One of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur is that the people who are closest to you will believe in you the least.
For example…
When I was fresh out of college trying to make money as an affiliate marketer, I took a lot of shit from my mom because of it.
“You can’t just play around on the computer all day, you need to get a real job”
My mom didn’t understand what I was doing.
She didn’t grasp that I wanted to do my own thing.
It didn’t matter to me that I was only making around $2k a month.
I didn’t want to work for someone else.
So I sacrificed a lot to make that happen.
I lived in an apartment in Ohio that cost me $250 a month (the room was formerly a closet that I converted into a bedroom).
I had 4 roommates….
80% of my meals were Ramen noodles…
And even with everything I sacrificed, I was still barely scraping by.
My mom didn’t understand it.
“Your father and I didn’t help pay for your college for you to do this”
She knew how to lay on the guilt…
And she did it constantly.
She even brought up my friends that I graduated with and told me about the jobs they were getting…
“I talked to Derek’s mom at Kroger the other day and he just got a job with Deloitte making $80k a year. You could be doing something like that.”
Everytime she said something like this, I doubted myself more and more.
I started to think maybe my mom was right…
Maybe I was being delusional…
And I should just get a real job.
I can tell you from coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs that my story is not unusual.
Many of the people closest to you will not believe in you.
They’ll try to steer you towards “safety”.
Like a job that’s secure…
Or one that pays well…
They think they’re doing the best thing for you, even if you’d be miserable doing it.
This is why your drive and your belief in yourself has to be strong.
Cause there will be a lot of doubters.
And a lot of criticism.
So my advice is to go after what YOU want.
That might be running a $50 million dollar business…
It might be writing copy and traveling the world…
Whatever it is that appeals to YOU is what you should do.
Cause the people who doubt you, are going to doubt you no matter what you do.
But here’s the thing.
It’s not your responsibility to want the life that they want for you.
They can have all the opinions they want.
It doesn’t mean you have to follow them.
It’s your life.
And you get to choose what you do.
And if you wind-up living a life that other people want for you (and not what you want) chances are you’re not gonna be happy.
So go after what YOU want…
And ignore the people doubting you.
I know it’s tough to do…
Especially if they’re close family or friends…
But you’re strong enough to forge your own path.
So go ahead and do it.
Alright that’s all I got for ya this morning…
Enjoy your Saturday.
– Justin
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