It’s so cool to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs have boundless energy, the need to create, the capacity to work for long hours without sleep, and the ability to make things out of nothing. These qualities can all be powerful drivers of success, but this enthusiasm can also keep you from moving forward and cause you to strangle your business — you can only do so much yourself before you hit the wall. Recognizing when you need help, and being able to let go and empower others to help you, can really be liberating.
Check yourself against the following symptoms to find out if you’re a victim of the Entrepreneurial Curse:
Symptoms of the Entrepreneurial Curse
- You’re always jotting down notes about your great ideas but you can’t ever get to them.
- You find yourself saying, “I can do it better myself.”
- You find yourself saying, “It will take me longer to tell someone else how to do it than it will for me to do it myself — so I’ll just do it myself.”
- You find yourself saying, “No one can do it without my help anyway, so I might as well do it myself.”
- You find yourself saying, “Nothing gets done right around here unless I do it.”
- You find yourself saying, “My clients expect me to be doing all of the work — they won’t accept a phone call from an assistant. So I might as well do it myself.”
I guarantee you that none of those statements above are true — you just think they are (it’s okay, we all do at one time or another. )
It’s a blessing to be an entrepreneur. But it can turn into a real drag if your business is at a standstill because you’re holding on too tight. Think about using that boundless energy and need to create more expansively by getting out of the busy-ness of your business and using your genius more effectively.
Now that you know you’ve got “the Curse,” you’ve got no excuse. Ha.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Funny symptoms list, that’s true many entrepreneurs struggle with outsourcing, delegating, and hiring help…. a recent film interviewed some successful entrepreneurs, share with readers here ”The YES Movie” by Louis Lautman
http://www.TheYESmovie.com
You’ve just listed a whole lot of reasons why the entrepreneur needs a Virtual Assistant.
“…getting out of the busy-ness of your business and using your genius more effectively.”
Great way to put it!
Every one of us is challenged to make the very best of our natural skills, and to work in sync with others so the world goes round. We’ve been mired too long in a fundamentally flawed hero mentality.
Thanks Olivia, Kathie, and Mary!
We all do need help and we do need to make the best of our natural skills. I agree about the hero mentality! Let’s give ourselves a break.
You’ve hit it right on the button with your list of symptoms. And to follow up Kathie’s comment……a whole lot of reasons why the Virtual Assistant needs a Virtual Assistant. :)
People skill is one of the must have ”natural skill ” for being a successful entrepreneur. Just watched an interview of Richard Branson, he has built an international conglomerate of some 350 companies -”you have to be good with people, good at finding wonderful people to run the company, make sure they are properly motivated, give them lots of freedom, space to make mistake.”