‘The Bottom’

Every great business starts with an idea, a person and a vision. Whether that is product based, service based or something entirely different, we, as entrepreneurs, all have to start at the same place - the bottom.

I feel like being at ‘the bottom’ gets a lot of negative connotations when discussed or thought about - but in many ways, it can be the a refreshing place to be and shouldn’t be looked at as such a bad thing or be discouraging.

When you are at ‘the bottom’, anything is possible; every route can be explored; all possibilities are still possible. You haven’t tried and failed yet. You haven’t felt the jubilant highs or defeating lows that come with entrepreneurship. You haven’t lived through your first dry spell in January, wondering if you made the right choice in pursuing this path.

You also haven’t gotten the sweet taste of success either…the only thing that keeps us going day after day, month after month, year after year. That comes in time, but in the beginning, the only goal is to get a chance to experience what that feels like, and boy is it good.

While at ‘the bottom’, you can fail and not be judged for it. Which, isn’t necessarily a great thing, but the pressure to deliver is the lowest it will ever be. Once you attain a certain level of success (by whatever metric you deem to be the threshold of success) you enter into this world constantly chasing the dragon, so-to-speak. This dragon - ever elusive and so powerful - is what we all strive to attain. This is what keeps us grinding, pushing forward, learning new things and developing skills to keep us working, making money and providing for our families.

There is a concept called the ‘Hedonic Treadmill’ which according to Wikipedia is “the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness.”.

You can only enter the treadmill after achieving success…getting off the treadmill (ie being satisfied with your success) is a whole different grind altogether, and certainly isn’t an easy thing to do as an entrepreneur.

Working for yourself means constantly leveling up, growing, moving, learning, promoting, building and achieving. This, inherently, makes the treadmill something almost impossible to avoid. But, while at ‘the bottom’, you haven’t experienced it yet…and there is so much to appreciate in that respect.

While being at ‘the bottom’ for many is temporary, as being there can’t be sustained forever, we all at a certain point must move on and move upward. That is when things get tough, the tough get going and the treadmill begins to move.

So, do your best to level up but enjoy the ride. That is what the difference is; gratitude, staying humble and being appreciative for your journey only compared to yourself, is what allows someone to pursuit this path and not lose themselves entirely in it.