I had dinner the other night with a friend, a fellow entrepreneur from the midwest, living in California, around my age. Our conversation soon turned towards the realities of being an entrepreneur. It wasn’t the conversation you have with your parents or your friends from back home, where you put a positive spin on everything. No, this is the stuff only other entrepreneurs, who have voluntarily dragged themselves through 10o miles of runny shit, would understand. It was really refreshing and it reminded me of a blog post I wrote back in September called, “Dear Fellow Twentysomethings: You Are Not Alone”.
Social comparison theory describes how individuals base their opinions and desires according to their peers. It’s only natural to fall victim to do this. We all do. But, remember, what you perceive is only half the story.
As we grow older, we start to see our peers hit life milestones like marriage, home ownership, and children. We also see our friends who took the safe, corporate route start to make high salaries and it makes us think, “Did I make the right choice?”
The answer is always “Yes.” You made the right choice by following your heart and your dreams. When your friends look at you and what you’re doing with your life, that’s what they’re admiring. You may envy their wife and home, but they envy the fact that you took a chance, a chance they didn’t or probably will ever take.
Over time, things will begin to even out. Your friends’ career trajectories will plateau with corporate bureaucracy as your career continues to rise (because your fate is in your hands). You’ll fill another major gap in your life by finding the love of your life. Soon the home and kids will follow. In a few years, you’ll look back and realize how crazy you were. But I guarantee you’ll never regret a moment of it.
