7 Powerful Lessons I Have Learned Through Entrepreneurship

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Welcome to One Day Out, a weekly newsletter to help deepen your faith, enhance your health, and guide you in pursuing a purpose-filled life.

Opening Prayer

Lord, you are so good and worthy of all of my praise. Strip away any thoughts of scarcity around money knowing that it is yours. Help me use your money in a way that glorifies you and serves others. Create in me a spirit of abundance knowing I don’t need more things of this world to fulfill me.

7 Powerful Lessons I Have Learned Through Entrepreneurship

There have been so many days where I have thought about quitting.

Days where I envy those with a 9-5 job who can log on in the morning, do what they need to do, then turn off in the evening.

Without my faith and trust in God, more likely than not I would have given up by now.

I create content to educate, entertain, and inspire people to pursue their God-given potential. That is why I do what I do.

It’s a blessing that I get to call this work, but I do often struggle with knowing when to turn it off.

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit— as a kid I used to go door to door asking neighbors to mow their lawns, in high school in college I would post on Facebook marketplace to shovel neighbors’ driveways when it snowed, I bought and resold sneakers online, and in 2021 I started a personal training and nutrition coaching business. 

I joined my two co-founders in 2022 to build the Upspace app because I want everyone to have access to resources that help them enhance their health and quality of life.

But to say this journey has been an easy one would be a lie.

The reason I keep going is because I want more people to be healthy, and more people to know how incredible a life with Jesus is.

Here are 7 powerful lessons I have learned from entrepreneurship that I hope will help you, regardless of what you do for work:

1. Be in it for the long game

You don’t expect to be able to put up 315 on the bench press, run a marathon, or get a 6-pack overnight, do you? (If you’ve found the formula, let me know!)

The same thing goes with entrepreneurship.

It takes commitment, dedication, and patience to see the daily work come to fruition.

We live in a society where everything seems as though it happened overnight, but in reality, there were lots of late nights, early mornings, and relentless consistency that went into it.

Pick something you are so passionate about that you could see yourself working on it forever, and it doesn’t feel like work.

2. Look at sacrifices as investments

If you want to succeed at whatever you are pursuing, there will have to be sacrifices made.

That might look like staying in on Friday and Saturday nights to work on your passion and save money rather than going out with friends.

This doesn’t mean you have to be anti-social and burn yourself out, because I’ve tried that, and it didn’t work.

Rather, look at the sacrifice as an investment into your future and what you’re building.

3. Learn how to say no

I have struggled tremendously with this, but I’m getting better. Everything you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to another.

There are times where I’ll say yes to too many things and not have the time I want to work on certain things and it creates animosity and resentment.

I have a priority list of the 5 things that are most important to me and if something doesn’t fall into those buckets, I will say no.

It’s easy to get distracted, and saying no gives you the time to work on the things you’re passionate about.

4. Don’t make work your idol

In our culture today, success is defined by how much money you make, what zip code you live in, and what your LinkedIn title says.

I am guilty of making work my idol, and I still have to catch myself sometimes because I can get so caught up in the doing that I neglect the other aspects of my life like faith, relationships, health, etc.

God calls us to work hard, and He is the one who has given us the ability to do so, but He also makes it clear we should not make worldly things idols because they do not come with us when we die.

5. Never stop learning

To stay ahead, you have to constantly learn and adapt. Whether it's taking a course, reading, or listening to podcasts, embracing the mindset of a lifelong learner will always keep you growing.

I have and continue to buy courses, read books, attend events/retreats, and find new ways to learn and apply them.

On top of this, I read Scripture, listen to sermons, and seek counsel from mentors to learn how to apply God’s teaching in business.

6. Surround yourself with the right people

Get in the room with people who want to see you succeed as badly as you want to.

In 2020 I started a podcast and had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so I started searching #podcasts on Instagram, looking at different accounts, and shooting them a message asking them to connect.

Investing time into building relationships has been THE MOST important component of growing as a creator and business owner.

From there, I have learned to ALWAYS prioritize people over profits because the quality of relationships you have can be (at least it has been for me) a direct correlation to your growth.

As I’ve grown in business both with Upspace and as a creator, I continually try to get in the room with others doing similar things to support and learn from them.

7. Embrace failure as part of the journey

I have failed more times than I can count on this journey, and it has led me to exactly where God needs me to be.

If you had told me where I would be in life just a few years ago, I would have said you are nuts.

We are now on the 3rd iteration of the Upspace app, and it would have been easy to roll over and quit after versions 1 and 2 didn’t pop off the way we hoped it would.

While there is a point sometimes where you have to recognize when something isn’t working and pivot, going through failures is an opportunity to learn and keep moving forward.

I have failed the last 3 running goals I set for myself; however, I have learned from each of them and have become a better runner because of them.

Each failure is an opportunity to come back stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

There have been times when I have cried myself to sleep or stayed up all night tossing and turning.

I distinctly remember breaking down to my mom in her kitchen in May 2022 because I had so much fear and anxiety within me, and I wanted to quit.

It is not a coincidence that just 2 months later I placed my faith and trust in Jesus as my Lord and savior.

He guides us on this journey so that we don’t have to do it alone.

Wherever you’re at in life, keep going. ❤️ 

Closing Prayer

Lord, thank you for the courage to be bold and create things that glorify you. I pray that give me the perseverance to push through when things get tough knowing that hard times are a test of strength, and that by the power of your Spirit, I can push through.

Amen.

Know others who want to grow in their faith, optimize their health, and live a biblically sound life according to God’s word? Share this and let’s grow His Kingdom!

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