I admit that I was an armchair dreamer. An armchair dreamer is someone who always dreamed of achieving their goals and dreams but never acted upon it for whatever reason. I wanted to do many things, and for the longest time, I gave myself the excuse of being too busy to work on my goals. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and my vision from early in my nursing career in 2010 was that I will own my own business someday. I did not know then on what kind of business I wanted, but I deep in my heart that I wanted to have my own business.
There are a few reasons on why I wanted to start my own business:
- I want to build something of my own
- I want to achieve financial and lifestyle freedom
- I want freedom on how to spend my time on what’s important like my family
What prevented me from starting?
Waiting for the perfect time
I used to believe I needed a specific “perfect time” to start, and looking back now, there’s been too much wasted time with this thinking. There is only one way to start and the answer is to start. No and, if or buts. Waiting for the perfect time is a waste of time. There is shortcut or magic pill to do anything. Just do.
I thought I was “too busy” to work on my goals
I kept telling myself that I was too busy and did not have enough time do work on my goals considering the amount of work hours I do and the responsibilities I have at home. I did not manage my time well outside of work, so I always end up doing something else instead of working towards building a business. I had to reflect hard on my time management because thinking about it now and looking back in time, I had time to work on building my business projects but didn’t.
Thinking that I need a lot of equipment to start
I thought that I needed to have all equipment that a home studio needs to start. So, I ended up investing on a lot of tools like a condenser mic, music instruments, mixers, etc. Accumulating a lot of tech equipment became an obstacle for me to start because I thought I had to have this before everything else happens. On the plus side, I have the equipment I need, but at the same time, I’ve delayed myself and had another excuse to start.
Fear that I was not going to succeed because others started before me
When I was starting The Nursing Bloc, I wanted to see if there were others who were trying to do the same thing I’m doing. I saw a lot of other nurse entrepreneurs online and felt intimidated by all of them. I thought since they’ve been in longer, people may not listen to what I have to say. That fear that I was not going to succeed because others did it before me prevented me from taking the first step. I had to remind myself that all entrepreneurs started from zero experience.
Fear that I am not qualified enough to talk about nursing in business and becoming an entrepreneur
My relevant experiences related to nursing and business before starting The Nursing Bloc are a combination of working in my family’s business when I was growing up in the Philippines years ago, working at the bedside, nursing informatics, being a nurse corps officer in the US Army, and working on many side projects that included learning WordPress, blogging, videography, social media, learning digital marketing basics, etc. I initially did not feel that I was qualified enough to talk about being a nurse entrepreneur because I never owned my own business before The Nursing Bloc. As I contemplate on what I can offer to the nurse entrepreneurship community, I feel that I have a lot experiences and knowledge I’ve learned that I can share with others.
What did it take for me to finally take action, stop dreaming, and start doing?
I’ve seen and experienced too many things at work and at home to let things stay the way they are. It felt as if something finally clicked in my head that gave me the green light to go, go, go and to keep going and never look back.
Lessons learned
I’ve read up a lot about entrepreneurship and have looked up to various entrepreneurs online as mentors, such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Pat Flynn, etc. What I find from various entrepreneurs that I follow is that they all seem to preach the following :
- There is no such thing as “the perfect timing” to start.
- Just start.
- You do not need all the fancy tools to start.
- You can start small starting with a laptop, wi-fi, and your knowledge.
- There are no shortcuts or magic pills that can give you instant results.
- If you have even 30 minutes to 1 hour of free time, that’s enough to start working on your side hustle.
- All entrepreneurs start from the same place of not knowing everything and not knowing where to go or how to start.
- Time, patience, and hard work are things that help you create a business.
- Do not be envious of others because they put in the hard work. You need to put your hard work in too.
Starting a business can be very daunting, and I am sure that it will all be worth it. The journey of entrepreneurship will be difficult at times, and honestly, I don’t mind it. I firmly believe that time, hard work, and patience will help me achieve my goals. As long as I am mindful of self-limiting beliefs that stopped me before, I will be on my way to accomplishing what I’ve set out to do.
