entrepreneur.

I don’t know if I’ll always do my own thing, or if this is the own thing I will always do, but I do know that I had that voice inside my head for a long time and that it wasn’t going to go away. Whatever happens, I’m glad I listened to it, and if you have a similar voice, I encourage you to listen to it too.