5 tips to help you overcome startup struggles

Startups are not all unicorns and IPOs. The startup struggle is real.

As an entrepreneur myself, I understand the pain and struggles of doing a startup. It is not always rainbows and fluffy unicorns but mostly full of hard work, sweat and sleepless nights. Sometimes, it gets so depressing that self-doubt creeps into me during one of the late nights. (Who can agree on this with me??)

This article gives you tips on how to overcome startup struggles, which I thought would be a good, casual read to motivate you on this mid-week. 🙂

1. Realize you’re in good company

Henry Ford went broke five times before he founded the successful Ford Motor Company. Bill Gates failed with his first business, Traf-O-Data. Steve Jobs was kicked out of Apple. While J.K. Rowling was writing the original Harry Potter book, her life was a self-described mess: she was going through a divorce and living on government aid and in a tiny apartment with her daughter before building her $15-billion brand.

Reading stories about successful entrepreneurs is encouraging and helpful. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely, and when we realize we’re in good company it alleviates pressure from difficult circumstances.

2. Embrace change

There are countless examples of entrepreneurs, technologies and companies disrupting competitors, business models and entire industries. Look at what Facebook did to MySpace, Napster to the music industry, Craigslist to local newspapers and Amazon to bookstores (and countless other spaces). The disruption occurs when companies fail to embrace underlying change.

As entrepreneurs, we must realize there are countless opportunities in times of change. The reality is that change is typically a threat, something (a situation, competitor or technology) that can cause damage to your business, and if we don’t embrace the change we risk total extinction. A great book to read that helps explain this is theInnovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen.

3. Get creative

Did you know the glue used on Post-it Notes was created by accident when scientists were trying to create a super adhesive for space exploration? Talk about getting creative.

More often than not, the struggle will force you to get creative about how you’re approaching your startup. I’ve learned that it is in these lows I find my most creative ideas.