Why? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? Why do you want to own a business? Why?…

If you’ve been around the business world for a while – I’m sure you’ve heard this question asked. Everything surrounding your “Why”. Honestly – the first time I was asked this question was about 10 years ago when I joined a Network Marketing company. The guy who had recruited me sat down with me one evening during the “launch” of my business and asked me to write it out on what was called the “launch document”. I told him I would think about it and write something in there at a later time. 

He got up in my face about it – to the point of almost pissing me off. He asked me again – “JerCraw, what’s your why? Think about it. Dig deep! It has to be so strong that you’ll never quit.” 

I started to think – what can I write down that will sound good enough that he’ll leave me alone and we can move on with this launch. So here it went – I wrote the following > “I want to retire my Mom and Dad. They’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck and have always struggled financially. I would like to retire them and get them a newer home.” There. Done! No – we weren’t done. He wanted to talk about this more. He wanted to unpack this “retire my parents” thing with more details. I was like – are you kidding me? 

So we went into more detail. He asked me what retirement looked like for my parents. What does the house look like I want to buy them? I started to see this. I even closed my eyes at one point and looked at the life I wanted them to live and the life I wanted to live. 

This was at a point in my life where I had stopped dreaming. The life I wanted to live was out of reach – according to my mindset. I was settling for average. I had a job running a flooring store in the area and the big Dream then was to buy the store and run it as a family business. Was this really what I wanted? Hell No! But – my mind was moving me in that direction because I had convinced myself this was it. 

I had recently failed with one of my businesses and this was a safe option. Make enough money to pay my bills and maybe buy a nice Ski/Wakeboard boat and spend the weekends on the lake. Was I going to retire my parents with that mindset? No. It wasn’t going to happen. This flooring business would own me – and own me for the rest of my life. 

I started to dream again. My dreams became my “Why”. Why would I make the sacrifices I was going to make in the days and weeks to come building a business while working a job and building another business I was going to buy. It wasn’t going to be easy – but I was in.

So the launch was eventually over. Eventually! Lol. My wife, Amy was also over at his house that night visiting with his wife and had no idea what I was doing in their home office.

*Note To Self: Not a good idea to keep your wife out of the “know” during the launch of a new business.

Amy, my wife came walking in towards the end and had some questions for me. The first one was – “What are you guys doing here?” I think my response was something like this – “We’re going to get rich Babe!” Let’s just say, I had some explaining to do.

Back to this “Why” stuff. Going into business is a very big decision. All the things we think are sexy about owning a business and the life we think we’re going to live. The freedom. It all comes into focus quickly and you learn that it’s not an easy ride. So your Why becomes everything! It has to be all about the Mission. If the mission doesn’t connect with your heart and your soul – you will quit. Period. The calling to your Why has to be so big and so deep that you’ll never quit. The pain that would come with quitting would be so great that it just isn’t an option. This is the journey of your Why. You might quit chapters of your business life – but you’ll never quit on the Big Why. 

My Why has changed since that time of writing it down in that launch document. The cool thing about that process – is my entire 4.5-year journey with that company was all about my Why and I hit almost every target on my dream board. I wasn’t able to retire my parents – but I did move them into a newer house after they lost their house due to financial challenges. I will never forget the day we drove up to the house and I handed them the keys. They were completely stunned! They had no idea what was going on. It was the best feeling ever. Take time to enjoy your wins. Celebrate your wins!

Life happens and challenges come in business. I had my Highs and Lows in that business. Eventually, the money dried up in that business and I couldn’t support that commitment for my parents. That’s also the reality of business. Sometimes you’ll get to a level that produces the fruit that is incredibly tasteful and then it’s gone. In those moments when nothing makes sense – it’s easy to pack it in. Quit. It will always go back to your Why! You will find yourself making changes to your Why. You will hit levels of success and then raise the bar and dream a new dream. The truth is – being an entrepreneur and living the startup life will require yourself to reinvent yourself over and over again. Success in business isn’t a destination. It’s a journey. It’s a lifelong journey of dreaming, learning, creating, winning, losing, climbing, falling – over and over and over again.

So what’s Your Why?