Hetal Chirag
After completing my engineering and MBA from Canada, I moved to India and started an ecommerce business. Here are a few lessons I learned as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship Lesson no. 7: Don’t forget to celebrate small victories
Let’s face it. Start-ups are not easy!
As an entrepreneur you will face many ups and down starting from idea generation stage to concept development and execution. You will be waking up early in the morning every day and working hard till late every night. When no one is watching, you will be sitting behind your computer at 2:00 am trying to single-handedly manage your start up’s finance, strategy, marketing, operations, sales and much more.
Even after doing all that and sacrificing your social life, you will inevitably fail at least a few times, especially in the beginning when you are still at the learning stage. As harsh as it may sound, no matter how smart or talented you think you are this is the path every single self-made successful entrepreneur has gone through. On this long and eventful journey, once in a while you will be rewarded by small victories. And trust me, they will taste a lot sweeter than the hardships you may have faced along the way. To make sure you and your team do not lose momentum and experience burnout, it is very important to celebrate every single one of those small victories.
As an entrepreneur, you must realize that no one is going to give you a trophy for all your efforts and hard work. You must be disciplined enough to set short term goals that align with your long term vision. When you achieve one of those short term goals, a small celebration can be very healthy for your team as they can visually see that your start-up as a whole is moving forward. Celebrating these small wins provides a positive reinforcement you and your team periodically need. It sends a positive message to your team members about focusing on work-life balance. Not to mention these celebrations can make it fun for people to work at your start-up.
