This guest post is written by Joseph from Debit versus Credit. If you enjoyed what he had to say then please check out his blog!

Becoming an entrepreneur is risky business. The business world is a dangerous place; It’s four times as easy to lose everything, as it is to break even. The risks are huge but the rewards are far too tempting for many people to ignore. Unfortunately the vast majority of these would-be entrepreneurs are unfit. They don’t have the dedication, the patience or the skills needed to be successful.

I’ve had entrepreneurial aspirations at several points in my life. The most success I’ve seen is with my personal finance blog. It’s been around for almost a year now and I’ve just recently (within the past two weeks) produced a small profit. I’ve felt like giving up several times over the past year. It’s not been easy on my pocketbook, my time or my emotions. However it’s been important because I’ve learned several things about entrepreneurship and what is required to be successful. Likewise I’ve learned what makes one fail at entrepreneurship and that most people just aren’t fit to be successful at it.

Dedication is Key

Starting and running your own business is hard work and requires that you put all of your time, money and effort into said business. Without full dedication a would-be entrepreneur and their business are likely to fail. Thomas Edison, arguably one of the world’s greatest inventors and entrepreneurs is famous for his quote about what it takes to be a genius or in our case, a successful entrepreneur.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Of course you all know that perspiration actually refers to the process of sweating. This quote then should not be taken literally because genius is not literally one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent sweating. What Mr. Edison means by perspiration is rather working hard (hence the reference to perspiration) towards what you want and what you are trying to achieve.

I’ve attempted the creation of a website (not a blog) with a specific purpose and audience at two points in the past. Unfortunately it went nowhere both times because I did not commit to it. I didn’t prove to myself, or those I was working with, that I was completely dedicated and therefore I set myself up for failure.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

You’ve all heard the phrase success doesn’t happen overnight. Well sometimes it does. Not often, but it has been known to happen. That being said I’d like to talk about the next lesson I’ve learned about entrepreneurship. Sometimes success does happen overnight, but don’t ever expect it to.

By expecting overnight success you are setting yourself up for failure. Essentially you are telling yourself that everything will work out in a very short period of time. Well what happens if it doesn’t? What happens if you set a goal to be successful in your business endeavors within a period of six months but by the end of the six months you are nowhere near that level of success? You’ll quit. You’ll say if it can’t be done in the six months you were expecting then it can’t be done at all. If that is your attitude then you are probably right.

Don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting unrealistic things. Do set goals to achieve, but if you don’t achieve them (within a certain time period) and you put everything you had into it then don’t give up. Be patient. Good things really do come to those who wait.

Have You Got The Skills to Pay The Bills?

Skills are important when it comes to anything that you want to do. You have to know how to play basketball (and very well at that) if you want to play in the NBA. Likewise as an entrepreneur you need to have the skills necessary for whatever line of work that you want to pursue. Skills aren’t something that are just given. I want to make that point clear. They can be learned, and I dare say they must be learned. Six months ago I had no idea what CSS was, let alone how to do something as simple as use it to style a blockquote. Did I let that stop me? Absolutely not. I did everything I could to learn how CSS works and then learn how I could use it to make my blog look the way that I want it to.

Skills are important; it’s true. But just as I’ve learned that patience and dedication are exceptionally important to entrepreneurship I’ve also learned that skills are learned and although they are important they come in second place to dedication and patience. Be dedicated to what you want to do and soon enough you will have the skills to pay the bills.

If you’ve enjoyed this post then please check out my blog: Debit versus Credit. Also don’t forget to subscribe to my feed and for further reading check out what I learned about business negotiations in Mexico!

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