Many of us who have decided to embark on an entrepreneurial journey have come to the realization that it’s going to be a lot harder than we thought. We dream day in and day out about the moment we can finally hand our two-week notice in and say those magic words “I QUIT.” As the days go by, we impatiently wait to take that leap of faith towards our dreams all the while envisioning our path to success, happiness, and riches.

That’s when reality sets in.

We can’t just jump. How we will survive?

We have responsibilities. We have rent, bills, and a car note. We have to eat. It’s not as simple as jumping, we have to be realistic.

But deep down inside we know we can’t sit back and let our dreams gradually fade away. The pain of working a dead end job is draining our souls and the feelings of stagnation are giving us anxiety. Something in our hearts is begging for us to leap before it’s too late.

So what do we do? The answer is simple to say, yet not so simple to follow through with. We must do both.

Working a 9 to 5 is how we will be able to support ourselves and fund our dreams. But you may be saying to yourself, “I work 40-50 hours a week, plus have an hour commute both ways and that’s not counting showering, meal prep, and sleep.” That’s all true, but if freedom is what we really want we are going to have to make certain sacrifices to achieve our goals. We are going to have to devote our nights & weekends to pursuing our side hustle. That means no more happy hours with co-workers, Saturday nights at the club, or Sunday BBQs with the homies.

This may mean giving up the weekend softball league you just joined or the Wednesday night book club. We are going to have to make some serious cutbacks to free up time and money to devote to our passion. We can’t have it both ways if we truly aim to have a successful life and live it to the fullest on our own terms.

This is going to take time, years in fact. It’ll also take countless amounts of effort and consistency. We may have to bounce from job to job due to a layoffs or getting fired. We may face health issues or endure some other setbacks. It may simply take us longer to achieve our endgame. However, if we are willing to put in the grind we will be able to live the life we fantasize about Monday thru Friday at our local cubicle.

As aspiring entrepreneurs, we definitely have a long road ahead of us. But we are closer than we think. The hardest part is getting over our fears and getting started. This journey is going to take knowledge, hard work, belief in ourselves, consistent execution, and time. Lots and lots of time. We just have to trust the process. We can’t look at our current job as holding us back. Instead, let’s look at our current employer as an investor into our artistry or business, someone providing us the means to help push us forward.

It took me a long time to get to this point. I went through many jobs where I didn’t appreciate or learn from the opportunities. In many ways, this delayed my progression. However, as I continue on this journey I realize that the skills we acquire while working a 9 to 5 can be applied to our side hustles and make us more efficient. Which, in turn, will get us one step closer to the freedom of living on our terms and creating the life we can’t wait to hop out of bed at 6 in the morning ready to live for.

You are closer than you think.

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.“
~Oprah Winfrey

Don’t give up, keep pushing.