I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 7 years now and I have had my fair share of ups and downs. Every once in a while, I even wonder if it wouldn’t be easier for me to get a “normal job”. But I quickly remember why I started doing this in the first place. I wanted the freedom of making my own decisions, the possibility to offer clients better services and help entrepreneurs like me be more visible to the world.
Where the road will take me next, I do not yet know, but I have learned some valuable lessons over these past years (both from my own experience and from other entrepreneurs). And I’d like to share with you 3 of those lessons that, I believe, make for being an entrepreneur for the long-haul.
- Do the work
Nothing, nothing, I tell you, happens over night. If you think you have some hotshot idea for a business and hope to make it big quickly – my friend, you are in for a big surprise. Successful businesses take time and a lot of hard work. You have to get up every morning, do the work, then figure out how to do it better the next day. There are, really, no cutting corners.
- Persevere
It’s true what they say: “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. I am one of those people who believes you learn more from failure than from success. Believe you me, as an entrepreneur, you will fail, sometimes, a lot. But if you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off and then go do things better, you know you are in it for the long-haul. Every successful entrepreneurial venture I know has people behind it who persevered in front of every adversity.
- Help others while you help yourself
I’m a strong believer in giving back to the world, from whatever little you have. That’s why, as I mentioned at the beginning, when I became an entrepreneur, I wanted to help others like me. There was a time when agencies didn’t even look at you if you weren’t some big company. Because I knew how hard it was, I wanted to help small businesses have a fighting chance. And, now, I can consider myself blessed – some of those entrepreneurs now have successful ventures and we still do business together.
It’s not without reason I wanted to share with you my thoughts. Today, the business magazine Biz is celebrating 20 years of capturing in their stories the realities of the Romanian and international business scenes. I’ve been an avid reader for the past couple of years and I highly appreciate the quality of their content and their conferences. I, especially, have a huge respect Marta Usurelu, the owner, who, in my vision, embodies a true successful long-haul entrepreneur. She has faced every adversity that came her way, she and her team worked and work their ass off everyday and she has always supported and promoted Romanian entrepreneurs. Hats off and many-many successful years ahead! 
Photo by Clark Tibbs
