Nowadays it’s easier than ever to start up your own business…
… and it’s great to see so many people excited and motivated to set up on their own, all enthusiastic, motivated and driven towards the goal of being their own boss.
And I feel obligated before going any further to remind you I’m only 10 years in to my own career, so this article is a nothing more than my intuitions and experience, hoping to give you some value in the form of thoughts you can apply to your own career.
I’m not anywhere near successful or experienced enough for my opinion or advice to be taken on as gospel, but if there’s one thing I can state with absolute certainty from the past decade of my career, it’s this…
Building a business isn’t cool.
Of late, I’m sure much like me, you will have experienced an influx of adverts on Facebook from entrepreneurs trying to share with you their ‘secret formula’ to becoming a multi-millionaire by doing minimal work. And accompanying are numerous pictures of them on their private jets, in swanky city penthouses and generally splashing the cash.
I google searched images of Jeff Besoz to research this week’s article, he’s supposedly the world’s richest businessman and all I could find were pictures of him at business events wearing reasonably nice looking suits. Nothing flashy, not him posing by his private jet or his yacht.
My intuition says when you are actually succesful, you don’t need to do things to make it look like you are.
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about social media and am becoming increasingly conscious of the effect that we have upon our contemporaries by constantly posting the ‘perfect image’ of happiness, success and enjoyment.
Of course, I’m not the first perosn to think this, but there seems to be a narrative building where we are recognising the negative impact it can have.
From now I want to make a point of more often making my Instagram more photos real, rather than edited images I’ve spent time touching up to make look better. I want it to be real and authentic in the hope it doesn’t make anyone doubt themselves or what they’re doing.
Most of your work days are probably more fun and enjoyable than mine, regardless of what I post.
Too often during a great period of a workday I’ll take a quick Instagram break, watch a few stories and all of a sudden my productive and positive mood can so quickly turn into despondency and feeling of self-regret when someone’s using a better camera than me, or out doing something than I wish I was.
This week, after months of searching my business partner and I have finally secured ourselves a studio space. And although it’s very exciting and something I was proud to post about it, in reality I’ve truly enjoyed our new studio probably for about 37 seconds and have spent the rest of the time realising the responsibility it brings.
And in my experience this seems to me be largely the reality of being a business person. Each day you probably have about 30 seconds where you feel contented, proud or comfortable in your situation and the rest of the day is spent working, worrying, problem solving, dealing with clients… the actual, unattractive nitty gritty of being a business person.
To end, again I’ll paraphrase an idea of Gary Vaynerchuk which to me seems of great relevance and importance for social media and self marketing when you’re an entrepreneur.
“When you’re building a business you actually have to make money. It feels great to say you’re an entrepreneur and put it in your Instagram bio, but you can put astronaut in their as well and that doesn’t make it true”.
So remember, building a business isn’t cool.
If your day is full of unglamorous work you wouldn’t put on Instagram, I think you’re probably doing it right.
I wish you every success.
Jack
This story was originally posted on www.jacktompkins.co
What I’m Currently Reading…
‘Crushing It’ — by Gary Vaynerchuk — it’s a great one! Check it out here… https://amzn.to/2t13pmR)
About Jack
I help people, brands and business communicate more effectively with their customers through visual, audio and written content.
I do this through Southpaw Sport, the sports content marketing company I’m currently building as well as on a freelance basis working for agencies and production companies.
Visit www.jacktompkins.co
You can follow me on YouTube where I post weekly vlogs sharing my experience and opinion on content production.
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/user/jackt18
And my social media for behind the scenes look at what I’m up to
Instagram — @jackwrtompkins
Twitter — @jackwrtompkins