The first topic was incredibly easy to come up with because it is something that has been on my mind since Day One of this journey. Many  Americans think of Entrepreneurs, nowadays, and they think of 20-30 somethings sitting around an office playing 1990’s era vintage arcade games while making millions of dollars from an app or piece of software. This is the image that we often see celebrated in the media and it highlights something that we seem to obsess about in our society: the path of least resistance to money and “success.”

I don’t mean to be the scrooge at the company Christmas Party but that image of Entrepreneurship is only the tip of the iceberg. Yes, there are young business founders and owners who have made millions almost overnight but, if I were a betting man, I would guess those businesses represent <0.001% of all start-up stories. My story, and the story that I have heard the most, contains mass amounts of hard work, faith, trial and error and (most importantly) the resilience to keep going despite the fact that adversity and conventional wisdom are giving you an easy out.

Yes, I said it. Starting a business can stink at times; a lot of times. But, what keeps me going is picking my head up out of the sea of problems and to-do lists that I am constantly submerged in and re-orienting myself toward my True North. The True North for myself, my business partner Rom and our company (Genesis Goods) is to make great apparel products (we are starting with men’s jeans) that help change the lives of our stakeholders as well as the lives of those in need. When I reflect on that, it becomes easier to deal with vendors that don’t take you seriously, bills that seem to keep on coming in and a never-ending list of tasks to get you to your launch and, eventual, revenue generation.

As I mentioned earlier, the public perception is that starting a business is a fun and exciting way to build a career and (potentially) make a lot of money. The positives are over emphasized and this perception is reinforced when the media does spotlights on hot new start-ups once they have begun to gain traction and have gone through the hardest part of the process: actually getting it started. The simple fact is that businesses are not built overnight. In my research into apparel start-ups, I have found that a year and a half to two years is about the average amount of time for a company to begin selling its products. This time I have coined the “Bermuda Triangle” of entrepreneurship because few make it in and few make it out but most in it are ignored and forgotten. I tell people what I am working on and when they ask me where they can purchase our jeans they give me this disappointed look when I tell them we aren’t at that stage yet. You can see this look on their face as if to say, “well, what have you been doing the past few months?” It’s heartbreaking. I used to shuffle and stumble over my words to update them on my latest progress and then I just stopped because I figured, “why waste the energy?” No one knows how difficult this period is but us. I can see why so many business founders give up during this period. First off, they don’t have a product in the market so they wouldn’t be missed in a sense and 2) no one takes you seriously yet, so the odds are stacked as high as the Sears Tower.

None the less, Rom and I sail on through the sea. As it hurls its distractions, discouragements, logistical problems, budget constraints and lack of experience at us we keep sailing because what we are after is bigger than money and it’s bigger than fame. We want to use our talents to do the most good, while having a great time doing it and this is how we believe that we can best achieve that. So, next time you meet a start-up entrepreneur and you know that she/he is in the “Triangle,” I urge you to just listen and let that person open up to you. We are all sailors that are willingly making a death-defying trip which we believe will lead us to the shores of our dreams. I thank you for joining us in our boat and I hope that you too can become inspired to begin your journey. Enjoy the ride.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” – Isaiah 43:2 NIV