This past week, I saw some interesting posts on social media from two old friends I haven’t seen in several years. Interesting because they both are becoming entrepreneurs like me. I thought I’d reach out to see if they’d like to have coffee to catch up. They happily obliged.
It’s funny, when you catch up with friends, real friends it just seems like you pick up where you left off. First thing you do is catch up regarding your family and see where everyone is at. Then you fill in the blanks of time that you missed. What I didn’t expect were stories of hardship. Much like myself, undergoing long times of hardship to get to the path I’m on now, they too had similar stories.
When you go through tough times, you tend to think you are the only one it is happening to. But that is not the case. I believe that everyone is going through something at any given time. The severity may fluctuate, but they are dealing with something. In their social media, you only see the good times. Unless they tell you, you really don’t know what struggles your friends are dealing with.
In a previous blogpost, I talked about time and how it’s consistent. When time goes by and you don’t keep up with your friends, those are opportunities missed. You may have missed times of celebration, or on the other hand, times when you could provide help, comfort and support.
Most times, people don’t speak about their hardships. They tend to keep those things personal because they may feel embarrassed or looked down upon. It is better to show the “everything is great” front and let no one in. The problem is, when things get worse, you still have no one to help you. The one thing I know is you are not going to climb out of this hole alone.
It was very inspiring to see that all three of us had overcome our obstacles and our demons, to move forward and embark on a new journey. All of us are in this entrepreneurial infancy, developing content, determining our audience, figuring out how to go to market and price ourselves accordingly. The most encouraging thing was the “WHY”, why are we doing this? It was the same answer, to help and serve others who may be going through some hardships of their own.
In my business training class, we’ve been working on vision and mission statements. What I saw out of all the 15 vision statements was the overwhelming passion everyone had to help and serve others. Of course we all want to make money and support our families, but it wasn’t about the dollar. Everyone’s “WHY” was in the right place. Where it should be. If your “WHY” is not in the right place, you’ll eventually encounter struggles ahead.
So back to my two friends. All three of us went through a lot of misery. But that misery has served as a reminder that there is a bright future ahead and that there are people you can count on. Misery does love company. But it is a lot sweeter when you pass the misery and help each other move forward along the way. We’ll be catching up on a more regular basis.
Subscribe to Peter’s Blog
