I am 3 years in and have more and more days where I doubt if it's going to work. We have just hit breakeven and growing 40% every year but sometimes it feels like an endless slog. How did you have the belief that success was around the corner?
Did you ever think of giving up?
byu/Mobile-Book-9948 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Mobile-Book-9948
13 Comments
Bruh if u think success is near, a big ass storm is right behind the horizon
Believe that and keep going
you gotta trust and enjoy the process brother, otherwise it’s all for nothing
Enjoy the ride and remember why you started. Look at how far you’ve come and it’ll motivate you to keep going.
The question is: what are you gonna do if you give up?
No
Have you tried to understand why you have these feelings? Maybe it’s your intuition tries to say something or your health/relationships?
Ok, you’re only 3 years in. Baby business.
You’ve hit breakeven. 99%+ never do.
Growing at 40% per year. That’s a very strong growth rate in any niche or industry.
That makes you above 99.999999999999% of people that have tried to build a business.
Yes, every day is a kick in the crotch, always fires, and new corners to think around. You have the math in front of you, though. It’s working.
Oh man, I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s a grind, no doubt about it. When you’re in the trenches, it can feel like you’re just shoveling dirt from one hole to another with no end in sight. But here’s the kicker—those moments of doubt, they’re part of the journey. I think every entrepreneur gets hit with waves of uncertainty; it’s almost like a rite of passage.
For me, it wasn’t about having an unwavering belief that success was just around the corner. Far from it. I doubted all the time. But what kept me going was the small wins along the way—those little moments that confirmed we were moving in the right direction, even if it was slower than I’d like. You’ve hit breakeven, and you’re growing at 40% annually. That’s no small feat, my friend. That’s tangible progress, and it’s a testament to the fact that what you’re doing is working.
I think the key is to shift your focus from some distant future goal to the steps you’re taking right now. Look at what you’ve achieved already: you’ve built something from the ground up, you’re at breakeven, and you’re growing. That’s solid proof you’re on the right path. It might help to take a step back and really digest those milestones. Celebrate them, even the small ones.
Remember, every great success story has its chapters of doubt and struggle. It’s part of the narrative. Sometimes you just have to keep your head down, stay the course, and trust that the persistence will pay off. Use those moments of doubt as fuel to refine your strategy, to double down on what’s working and ditch what’s not.
And don’t go it alone—talk to others who’ve been there. There’s a lot of wisdom to be gained from people who’ve pushed through similar walls. They can offer perspective that an outsider wouldn’t have. It won’t make the slog go away, but it definitely helps when you realize you’re not alone in this.
Just keep pushing. Your growth shows that you’re onto something. If it ever feels too overwhelming, take a breather, reassess, and come back swinging. You’re building something meaningful, and that’s never going to be easy, but it’s always going to be worth it.
Assuming your model works, you can convert that 40% growth into income. If you’re struggling financially then it could be time to focus less on growth and more on extracting cash. Even if you aren’t and you intend to grow more long term, it’s usually good to pull out a nest egg so that if it all blows up you have a springboard to try again.
Success is never “right around the corner” you keep slogging and one day realize that your current position is what you would have once believed as “the light at the end of the tunnel” – just now that you’re there you see a brighter light.
One can continue to always strive for more while simultaneously being happy with what one has. If you can’t do this then you could have a billion dollar company and still be unhappy and waiting for a big break to hit 10b.
It’s normal to feel like giving up sometimes, especially when things get tough or overwhelming. What really helps is focusing on the reasons you started in the first place and finding motivation in your goals.
Lol ya, I’m pretty sure this is very normal. If you don’t think about giving up every single day when you start you aren’t trying hard enough. Once you get used to things you start to expect bad times and don’t get bothered as much. Ideally you’ll have enough cash flow coming in you’ll start to think about giving up purely because you have enough money. It’s very normal and something you just have to come to terms with
Each time the doubt comes in, talk to it.
“This isn’t going to work”
“Ok. I hear you. How is that useful to me at this point in time?”
“This shit isn’t going to work”
“Thank you. But we’ve broken even. We’re growing at this incredible rate. There are so many others who were DOA. Why am I worse off than them?”
All these thoughts and emotions are not you.
But right now, they’re so welded to you that it feels like it’s all you.
Each time you get into a non-acrimonious dialogue with all these, you’re beginning to create space between yourself and what you think or feel.
That’s the beginning of freedom.
That’s when you choose.
Your mind is throwing as many narratives as possible to make sense of the situation. It’s how the mind works.
But you can offer counter narratives, better takes on reality.
After a dozen dialogues like this, this part of your mind will pipe down.
Something else may come up.
You’ll know what to do again.
The cost of continuing to try doesn’t look so bad compared to the cost of giving up. Fake it till you make it and become delusional if you must in order to make yourself keep going. You have to believe in yourself because without that you are bound to give up from losing hope. So even if you don’t believe it, try to envision objectively if it makes sense that it will work, and believe in that vision.