The very first chapter already starts with the complete antithesis of the whole thing: There are aspects in entrepreneurship which are absolutely not like a bike trip. The bike trip has a concrete goal, and you will know when you reached it. The very second you arrive at that waterfall, city or other place you dreamed of approaching, you will know you made it. This is not the case in entrepreneurship
In entrepreneurship, you are going forward, backward and sideways every day and if all stars are aligned you are actually progressing towards that “goal” you set yourself: Once I have a million euros in the bank, 10 million users and every one on the planet knows my name I made it. Don’t lie to yourself, you are exactly the same as me here: You set this big beautiful goals which will prove that you as an entrepreneur are actually worth it. But these goals are trash
This is the hardest thing to understand about entrepreneurship: Your goal is always moving, most of the time to your advantage and sometimes not. And as the goal is moving all the time, you will one thing never have: The certainty that you reached it. You will figure out years later that you actually already “made it” or – as sad as that is – lie on your deathbed with still so many things undone. There is never a point where this journey is “over”.
Okay, that could be it for this chapter but actually, during writing this I figured that a bike tripe and entrepreneurship are indeed quite similar even in this aspect, but you have to look at it not only as a single trip but combine all the ones you do throughout your entire life.
Throughout your journey as entrepreneur there are shorter trips you take all the time and during every trip you actually reach a goal. Sure, it will be a lot smaller than your big beautiful goal you are striving for (but might never reach). The big difficulty is to figure out for yourself that this trips actually exist and that they might be a lot shorter than you actually think. With the focus on your big goal, it is easy to miss all the amazing things you accomplish along the way.
It is better if you see your entrepreneurship journey as a combination of hundreds or, even better, thousands of shorter rides with concrete goals you can reach. Think about things you want to achieve this year, this month, or even today.
Don’t mistake me: I don’t say to get easy to achieve goals, but to give yourself the permission to reach a goal now and also to celebrate it. I bet you already come quite far and finished a lot of things without ever appreciating that. But all of this short trips are tremendously important as each trip prepares you for the next one.
Don’t fully forget the big goal, but focus on the next small trip you’re going to ride. With this focus, I promise you will steadily progress forward, sideways or whatever, but you keep moving and that is what counts.
This article is a chapter out of a new newsletter I created: What a ride. You get weekly thought-provoking ideas about entrepreneurship that I (maybe) learned from biking. Check it out, it’s quite enjoyable.