How far are you willing to go?

I’ve had the pleasure of having front row seats to watch my friend Jason develop his business Jackthreads (check it out, it’s a private shopping community) over the last 4 or so years.  Things are going very well for Jason now as his membership and revenue numbers continue to explode month over month.  More importantly he’s now able to work full time doing something he loves with customers and employees who also love what he’s doing.   The business is now drawing all sorts of interest from investors to partners to customers.  Everyone seems impressed by this thing that seemingly popped up over night.  I can tell you, it didn’t. Jason took the long path here. 

He started out 4 years ago with a totally different business model. He has had more than a few people tell him he was crazy, that his idea was off, that he had no business building something like that from Columbus, OH.   He had all kinds of jobs from bar back to sales consultant to selling towels just to sustain himself while he worked through this concept.  He burned through multiple  programming groups / teams and watched his development process drag on and on. He had to work tirelessly just to get someone to give him a chance to test his concept.   He had more than a few “what the hell am I doing,” moments.  There were more moments where quitting made more sense than going on.   Obviously, he chose to stick with it.

As an entrepreneur, you are going to have lots of “what the hell am I doing,” moments.  It’s a key part of the journey. In fact most cases are like Jason’s, where you must go through the grind of work and doubt until you finally see some traction.  The deciding factor ultimately is how you deal with those moments.  Do you stop as so many do, and as I have done?  Or do you push through as Jason did.  How many moments of doubt, how many “no’s,” moments of frustration, odd jobs are you willing to go through to see your idea to fruition?  How far are you willing to go?