How becoming an Entrepreneur Ruined My Life?

Please note some of the links in this post may contain affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. As always any recommendations that I make are always based on my personal experiences with the product and I have not received any free products or anything else by these companies.

I Quit

Two words that changed my life.

Before I began my journey of becoming an entrepreneur I actually had a really good life.

I had worked hard and climbed the corporate ladder. I had moved into management and was earning a very healthy 6 figure income.

As well I had just married the love of my life and I was financially doing well, sure I wasn’t rich but I wasn’t poor either.

However there was one thing that wasn’t quite right in my life which was my career path and the direction it was heading in.

For my entire career, I have always felt that there was something missing, I never felt successful.

The thing is, in my heart I have always dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur.

I still remember when I was in primary school, my brother and I would always be thinking of new ways to make money.

We started a number of small ventures from our little car wash business to collecting cans to running a sticker business.

But not since then had I ever pursued what I wanted, I just followed the path I was given, get a degree, get a job.

Though I did dab in making money online a bit later in my career after my first redundancy which became the side project, but it always remained just a side project.

I turned 31

This really scared me! My inner voice suddenly grew louder.

It kept telling me to follow my heart and take action, don’t leave it too late or soon you’ll be 40 and you be having this same conversation again.

4 weeks later I left the corporate world and started a brand new direction in my life.

Well it didn’t go as planned!

The life that I had, would soon come crashing down.

You see when I started, everything was very positive, everyone around me was very supportive and all I could see was the good things.

I was living my dream.

Then reality set in and my life began to unravel.

Money, Money, Money

Money was my first problem I encountered! Bloody Money!

For the first time in 15 years I didn’t have a pay check and that felt really weird. Now my entire life expenses including rent, food, utilities was relying on my cash savings, investments and my partner.

This was mentally challenging for me, it took me a while to shift my mindset from working for a salary to thinking more in terms of generating profit for my business.

In addition I was bootstrapping my entire business and reinvesting all the profits back into it. I was getting stressed as I watch my life savings disappear into the sunset.

The life that I had previously was no longer sustainable and I had to become more frugal and watch my money like a hawk.

Lack of Time

Since leaving, I thought that one of the benefits was that I would have more time. But was I wrong. There was always something to be done and for the next few years I was doing 70-80 hour weeks.

Crazy Work Load

On top of that I discovered that starting your own business is actually really bloody hard! There was so many things to do.

With only two hands I was doing everything, project management, strategy, implementation, research and analysis and so much more.

I was drowning in my own work.

Sleep deprived!

I was always tired as well. For a long time I would always have trouble sleeping, I would wake up  in the middle of the night at 4am, only sleeping for 3-4 hours and the worse thing I could not get back to sleep. Later I would find it was the first signs of depression.

My dream life became my nightmare on elm st! Not only was I living it but I was also dreaming it too!

I also became fat! I drank too many coffees, red bulls and was eating way too much junk food like chocolates and chips.  I also became lazy and stopped going to the gym.

Lost of Relationships

With all these things happening to me I slowly became a hermit, I hid from the world and shun from going out.

I rarely hanged out with friends. And if I ever did, I would feel guilty as it meant I wasn’t working on my business.

But the biggest cost was my relationship with my partner. I was torn between my business and her. I knew there were problems but I didn’t make it a priority or put any effort to fix it up.

I always thought, I can fix it later. I just needed some extra time to turn things around in my business for it to become profitable then I can focus on my relationship.

Time ran out, my relationship ended and we made the tough decision to separate.

Disaster

If that wasn’t bad enough, disaster struck my business, the strategy I had been using was completely wrong, I was f**ked! I literally watch my business die overnight.

How could I been so naive and stupid? I really didn’t see that coming.

Could it get any worse? I had to ask didn’t I?

Bang!

I was involved in a car accident, I was okay but my car was not!. The funny thing I was so emotionally drained by this point, I didn’t really care.

Normally I would be angry and upset but I felt nothing.

So I hit Rock Bottom

You see becoming an Entrepreneur really did screw my life up! Financially I was going south, all my relationships was failing, I was unhealthy and my business was going nowhere.

On top of that I kept making some bad decisions that took me further away from my business goals.

This didn’t stop until late late last year where I decided to revisit what my original life plans and business vision was.

Even before I opened my diary I already knew what I was doing did not line up with my vision, which is to create a business that is

Time, Location, Work and Money Independent.

So I dropped what I was doing and started again.

Starting Again.

I decided to salvage what I could of my original digital and consulting business and get back to rebuilding it back to its former glory.

Today

I am still working on my business today and I am back on track on achieving my original vision. As well I have been trying my best to keep a balance lifestyle and I continue to work on building better relationships.

Things are looking better and positive now as well, within a few short months I have managed to salvage a few websites and take on a number of new consulting clients.

My income is growing really well and I am on track to triple my income from last year.

I am physically fitter, mentally stronger and hungrier than I have ever been in my life. As well I have a social life.

If I could leave with this – Nothing is certain in life but you will never know what you are capable of until you go after your dreams. There will be good times and bad times, stay positive and keep moving forward. Always keep dreaming.

I am a dreamer.

Norm