Five practical techniques that kept me going as an entrepreneur for 13 years.

I was inspired to launch my first online business by the “usual” outlandish success stories. One of them was about an entrepreneur who paid off his parents’ mortgage.

My mom’s financial anxiety clouded my entire life. I dreamed of giving her relief by emulating that hero.

My parents are well off now. The mortgage is just an ugly memory. But not thanks to me.

I’m still chasing my dream of wealth. My business hasn’t failed, but it hasn’t made me rich either.

It’s been 13 years. With thrilling ups and terrifying downs.

Despite the stress, I never lost my motivation. And I’m very grateful for it. I can’t imagine myself living without content creation and working for someone else.

Let me share with you what kept me going.

Prioritize

I’ve been playing in a tribute band for two and a half years. When we started out, we wanted to debut live as soon as possible. So, we prioritized what enabled us to do it:

• we chose the easiest songs,
• we simplified some parts,
• we accepted minor mistakes.

We played the first concert about a year after forming the band. The feedback was good, and we started piling up gigs. Only at that point, we perfected the songs and added more complex ones.

Takeaway

Meaningful projects are long and complex. There are countless steps and tasks to complete. But we crave the rewards for our efforts. So we’re tempted to do everything at once.

But this way, instead of getting to the outcome faster, we move sideways. We complete nothing. And the lack of results makes us lose steam.

Every project can be divided into phases, and they build on one another. If we focus on the right priority at each phase, we close it more quickly and get motivated by checking something off our list.

Look at the road behind you

My son is particularly impatient. Every day, something happens that reminds me of it. For example, he stops eating dinner because he wants to get back to playing.

It’s frustrating. I keep wondering what I’m doing wrong.

Sometimes, though, I have the presence of mind to flip the perspective. I stop considering only what needs to be learned and I appreciate his outstanding improvement.

A couple years ago, he threw things around when they didn’t immediately work as he wished. Today, he might raise his voice, or become restless. But I don’t have to fear for the TV!

Takeaway

Our memory is unreliable. It constantly rewrites the facts and is focused on the negatives. I need to make an intentional effort to remember the good things.

When we only see how much has still to be done, we may lose motivation. But acknowledging progress shows us what we’re capable of and pushes us on.

To keep track of my progress, I used different tools:

• journaling,
• documenting my achievements with screenshots, videos, and photos,
• training my awareness day after day.

Progress happens every day

I recently started writing in English after a lifetime as a content creator in Italian. I expected to achieve in a few months the same results that had taken years in my language. I feel so stupid writing these words.

As you may guess, the initial growth was disappointing. I started second guessing my plan and dreams.

But I wasn’t failing. I was achieving smaller results than I expected. And these results were just steps on the ladder to success.

In a moment of sanity, I forced myself to celebrate those results. I created a virtual gallery to store them all.

The mere act of saving them made them more memorable. And on a rainy day, I can scroll through that gallery to remind myself of what I’m capable of.

Takeaway

Be your first fan. Celebrate every “first time”:

• the first compliment about a new endeavor,
• the first dollar earned,
• the first fan gained…

Document those small wins and remember them.

Fix your expectations

My business partner and I launched our first online course to an email list of less than a thousand people. We made around €3,000.

My partner wasn’t thrilled. I let myself be influenced. Unfortunately, we are too similar in this regard. We labeled it as a failure and never launched that course again.

Years later, I heard an entrepreneur in a niche very similar to ours tell the exact same story. Their first course launch made $3,000 dollars. But, unlike us, they launched it multiple times, improving the course, improving the marketing, raising the price. They didn’t have to restart from square one every time. Their revenue increased and their ROI, too.

Our expectations were completely off track. They were based on the wrong comparison, with people much farther than us.

However, for a first launch, especially in Italy, it was a success. We should have celebrated it and tried again a few months later.

Takeaway

This issue affects everyone. We’re fed with infinite feeds of spectacular success stories. They resonate with our hunger and impatience.

They can provide an end goal. But they don’t have to turn into a burden pushing us down.

The thing that worked best for me is connecting with peers at a similar level. I realized my situation was normal, or sometimes better than I thought. Specialized, paid online communities are great for this purpose.

Juggle

Most people today need to learn to focus.

But in the last three years, I intentionally added more projects to my plate:

• I reduced the time spent on my Italian business,
• I started building a brand and business in English,
• I joined a tribute band as a singer and lead guitarist.

How does this keep motivation high? These projects are independent of one another. When one hits a slump, there’s a high chance another one has something to celebrate.

And this way it’s harder to tie your worth to a single project. It’s harder to feel like a failure if one project doesn’t go as expected. Read this article to learn more: How Stretching Myself Thin Actually Led to Unexpected Self-Growth.

Takeaway

Can you start something new that leverages different skills?

Or whose outcomes are disconnected from what you’re currently investing most of your efforts in?

The best projects have something at stake. For example, they could create an additional income source, or reveal a fresh path in your life.

My business projects are similar. Both revolve around creating content. But they have totally different audiences. Playing with the band, instead, is totally separated.

Dreams shouldn’t bring you down

Dreams are just that: dreams.

They are distant. And probably delusional.

But if it wasn’t for a dream, I wouldn’t have started on this alternative path. I can’t see myself anywhere else at the moment.

The gap between our dreams and reality can be depressing, though. In this article, I gave multiple down-to-earth techniques that really helped me push forward through anything and everything.