Undiscipled: The Disciplined Entrepreneur

The most valuable lesson I have learned about success through Entrepreneurship

“What the *#*?!🤯” Eight weeks to the end of the year and I’m scrambling through my list of 2020 goals which for many reasons now looks kind of pathetic. This year has felt like a rigged race in a maze that has no outlet. Most days begin and end with curse words.

Sometimes it is because I am running behind schedule on my day’s activities. Other times, it’s at the end of a tiring day when I realize that one of my tasks slipped through the clutter of my busy schedule. And every other time, it’s the daunting uncertainty of entrepreneurial life during a global pandemic.

That being said, I have ventured into the vast world of entrepreneurship 🎈. You know that new exponential business that is coming up to make radical changes to way of life? Yes, that one. The one that you have not yet heard about. I am founding it! No doubt the dream is big, the vision is great and the zeal is high but the challenges are massive ~ which has led me to the conclusion that there are some things that you can ONLY truly understand from experience and one of them is #entrepreneurship.

I certainly tell you that there are rules to the game that you only get to know through experience on the play field. The reality of it just hits different over there. Let’s not get it twisted. The passive learning is still worthwhile. The concepts are concrete, the playbooks are numerous and the mentors are generous. I have read the books, watched Shark Tank and even studied at business schools (that’s right, 3 business schools) where I dissected real life business case studies. Don’t even get me started on the ‘how to’ blogs… but still, there was something missing.

The part that gets lost in translation

It is not difficult to tick off the textbook boxes of the ‘typical’ entrepreneur i.e. creative, innovative, initiative, attentive, progressive, …etc”. However, the first thing that I discovered through my experience that I am excited to share with you is that taking up the journey of entrepreneurship involves adopting a new lifestyle and bidding farewell to many habits. Spoiler alert, this means that you will go through grief - whether you realize it or not. So, to the above list I add, endurance through grief.

Its only been a few months (of mostly concept building) and I have gone through all the stages of grief... denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. During this process, it is easy to slip back into comfort zone and lose progress but there is power in knowledge. When you know that it is all part of the journey, you arm yourself properly and come out stronger ~ and stronger, I became. Here are some of the lessons I have learned through my escapades:

The essence of Entrepreneurship

I. Be a Disciple

I have heard this phrase repeatedly from successful entrepreneurs “You need to surround yourself with mentors” - basically people who have experience in your field who will guide and inspire you.

II. Disciple others

Beyond building a community around a product/service/experience, it is important to channel the entrepreneurship experiences into stories that teach and inspire budding entrepreneurs.

III. Develop Discipline

Now this is the holy grail! It is the lesson that I found to be most essential because the only way to harness the full power of discipleship is to first of all become a disciplined entrepreneur.

The essence of Discipline.

This is not a principle that can be taught. It is developed through practice, testing, and refining. Discipline is multifaceted in the aspects of time management, financial control, self drive, accountability, goal setting and milestone achievement, to name a few. Discipline also looks like, taking care of your health. Plainly put across, it is pointless to have a long term goal when you do not have the right strategies to achieve it.

• My typical active day starts at 4:30 am and ends at 9:00 pm because despite the belief that one needs to stock up on caffeine to get fueled up, I have found out that the best energizer is ample rest and without it, fatigue builds up and crashes your body. Unless you are managing a dire crisis, you need your daily beauty sleep ⏰. Remember the age old nursery rhyme, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man (woman) healthy, wealthy and wise”.

• In addition, I have a daily to-do list where I clearly mark my priorities and non-negotiable tasks like drinking water, taking a break, having lunch and dancing (it gets the creative juices flowing). It goes without saying that mental and physical health are essential but without discipline, it is easy to ignore them and face dreadful consequences in the future.

In conclusion …

During my journey as an undiscipled entrepreneur, I have learned that Discipline makes for a better entrepreneur, a great disciple and an inspirational leader. My aim is to build a community of entrepreneurs. I aspire to use my platform to share my entrepreneurial experiences and engage my audience throughout my journey, with the hope that someone will learn and be inspired.

I end this with a mash up of the most common phrases we have heard all through the year ~ The entrepreneurship journey entails many unprecedented experiences but the good news is that we are in this together.

Cheers to building blocks of success 🥂

Always,

Paula.