The Day Entrepreneurship Nearly Killed Me

 

 

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About a year and a half ago, I began pouring disgustingly large amounts of money into my firm knowing that it would pay off. However, at that exact time, the job market hit a miserable low and, sure enough I got a phone call telling me that I had $500 in my bank account.

 

To give you a breakdown, I have two offices in New York City, an apartment in New York City, employees, a Siamese cat named Tarot and, as I thought of the possibility of losing everything, I began to get dizzy and a piercing pain started to trickle down my back.

 

At the time, I did have a lot in accounts receivable, but I wasn’t going to walk into a bank sick to my stomach attempting to factor receivables when I knew nothing of the topic.

 

So, the first thing that I put my mind to was not to let my employees realize my state of mind. Despite growing pain from stress, I could not show it in speech or body language. This sort of composure allowed me to determine that having no debt, I could live off both my corporate and personal credit cards until things evened out.

 

Since my mentor, Harvey Cohen died of pancreatic cancer years back, I had to turn my next best friend – reading. I kindly asked my Managing Director, Alison and Senior Recruiter and confidant, Gracie that I needed a few hours and to keep the troops at bay.

 

It was in that 120 minutes that I learned yoga because acupuncture is reserved for those with positive bank accounts and began reading about those who had issues that put mine in perspective. Winston Churchill ended up taking the cake.

 

As I calmed down, I began to think about why I began my business in the first place and the reason was that I was willing to take the ups with the downs and that’s part of life and part of growing up as a business man.

 

Luckily, the checks did come in the mail and my company revenue has been up over 145% in the past two years, but regardless I left my office that day weary, beat up, nearly broke, almost ruined, yet proud of myself that I handled a situation as a true entrepreneur and not that 25 year old compulsive kid that I knew when I started my business.

 

The moral of the story is that if you want to be an entrepreneur or do anything worthwhile, you’re going to have these types of days and how you react to them will determine whether or not you achieve the goals you set out to do.

 
More Entrepreneurship Articles by Ken Sundheim
 
How I Stared a Business at a Young Age
 
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