Survive The Pursuit – Why You Should Get More Comfortable With Doing What Seems Hard/Impossible To Others

If you have been pursuing a goal for a while, you will no doubt understand that there is more to succeeding than just pursuing a calling, passion, or opportunity. Striving usually also involves struggling to survive. Especially if you decide to pursue anything full-time.

But what exactly do I mean by “struggling to survive”?

You can probably guess, but anyone who decides to pursue any significant goal full time has to think about how he/she can sustain that pursuit for as long as it may take to succeed in it.

Suppose you have a product idea such as stylish phone covers. You are able to create different types of phone covers for smartphone users. You think that your idea is marketable since almost everyone has a smartphone… but a significant number of people do not use covers. You believe that with the right kind of marketing strategy, you can actually create a successful business around the idea.

The moment you announce to friends and family that you sell stylish phone covers, many of them decide to try them out. You charge them, of course, and make some decent money. Not enough to get you a big house and new car, but enough to make you feel proud of yourself.

Unfortunately, in a very short time, you run out of friends and family.

This is where the REAL work begins. How do you get strangers to take notice of your product?

Now… to save time, let me summarize some of the challenges you are most likely to face when you enter this stage.

• You will need a way to get people to notice you.
• You will need a reason to make people care about what you have and not what your competition is pushing
• You will need to come up with some kind of up-sale strategy or way you can keep selling to the same customers
• You will need to come up with a strategy to maintain the “excitement” around your product or brand over time
• You might need to think about scaling beyond your current location so that copycats don’t set up shop just a few streets/districts down from you. They could drown your brand.
• Etc… As you can imagine, this can get very complicated WAY BEFORE you even get halfway through your pursuit.

But I do not state this to discourage you. I say it to educate you. To inform you. To prepare you for what “the game” is actually like.

Many people pursuing goals for the first time have a misguided understanding of how success is built. Almost always ignoring that what they do not know… is the challenge of succeeding itself.

When I decided to get into self-employment, I made one important decision. That I would learn my way to success. No matter how long it would take.

And I would apply the little bits of knowledge I acquired to earn just enough money to survive my next lesson.

But once I learned a lesson… survived a failure… or succeeded on some project… I KNEW.

And once I knew… it was obvious that if I encountered the same obstacle, challenge, or opportunity… I would deal with it in a better way than the last time.

If it’s about charging more for what I could do for someone, I would do it without any fear. First, because I had a portfolio behind me that proved I could deliver what I said I could deliver. But more importantly… I knew what I was worth at the time.

A combination of experience and expertise is what usually determines the worth.

That is why it is always encouraged that you take action. Gain experience. Practice… so that what you do becomes permanent. When you struggle to run a business (even if it’s a small and unimpressive one) for an entire year, you will be more prepared and less fearful of the next year… if you do not quit.

You need to experience failure only a couple of times to develop a true understanding of what failure is. All who understand this know that failing doesn’t mean THE END. Quitting is the end.

If you feel like you can’t pursue something because it seems hard or impossible… fight how you feel and just go for it! Especially if you truly know that it is something you could enjoy doing for the rest of your life.

And survive the challenges. You can’t always overcome them… especially if you encounter them for the first time. But you can always survive them. You can always learn from them. They will help shape you into the type of person that can still focus on succeeding under any circumstance.

People who don’t pursue their calling might sometimes look at those who are pursuing and think that they are going through so much pain. But that isn’t what is happening. Especially for those who persist. What is happening is more like an awakening. A reconfiguration of the person who is pursuing. A purge of misguided notions. And an acceptance of the real truth behind how success is really attained.

That probably sounds a little dramatic… but I’m willing to bet that all those who can relate, understand exactly what I’m saying.

You have to wonder why a few people pursuing their goals are willing to dedicate 10, 20, or more of their years to that pursuit… while the rest of the world thinks that they are going through some form of punishment.

I assure you, those people aren’t attracted to the pain. They are attracted to the progress.

#makeProgressNotExcuses