Hide Ya Kids, Hide Ya Wife: Hobbyist on the Loose!

By: Melissa A. Matthews, Co-owner of MAM Squared, LLC.

In last week’s post, I touched on the idea of a business article induced euphoria of laziness. This week I touch on the exact opposite, this is when one wounds oneself so tightly into the “reality” of business as served to you in a 4-5 paragraph amuse-bouche of “You suck and let me tell you why,” the fast and loose conventional wisdom of business traditionalists.

I read these words, “Any business that isn’t turning a profit after 3 years is a hobby”.

My response:

The AWKWARD moment when you realize that your “business” is far less than a business in the true sense of the word and more like a Hobby which you have quit your “job” or the-misery-of-working-for-others-with-a-guaranteed-paycheck to pursue full time. And you, you have traded one misery for another. You my dear have plummeted yourself into the debasing hell of self-employment-failure-to-launch syndrome. What is that? that is the space where your “brilliant” ideas are sucked into your vortex of inexperience, incapability, and general overarching failure never to return.

Pick your head up off of that desk! Stop banging it [your head] on the wall! Back away from the flight of steps you’d planned to throw yourself down…SO what? Your business and your journey haven’t followed conventional wisdom.

Do you love it?

Are you subsidizing it by doing odd jobs and looking the mirror thinking “when will I be able to really make a living? Did I make a huge mistake?” But every time you sell a new product or someone inquires about your biz, you light up from ear to ear and it renews your faith?

Being called or considered a hobby[ist] isn’t the worst thing you can do or be. Let them call you whatever they’d like. Call yourself a student of entrepreneurship, maybe enroll in a marketing class online to help yourself learn how to get to the next level. Sit down with your financials, your biz plan and/or biz history and outline the shortcomings, weaknesses, etc. Make a plan to fill the gaps and give yourself the time YOU need to get it right.