Think about why you ventured out on your own and established your own law firm.
If I were to guess why, it likely wouldn’t have been about the money.
No one ever promised you would make more if you were running your own organization rather than supporting someone else’s.
In so many cases, when I see entrepreneurs leave something established to start their own business, it’s because they’re after freedom. They want to decide how they’re going to spend their time, what they’re going to work on, what decisions they’re going to make, and so on.
Most entrepreneurs want to be their own boss and not answer to someone else.
But if you were one of the rare people who decided to go out on your own because you were after more money, even if you aren’t making more right away, that doesn’t mean you can’t get there.
Whether you’re making more money or not, there’s something you have to understand: You have certain freedoms that your employed colleagues don’t.
You get to decide to run your business exactly the way you want it. For instance:
- You decide who to hire and who to fire
- You decide what kind of marketing campaigns you want to run
- You decide what cases you take on
- You decide what kind of environment you want to work in
The sky’s the limit.
But with great power comes great responsibility. You also have the power to put yourself out of business if you’re not careful.
While you are able to make all of these decisions on your own, there are certain headaches that you will adopt that you might not have had to deal with while working for someone else. For instance:
- How are you going to hire — and retain — great people?
- What if the marketing campaigns you implement don’t work?
- Where are you going to get your next case?
- How will you support the livelihoods of everyone on your team?
These become your problems — among many, many others.
At the end of the day, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.
To want to take on the amount of risk involved with starting your own business, dealing with new challenges, and working 10 times harder and maybe not making enough money is something that most people will never understand.
Here’s the light at the end of the tunnel: As challenging as it is, would you really want it any other way?
You had the courage to bet on yourself — and if you stick with it, it will pay off.
The grass may always look greener on the other side, but in truth, it’s only greener where you water it.
If you’re committed to this path of entrepreneurship, you will have big problems to solve.
But once you solve them, it’s the best feeling in the world.
