Happy Quote

January 16, 2007 in Happy Quotes

I get asked this a lot and I have a pretty standard answer which is, a lot of people come to me and say "I want to be an entrepreneur". And I go "Oh that's great, what's your idea?". And they say "I don't have one yet". And I say "I think you should go get a job as a busboy or something until you find something you're really passionate about because it's a lot of work". I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don't blame them. Its really tough and it consumes your life. If you've got a family and you're in the early days of a company, I can't imagine how one could do it. I'm sure its been done but its rough. Its pretty much an eighteen hour day job, seven days a week for awhile. Unless you have a lot of passion about this, you're not going to survive. You're going to give it up. So you've got to have an idea, or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you're passionate about otherwise you're not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. I think that's half the battle right there.

- Steve Jobs in 1995 (whole interview here). (via)

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Posted by: Di | Jan 17, 2007 1:35:57 AM

I do not know how I came across your site, but I love this article. I agree- it takes a lot of perserverance. There have been times I seriously considered giving up, by love for my business would not let me! I know this is common among people that run their own businesses, as the pay is not equal to the hours put in for the first couple of years. It takes so much time! Thanks for this encouraging post.

Posted by: Jamie Bird | Jan 17, 2007 8:18:40 AM

Couldnt agree more! Great post...
How did you come across the talk?

Posted by: RMoney | Jan 17, 2007 1:57:07 PM

Yep, you nailed it. Absolutely right about the whole being in business for yourself. I'm curious about where you found that Steve Jobs interview too.

Posted by: Sonya Neblett | Jan 18, 2007 2:55:00 PM

Hi guys - see the notes below the quote for the whole interview, and how I found it (found the link on kottke.org).

Posted by: Carson McComas | Jan 18, 2007 3:01:26 PM

Sorry for the late response. I'm new to this blog and think it's great. I don't fall into the family with kids category (I'm one of the young entrepreneurs). Honestly, we've been at it for 9 months trying to get OnCard Marketing off the ground, and the biggest thing getting us through is passion and persistence. Funny though, the bit about the 18 hours a day just includes working, it doesn't include the 6 hours you actually don't sleep afterwards. Worrying about a new business is truly a 24/7 endeavor. Good luck to anybody else out there chugging away.

Posted by: JTreiber | Apr 17, 2007 9:26:25 PM