Welcome to Thursdays with Cyn where I share my personal tips and tricks to hopefully motivate and inspire you to take some sort of action towards your own e-commerce entrepreneurial journey.

The title of today’s topic is: From the Struggle Bus to the Freedom Train!

Yes yes yes!

This resonates with me so much.

If anyone has struggled on this entrepreneurial journey, it’s me.

If you have followed me at all during my last 3 years… you’ve heard my stories. I’ve been very vocal about the ups and downs of not only being an entrepreneur but an e-commerce entrepreneur.

That brings a whole new element to the situation.

In my opinion, it made it even more difficult!

But… I kept going. 

I kept learning, exploring new options, researching, and grinding away building my business.

Most people on that same journey would have totally given up and never continued down that road to success.  

Have you ever heard or maybe you’ve even said some of these excuses…

“It’s too hard.”

“I don’t have that kind of time.”

“I’m not doing that!”

“People will think I’m crazy so… no.”

“You can’t really be successful doing that.”

“People that say they make money doing that are lying”

“That’s not true. You can’t make money that way.”

Guilty of ever saying something similar? 

Well, I’ve heard all these excuses and more!

Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s also called the Pareto Principle.

80% of the results come from 20% of the people.

Let’s put that into perspective by doing some easy math…

Take 100 people selling the very same product.

20 of those 100 people will generate 80% of total sales.

The majority of sales comes from that very small group of people.

Why?

Are they more skilled? No.

Are they smarter than the rest? No.

Are they just lucky? No.

They are the ones that naturally rise to the top because:

They love the hustle.

They enjoy the competition.

They seek challenges.

They have a positive go-getter attitude.

They see opportunities instead of obstacles.

Can anyone be in this group of 20?

Sure they can… if they want to!

Most people don’t want to.

Many lack drive and ambition.

They just want a paycheck.

They are happy with the status quo.

They don’t want to rise above and be in that 20%

Does that make them a bad person?

Certainly not.

They just have different ambitions.

That doesn’t make them wrong…

But they will never be in the top 20%.

They don’t desire to be.

So what is so special about this top 20%?

They experience the very same challenges and struggles as everyone else… yet they continue to excel.

If they get knocked down, they get right back up and keep going.

I think some of their resolve and fortitude come from their DNA… their genetic makeup. They are naturally wired to persevere…

Phillip Goldstein, one of my Facebook friends, recently made a post that said you have to love the struggle just as much as the reward.  

So let’s think about that.

If you’re climbing a mountain and your goal is to reach the peak, you have to go all in and give it everything you’ve got to keep going in order to make it all the way to the top.

Every single step is a challenge. It’s exhilarating. You gain momentum with each step closer to the top.

So if you don’t like climbing, what’s the point of reaching the peak? You may as well take a helicopter if you just want to see the view. 

Those that put in the effort love the grind… they are energized by the climb - regardless of how difficult it may be. And the reward is so much sweeter when you reach the peak. The view is euphoric when combined with the sense of accomplishment.

The same is true for entrepreneurs… which is quite often a very lonely journey. You have to search for other like-minded individuals and connect whatever way you can which could be only through a Facebook group or a zoom training.

We as entrepreneurs hustle and grind every single minute of every day. Our minds never turn off. We are always in “go” mode and thinking of new ways to expand and grow our business. 

We are that 20%. 

Yes - we have struggles and encounter obstacles every single day just like everyone else.  But there’s something about us that allows us to thrive under pressure where others fail under pressure.

We love the struggle and use it as a force to push ourselves over these hurdles - and not allow ourselves to be held back by them.

It’s this mindset that allows us the ability to move OFF the struggle bus and jump ON the freedom train!

So I ask you… Are you on the struggle bus?

If so, how long have you been there?

If you feel you are stuck and just can’t get make any progress… and you have exhausted all options to make your journey a success… then change your direction.

You must do something different to get a different result.

Doing the same old thing you’ve always done is only going to produce the very same results.

Take a deep dive into whatever goal you are pursuing.

What can you change to make a difference?

Connect with new mentors - people already successful in that field.

Search for new ways to tweak your direction. Self-reflect and determine if your original course is truly the route you need to take.

I can definitely attest to taking the wrong roads on my entrepreneurial journey…

But every wrong road I took provided great value in learning a better way and opened up new routes to explore.

If I had not experienced all the struggles I’ve encountered in the last 3 years… I would not be where I am now.

Embrace your struggles. 

See them for the value they bring.

You will grow and develop with every step you take.

But you have to start with a conscious decision…

Are you going to be one of the 80% and stay on the struggle bus forever or are you going to become one of the 20% and create your own path to the freedom train?

Final thought - time is money.

Stop wasting it and do something - ever so small - to move you ahead to the next goal.

I recommend the following:

Write out a plan of action of every step you need to take to get you where you want to be by a certain date.

Create your own roadmap to success.

Connect with mentors on the same path 

Invest in yourself to get you there faster. Free YouTube videos will only get you so far… 

Learn from the masters who have already figured out the pitfalls to avoid in order to get you to your goals faster.

As an example, I have been working on kicking off my course for 2 years. Still struggling with putting all the pieces together on how to launch and get exposure. I finally hired a business coach that helped me launch in just 6 weeks.

Look at all the time I wasted - 2 years - when I could have gotten there in just 6 weeks.

Totally worth the investment!

So I encourage you to get busy and stop riding that struggle bus going nowhere… set your plan in motion to get on that freedom train as quickly as possible. 

Be the 20%. Love the struggle as much as the reward. Use that force to propel you to success.

So I want to hear from you...give me your thoughts on how you were able to get off the struggle bus. Or maybe you need help getting off the struggle bus. Let me know how I can help you.

So...that’s a wrap for today… I challenge you to go out and take just one step further towards your dreams and goals whatever they may be!

Til next time…