Anniversaries and Milestones - Celebrating 1 Year as an Entrepreneur

Today, July 27th, 2018 marks one year since I left the corporate world behind to pursue my dream, my passion of photography as my full time gig. As I sit here and write this post, I am blown away and cannot believe a full year has passed already since deciding to jump into entrepreneurship.

I don’t regret leaving my full time corporate job for this life at all, I love that I get to wake up every morning and work for myself doing something I absolutely love to do and get paid for it.

Some days it feels like it’s been longer than a year and other days it feels like it’s been only a minute.   It’s absolutely crazy. It has most definitely been one hell of a roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows but I knew that is how it would be going in so I was prepared for it..... right??? 

I have had to learn that it’s not going to happen in just one year.  These things take time, a lot of hard work and perseverance. I can without a doubt, tell you.... it is A LOT of hard work and dedication, a lot of ups and downs but if you can persevere and get through the tough times, the reward is surely greater than the risk.

I honestly don’t think you can ever fully prepare or truly be prepared for what’s around the corner when you make that kind of shift in your life. Yes, you can tell yourself it’s time and you know it’s time to move on but when you do it, it’s a different story.

Don’t get me wrong, I am loving the entrepreneurial life, being my own boss and running my own business but let me tell you, it’s NOT easy.  Not that I thought it would be at all! It’s a lot of time spent on your own, no social interaction.  It’s very different from working in the corporate world around people all day long.  I am around clients when I have a shoot, a meeting or networking event but there is a lot of time spent on your own. You are alone with your thoughts most of the time and sometimes-negative thoughts creep in.   Occasionally I go through moments of absolute doubt about it all: Did I do the right thing? Can I do this? Is this possible?

When I find myself thinking like that, I just have to remind myself of the reasons I left the corporate world and the reasons I choose to do what I do for a living. When I do that, I always am reassured I made the right decisions.  There will be tough mountains to climb and battles to fight but as they say.... nothing worth having comes easy.

If you have been thinking about leaving your job and going into business for yourself, one thing I CAN tell you for certain is that there is no perfect or ideal time to do it, you just have to believe in yourself and DO IT! Life is too short to look back and say what if??

As the saying goes, if you love what you do for a living you will never work a day in your life.