This is a taboo subject and quite a tough topic for me to write about but fuck it here goes.
I live a kind of cool lifestyle I make good money, and I make it on my terms and being an online entrepreneur. I get to set my own hours and work as and when I want. I know I am living the dream, but there is a dark side and it’s not only dark it is unspoken about and those that say they don’t suffer from this are in my opinion lying because I have not met any successful entrepreneur that has not experienced the dark depths of a trough.
So what am I talking about when I say Peaks and Troughs?
Being an online entrepreneur is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and the more successful you get, the bigger the ups and the downs are catastrophic, and I mean catastrophic they will literally knock the wind out of you, and the feeling is immobilising. You can’t be bothered to get out of bed you don’t want to talk to anybody you feel like a complete failure. It does not matter that you made £10k the day before or you are having the best year of your professional life but it is never enough.
I have had some massive successes in business and just last week I was buzzing and made serious money, but this week I am having a huge low, today I have just moped about doing little jobs and pretty much just wasted the day. What makes it worst is that in itself does not help you kick the downer it just sends you deeper into this dark place where you think you are failing.
People on the outside think you are super strong and lead an awesome life with your fancy holidays and nice cars and no need to set the alarm in the mornings but in reality it can be a bleak existence and when you are in the trough its a damn lonely place.
How Do I Deal With The Troughs?
The truth is I am still working that one out and I don’t think it is going to get much easier but here are a few things I do to get me through these troughs and these are what I do.
Pottering about in the garage
I am a petrolhead and I enjoy fixing and making stuff, and so I spend the down days in the garage welding and making stuff and fixing bits that are not broken and what not.
A walk on the beach
I live right by the sea, and on the days that I cant be bothered I take long walks on the beach with my wife, and we chat, and that is always motivating to get you out of the slumps.
Good Old Fashioned Adrenalin
When I can’t be arsed I take out my motorbike and scare the crap out of myself, I know it sounds daft, but when you are so close to death it makes you feel so damn alive. Blasting through the south downs with the wind in my face and smile stretched right across my ugly mug is a sure fire way of getting me out of the slumps.
A holiday
When I go on holiday, it motivates me to work harder so I can get better holidays, and while I am on holiday, I find myself working and scribbling on a notepad constantly and I seem to have some of my best ideas while sat in the sunshine just relaxing.
The peaks and troughs are huge and its what we as entrepreneurs have to put up with, our strong minds get us to the top of our game, but that same strong mind can really pull us down into a spiral of despair and anxiety. There is a constant fear of failure and not being able to continue making the money you do, and everything you do and achieve is never quite enough and for some that are a motivator, but after 18 years of being an online entrepreneur it gets tiring, but it sure does beat working for a living.
I am never happy, well I lie, I am always happy but last Saturday I made £847 in just over an hour and I was gutted that I could not get to £1K, in fact, it drove me mad. The following day I set a goal of £250 for the hour, and I made £516… you would think great well done… nope not me I could not work out why I could not get to £750, and it pissed me off.
If I sat down with my normal friends (i.e., the plumber’s builders and mechanics) and told them I was gutted that I could not make the £1K in an hour, I would get a slap. If I happen to moan about something, i.e., that I am in a trough I would get laughed at because to them, I have a seriously good existence and they would be happy.
Anyway, I figured this article would give you an insight into what it is like working for yourself and working from home and that it is not all champagne and super yachts but dark days of frustration and dispair.
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