Over the past 20 years, I have worked with many entrepreneurs who have wanted to give up. They have been at various stages of their journeys – some just a few months in, others several years into the game.
The game works like this: I tell the entrepreneur that I am their evil fairy godmother, I have waved my magic wand and have sent them back to the beginning, the first day they started their business . I then ask, “Do you think that Past-Me Co. would be envious of and perhaps a little intimidated by all that needs to be built, acquired and put into place in order to compete with Current-Me Co.?”
For those of you who ever played arcade games such as Pac-Man, you’ll remember that, after a year or so of playing and gaining experience, you’d start a new game by getting through the first few levels almost automatically. Losing a business or struggling for a long time to keep one alive takes a huge toll on one’s self-confidence. We internalise a failed business as us failing. And so, the most important thing in this depressed time is to protect your self-confidence, and you do this by deliberately developing an academic relationship with your business .