Entrepreneurship is hard. You’re going to go through moments where you feel like you’re on top of the world. And then you’re going to experience moment when you think the world is going to come to an end. And often those moments will occur within the same hour of the day.
When you get a little down on your luck (and we’re all there at some point in time), here’s a good little reading list (along with some comments) and a few videos for you. I tried to filter out the fluff on the subject (and there’s a lot of fluff on this subject!) and narrow it down to some articles with really quality advice. I think you’ll dig it.
Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You – Classic Tim Ferriss article. The part about timing your actions around when you’re feeling incredibly confident or less than confident is sage advice.
The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 1: Why not to do a startup – This is the article that the Andreessen quote from the Ferriss article was from. It’s not necessarily going to make you feel anymore confident but rather will remind you that we all go through what you’re going through as entrepreneurs.
Some days things will go really well and some things will go really poorly. And the level of stress that you’re under generally will magnify those transient data points into incredible highs and unbelievable lows at whiplash speed and huge magnitude.
No truer words have ever been spoken.
The 21 Day Challenge Everyone Should Take – I liked this whole article but the “Realize you are going to die” part struck me particularly hard and reminded me of the Steve Jobs Commencement Address (embed at end of the post).
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Ten Unusual Ways to Improve Your Appearance of Confidence That Really Work – A few of these were a little less than the best but I liked #1, #2 (who does that?!), #5 and #6. As with so much of this advice, it’s about trying stuff and seeing what works for you. But most definitely things like posture and exercise can do wonders for improving your mental state and your confidence.
How to Build Confidence and Destroy Fear – So much good stuff in this post. This quote alone was worth reading the article:
Remember that those times when you feel that your ideas aren’t good enough, or people are putting down on your ideas, or you’re getting fired — that these are the same ideas that you’re going to be celebrated for 30 years later. You almost have to have courage. — Francis Ford Coppola
Command a Room Like a Man – Apologies in advance to any women reading this blog (this is after all a post from a blog entitled “The Art of Manliness” 
) but there are some good tips contained in here. The story about Teddy Roosevelt at 23 is classic as is the tip about taking control of your surroundings.
Al Pacino’s Inspirational Speech
Tony Robbins tells Rocky story
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address
Anything is possible. Go out and kick some entrepreneurial ass.
Fri, Nov 20, 2009
Entrepreneurship, Inspiration