3 SIMPLE WAYS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OBSTACLES
Introduction
Creating and growing a business is difficult.
It is not easy to navigate the everyday challenges that founders face from creative blocks to financial setbacks. It is even more difficult when we are faced with larger obstacles, whether they be personal or professional.
Here are three simple ways to take advantage of obstacles that are placed on your path, and to retrieve the positive from the negative.
Learn from Failures
No one has gotten to where they are without failure.
No matter how bad it hurts in the moment, every mistake you make leads you down a better path in which you are much wiser and are able to recognize those same mistakes before they even happen.
Every entrepreneur, or every person for that matter, must experience failure at least once in every area of their lives. From your personal to your professional life, you have to fail enough times to build the courage in yourself that you can get back up and try again.
No one is going to cheer you on if even you give up on yourself.
Think Outside the Box
It is easy to blame obstacles for hindering our progress in a certain direction, but only the smartest entrepreneurs can recognize new avenues from those roadblocks.
Take a road for example: you may be used to going a certain way, but all of a sudden, you were detoured onto a different street. Maybe this is the street where you discover your new favorite restaurant, but you would have never found it if you weren’t forced into that initial detour.
The same applies for your progress in business. You may be accustomed to a certain way of doing things. Yet this familiar way could actually be holding you back in the long run. Sometimes we need obstacles to show us a better path forward. They allow us the opportunity to think outside the box.
Reevaluate Current Circumstances
Sometimes, the obstacles we face force us to take a step back and reevaluate where we are.
You cannot have a successful business without learning room to think. Hustle culture has become so dominant these days that it’s hard for anyone to catch a break. These days, it’s common to see people jump from one meeting to the next for four hours straight before their lunch break. Even then, it’s common to see lunch meetings happening with clients.
It is a rarity to get a moment to ourselves as entrepreneurs to just sit and think about our current circumstances. We often turn on autopilot, and that can be dangerous to our mental health and also to the progress of our business.
If a certain obstacle prevents you for being productive at your usual pace, take this as an opportunity to simply think about your business. You do not need to be in constant motion to feel or be productive.
The most successful people actually plan out blocks of time where they can simple think and prepare before they execute.
Conclusion
In the end, obstacles are difficult to face, especially when you’re a young entrepreneur who has no idea what they’re doing.
The important thing is to remember that nobody is perfect and that everyone faces challenges along the way. The key is to find opportunities within those challenges so that you are not discouraged in your quest for success.
It’s a long road, but it is a rewarding one.
Building a business is not easy. The process becomes more difficult when you throw in the schedule of being a full-time college student. Growing a business in addition to balancing your classes, having a part-time campus job, hanging out with friends, and staying healthy is not easy. Here are some ways that I manage my time to ensure that I’m putting forth my best effort in every aspect of my life.