Starting your business is an exciting and difficult time all wrapped into a warm blanket of pins and needles. You’re happy one minute, frustrated the next, and sometimes you just don’t know how to feel.
Sometimes people have this fantastical view of what starting a business is like. They picture rubbing elbows with celebrities on mega yachts from day one. I think most business owners will tell you though, it’s a difficult road, but a road that’s definitely worth it.
When people have this misconception of what starting and running a business is like — especially in the beginning — there are a few tried and true complaints that you can expect those people to have. One of them is that their friends don’t support their business.
Since my audience is full of entrepreneurs, I see this complaint a lot. I’ll admit, I’ve even wondered myself about why certain friends are much less supportive than others. This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about this here, and may not be the last.
Today, I won’t try to answer the question of why some people seem more reluctant to support the entrepreneurial efforts of their friends, but what I will address is what we as entrepreneurs can do about it.
It’s real simple.
Stop giving a fuck. Really. Stop being so worried about who isn’t supporting your efforts and focus on who is. Give the people who are supporting your business all your attention, because those are the people who want it and those are the people who need it.
Keep performing at your highest level and giving your audience what they ask you for. When you take your eye off the ball to focus on people who aren’t even in the game, you end up missing shots and letting your competition get the advantage on you.
I’ve used Beyonce as an example a few times in my podcast, because I know that she’s the Holy Grail for many of my listeners. And who can’t respect her work ethic and her success — her and Jay Z’s?
I did an episode of my podcast a while back called, What’s the Difference Between Beyonce and the Rest of Us? In that episode, I talked about some of the practices that Beyonce says make her great. One that stood out to me was that she said no matter how small her audience is, she always performs at her highest level — as if she’s performing for an arena full of people.
And she has the accolades, the success, the notoriety, and the money to prove that she must know what she’s doing. I’m pretty sure that, just like everyone else, there was a time when some of her friends — and even family — weren’t really checking for her. But guess what, I bet Beyonce’s friends listen to her shit now!
So be Beyonce. Perform at your highest level no matter who’s supporting your efforts. Stop worrying about the people who don’t show you the love you deserve. Everything ain’t for everybody, so accept that as okay and move on.
Eventually, it won’t even matter to you whether or not a handful of people support you because you’ll have hundreds, thousands, and maybe even millions more to take their place!
Do you agree that people shouldn’t stress out about whether a few friends don’t support their business? Find me on Instagram or Facebook and let me know.