"Why don't you just quit?"

The question in the title came from a brief conversation a friend of mine had recently with someone they bumped into in Galway. They were chatting about the usual stuff… “How are you getting on?”, “How are the business ventures going?” etc. etc. when out of the blue came that question, which knocked her sideways. 

She’s still not sure if it was meant from a kind, challenging, tough love kind of place or if it was exactly as it sounded… i.e. why are you kidding yourself with all these crazy ideas and unrealistic expectations… these daft dreams of world domination?

When she told me what he’d said, at first I got angry. Then I got to thinking… what is it that makes the self-employed, entrepreneurs, startup founders, eternal optimists and delusional dreamers like us refuse to qive up and give in? In other words… why don’t we just quit?

I based my final year college project on the Butterfly Effect which is part of Chaos Theory. It describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The simple example often used is that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can affect a hurricane in Texas. It takes a long time for the effects to be felt but they are indeed related.

Why do I mention this? Anybody with the desire and drive to do their own thing, to create, to build something or make the world a better place are looking to affect change and make a difference. No matter how small or large their actions are, they want to influence the long-term, whether it’s a corner shop owner looking to redefine standards for customer service in their local area or a startup founder looking to disrupt how students learn languages all over the world. Whether they ever know it or not, the change they create can be felt far and wide. They can even change lives.

I for one need a sense of chaos, of uncertainty, of stress around me in order to do what I do, in order to keep going and pursue my own startup projects. As Jim Loehr, a world-renowned performance psychologist puts it… “In a real sense, to grow in life, I must be a seeker of stress.” 

If we chose a different, more certain path, we could all live very comfortable, rewarding lives whilst actually getting paid what our skillsets and talents are worth. Instead, we’re often struggling to make ends meet whilst channeling what resources of time and money we have into chasing a dream, an idea, a revolution that may or may not come to fruition. It’s about creating a vision and believing not that it could happen, but it will happen. Often we have no choice but to believe. This blind faith in my own visions is part of what gets me through. Faith however, will only get you so far.

Every so often a soundbite, a quote or a line from a poem hits you so hard that it lodges itself in your brain and goes round and round on repeat until it becomes part of your belief system.

When Connacht Rugby coach Eric Elwood once told his players during a half-time team talk that they had to “Make it happen” in the second half of a game they were losing, something stuck. He told them that a second half comeback wouldn’t just happen because they wanted it to, they had to make it so. In the second half they put faith, belief and action together and pulled off an unlikely win. 

Those words are a constant reminder to me that nothing comes easy. Entrepreneurs / founders / self-employed dreamers have to take our ideas, our visions, our beliefs and back them up with action and dogged persistence or they will forever remain scribbles in a notebook, an un-launched website or a business plan that will never see the light of day. I should know, I have lots of each.

It takes a special, crazy breed to put everything on the line to chase a dream and a vision that nobody else can fully understand and appreciate. It’s about making a difference and doing it on your own terms. It’s what drives you to work 15-hour days and make massive sacrifices. It’s the road less travelled with seemingly endless roadblocks and reasons to turn back.

So why don't we just quit? Because we’re not wired that way and we will 'make it happen'.