Believe it or not — every entrepreneur is a hustler. They spend their days moving from one task to the next, and often several at once.
They’re constantly thinking about how to make things better, how to improve the product or service they’re providing, and how to grow their business.
As a startup founder — you start with a big dream to change the world or at least do something significant with your product. Therefore, in a way — you try to build your own destiny.
Which is not going to b easy for sure. As such, you’ll be faced with extreme conditions and sacrifices.
And these sacrifices will make you the entrepreneur you dream of. But what are these?
Here are 7 sacrifices every entrepreneur must go throw.
1. Time With Family and Friends
Being an entrepreneur means working long hours — sometimes very long hours.
This means spending less time with family and friends than most people would like to spend.
The good news is that once your business is successful enough you don’t have to work 24/7 anymore (or at least not every day).
it will be easier for you to spend more time with loved ones. But until then, this is one sacrifice every entrepreneur must make.
2. Working Long Hours
Entrepreneurs aren’t paid by the hour, so they often feel pressure to put in as many hours as possible to get things done quickly and efficiently.
And while working long days and weeks is a good thing — it means that you’re getting things done. It’s important not to burn yourself out by working late at night or on weekends every week.
It’s also important to leave time for self-care such as exercise and eating right since these activities help keep our minds sharp and our bodies healthy.
If you’re going through a stressful time with your business or have trouble sleeping because of it, try taking up meditation or yoga classes in order to relax before bedtime each night.
3. Stability
As an entrepreneur, you will never have a stable life. That’s because you need to be flexible and adaptable to change if your startup is going to succeed.
You can’t plan for everything because you never know when something unexpected will occur that requires immediate attention.
You may want to spend time with your family or friends, but when it comes down to it, your startup takes precedence over everything else in your life — even if it means working around the clock seven days a week until something gets done.
Related: Top 11 Characteristics of Top 10% Founders
4. Personal Relationships
You will always be working on something at work, so it’s hard for anyone who isn’t an entrepreneur to understand what it’s like for them.
Your personal relationships suffer because of this lifestyle and may never recover if your startup doesn’t take off quickly enough or fails altogether (which happens more often than not).
You may lose touch with old friends because they don’t understand why you can’t just pick up the phone or stop by their house anymore.
Related: 7 Common Misconceptions About Starting a Business
5. Work-life Balance
Many entrepreneurs sacrifice this by choice, but others do so because they have no other option.
Either way, it’s an important sacrifice that shouldn’t be taken lightly. When you’re running your own show, there’s no one else to pick up the slack if you need time off to spend with family or go on vacation.
You can’t just call out sick when you’re feeling under the weather either — if something comes up in your life that needs attention.
It will likely affect your business and put it at risk of failing if left unattended for too long.
Related: Why Jeff Bezos Doesn’t Like the Idea of Work-life Balance
6. Financial Comfort
When you start your own business, you will have to sacrifice comfort in many ways. The biggest one is that you won’t have a steady paycheck anymore.
You’ll have to learn how to live on less money than you’re used to and stretch it out until your next payday arrives.
This can be hard for people who are accustomed to making good money and spending it on nice things every month.
It takes discipline and patience — two things that aren’t always easy for entrepreneurs to come by!
7. Sleep
Sleep is one thing that almost every entrepreneur has sacrificed at one point or another in their career.
There’s always so much to do and accomplish. Your to-do list never checks off completely so you must work whatever time you get.
For some entrepreneurs, that means working evenings and weekends for years on end, giving up vacations and family time because work must come first.
For example, even the richest man alive — Elon Musk’s daily routine doesn’t allow him to sleep more than 6 hours. He says, “I don’t find myself wanting more sleep than six (hours).”
Summing Up
Running your own startup comes with plenty of sacrifices and stress. Yes, you’ve got the potential to create change in the world, but it’s not easy.
There are many sacrifices you’ll make over the course of your entrepreneurial journey. But you may be surprised to find that not all of them are bad.
After all, entrepreneurship is a boot camp for courage, resilience, and hustle – and that’s one of the life skills that is both most worth having and extremely difficult to acquire on your own.
The things you’ll have to do in your business will be tough at times, but the lessons you’ll learn will help prepare you for anything life has to throw at you.
