How to build resilience as an entrepreneur
The company I co-founded does $3.3M ARR. It took 13 years to get here. We tried and failed to launch 8 different times. We endured two different economic freezes in our industry. We fought off $300 million in competitor funding. And still we persist, with consistent, steady growth.
Interact Growth Rate 2014 to 2025
In this article I want to cover the most important parts of building resilience, so if you’re reading and building your own company, you can learn from our mistakes.
A team: You cannot underestimate the power of a team. Everyone makes everyone else better. You can share the burden of continuing on when times get tough. You can divide and conquer for big tasks. The #1 thing that will help you build perseverance is a team. Work with people you enjoy working with, build together, and you can do anything. For solopreneurs, a team looks like a group of peers you meet with regularly and support one another.
Practices: Practicing your practice is the only way to not get defeated when the chips are down and growth is slow. I’ve seen this so many times with competitor companies. They are only built for growth, they only know how to enjoy their work when things are going right. Then, when they don’t go right inevitably, they get discouraged and give up. You have to practice the practice, so you can learn to enjoy the process of building and getting better, even if customers aren’t appreciating it or paying for it right now. The economy is a fickle beast, and you cannot control when people dump money on you and when they hold onto their wallets like it’s their own kidney. You have to focus on building something better and more helpful all the time, no matter what is happening in the broader market. The companies who get ahead are the ones who build every day, no matter what the extenuating circumstances.
Control what you can control: Most things you cannot control, and most people fail by trying to control those things. We run a software company, there are constant threats, there are constant things to deal with. You can do your very best to build and improve a system that mitigates against those issues, but you cannot eliminate them. What happens most of the time is people worry themselves sick about things that could happen, that they cannot control. Then they give up because running the business “feels exhausting” but really it’s not exhausting, they are just trying to deal with issues that never end up happening. Control what you can control, be ready, be vigilant, but you cannot control everything.
Don’t take yourself too seriously: I see entrepreneurs all the time who come in like they are the world’s savior. You are not the world’s savior, and if you act like you are, you create a mental load for yourself that is unbearable. Focus on what you are actually doing. Focus on the people you are helping. Don’t try to do everything. Calm down and stay focused on your area of expertise.
