Time to celebrate!

Depending on where we live and in what culture, there are over the year more or less natural stops for us to contemplate what we have achieved and to close the books and celebrate. Be it New Year, Ramadan, end of the financial year, and so forth. Personally, I think entrepreneurs don’t celebrate enough and I can think of three reasons why you don´t.

Firstly, you don’t think you have the time! There is always – and will always be – yet another customer to be pursued, one other team member to convince to adjust to a new process, one new partner to integrate. I have worked with entrepreneurs who have brought me wonderful news, hockey-stick growth of revenue, world-class investors brought onboard, fantastic testimonials from customers. They share the good news, the happiness lasts for 5-10 seconds, and then we are on to the next challenge. My suggestion: Permit yourself not only a few seconds but maybe a few hours to really “soak” in your success. A night at the town, a coffee with friends, a solo trip to a beautiful spot – anything that will bring you happiness. And then create memories – photos (yes, a selfie is OK!), a video clip, or maybe a letter to yourself, things that you can go back to when times are tough.

Secondly, you don’t trust the good news! Too often you don’t dare to trust the news since good news has been too rare, too few, and too scarce. My suggestion: If you have made progress, then you have made progress, it is not more complicated than that. Trust your numbers; if you have more customers this December than last – then you have made progress. Feel free to measure it in percentages or absolute numbers. You decide, it is your accomplishment.

Thirdly, you don´t want to brag! You are in a community of entrepreneurs and you all share the struggle and the rainy days. In many places around the globe, voicing success is not the right thing to do; you want to follow the (unspoken) rules and it could be that you don’t even know how to voice your achievements. My suggestion: Celebrate in a way that you feel comfortable with, including your community or not. A celebration can take place “by invitation only” and maybe you only invite-only yourself.

However, whenever it is time to celebrate in the part of the world where you run your business or for whatever other reason, don't be shy. Instead, with a big bow, take the time to trust the good news and share it with your family and friends at least. They will be proud; they will be ready to chip in to support you in any way they can for you to take the next steps. And I would be deeply honored if you would take a little bit of time and share it with me, either in a comment in the blog or an email.