Do You Like Yourself Well Enough to Succeed?

So, do you like yourself well enough to succeed?  I was asking myself this as I drove to work this morning.  I’d started off thinking, "How much do you have to like yourself to succeed?"  And, of course, I was thinking about what it takes to start a home business, in this case a solely Internet based business.  It seems to me that before you even start thinking about business planning, if you need to ask yourself at least once if you like yourself enough to succeed–to stick it out through the teething of starting your own home business.

And yes, up above I mentioned that I was driving to work, because I do work.  The truth is, there are some conveniences to keeping the day job.  For one thing, inspite of the aggravations, I do like many of the people I work with.  And second, more practically, it solves the health insurance problem.  I also work in an area that I know quite a bit about, and that also has some advantages.  Now, having said that, there I was driving to work on a day that I really did not want to be going to work.  And that conflict is what many of us–you and I–bump up against.  In having the "job," we lose certain choices.  Or rather, the choice to have a job entails certain consequences and obligations that restrict other choices.

I know many, me included, may sometimes say that having a job isn’t a choice, but to my way of thinking, no matter how coerced I may feel by necessity, nevertheless, at some point I do choose.  It is a hard pill to swallow, having to accept responsibility for what we often seem to have no control over.

Choosing to start your own home business is not the same choice to quit your day job.  I suspect that many reading this are motivated to think about starting an Internet business as a replacement of their day job, but that doesn’t have to be the case.  What motivates you to want to quit your day job?  Bad pay? Lousy boss? Dull and repetitive? At odds with your personality?  You want more money?  A bigger game? More responsibility?  Just what is it that makes you want to fire your boss?

Are you successful at what you do?  I’m making a guess here that people who are generally successful, or at least good at what they do are probably more confident and more likely to like themselves enough to allow themselves the chance to succeed.  Let me ask you this, "Do you feel too big for your job?"  In that case, perhaps it is time for a change.  The question is, then, do you have an exit strategy? 

Hmm, exit strategies . . . . I do not recommend  burning bridges, if possible.  I say that because I, personally, am a bridge burner.  I’ve tried to change over the years, and I think I’m better about this, but there is a part of me that wants to do Sherman’s march to the sea when I leave a job.  We bridge burners do not always do the best exit planning.  So, a word a caution, before you dynamite the "bridge", have something waiting for you on the other side.