You have to earn the easy parts.

Here’s the thing:

You’ve been mislead.

If you’re newer to these parts, you may have missed the years of hustling. While I don’t think you need to burn the candle at both ends for nearly a decade to finally earn your easy, you will absolutely need to work hard for quite some time.

You’re building a business.

A business built and created from nothing is not found on the other end of just posting a few cute pics on IG. That is not what this is.

You’re building a business.

I cannot stress this enough or say this enough times.

You’re building a BUSINESS.

It takes work. It takes time. It takes hustle. It takes heart.

There are absolutely mistakes you can avoid and strategies you can employ along the way to shorten the distance between “holy shit, this is A LOT of work” and “wow, this is a well-oiled machine!” but it’s going to take as long as it takes.

All of this to say: you’re building a business.
You’re not doing anything wrong if it feels hard. It’s supposed to be hard.
That’s why not everyone you know owns a business.

When it starts to feel easy, it’s probably time to make it feel hard again.

If business were easy, there’d be no triumph.
There’d be no success stories without the struggle.
There’d be no lessons without the failures.
There’d be no fun without the suck.

To get poetic about it:

We love the sun because it hides each night.
We love the rain when it’s been dry.
We love stillness when it’s been chaos.

Business is the same.
If it was always easy, always fun, if it was instantly successful, easily obtainable- we wouldn’t pursue it. It’d be boring.

No one was born easily running a 5k or doing push-ups.
No one started a business and got to skip all the bullshit that comes with it.

YES. ALL THE BULLSHIT.
Business comes with bullshit.
It’s hard. It takes time.
It comes with struggle, and mistakes, and hardship.
It comes with doubt, and uncertainty.
It comes with hard work, and no time off and constant worry.
And if you can keep going long enough, you’ll get to a break in the trail where you sit on a rock and look out and say “HOLY SHIT. I made it to THIS POINT! Look how great all of this is!”

Then you keep going up the proverbial trail until there’s another break, another spot to rest & revel.
You get stronger as you walk.
You take breaks when you need them.

Anything worth having is worth fighting for.

Your business will not be instantly easy.
It’s going to be hard- it’s supposed to be hard.

You earn the easy parts.
You rest.
You revel.
You begin another trek.