Family and friends in the life of the entrepreneur: aid or obstacles?

Family and friends in the life of the entrepreneur: aid or obstacles?

Many years ago I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t possible to achieve all my objectives just by myself. In multiple occasions throughout my entrepreneurship journey I’ve had the support of many people, including family and friends. Although most of this people haven’t had a direct involvement with my projects, they’ve helped me with a good piece of advice or a tap in the shoulders.

For more than 18 years, the time I started this entrepreneur road, I’ve made plenty of mistakes but I’ve also accomplished great things. I’m aware that this things would had been impossible without the aid of other people and that I wouldn’t have recovered from my mistakes if the same people were not present. In my case, people that are around me are vital for my success.

However, as well as there are people willing to help us succeed in life, in both easy and difficult times, there are others who are obstacles to make our goals a reality. I’ve had many friends and family members who have helped me and also close friends and relatives who have tried to be an obstacle on my entrepreneur road. Sometimes I believe part of the negative comments are said to my benefit, but I come to the conclusion it was better for them to stay quiet.

With why I just said I want to clarify that I’m not against criticism or comments that go against what I believe. In such a case I try to identify the reason why they tell me what they say and try to take benefit of the positive aspects. My problem is with people who are negative with everything they say or do, who try to destroy and who don’t add value to my life or my entrepreneurship road.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I always try to maintain a distance with this type of people. If they use to be friends we usually drift apart and nothing else happens. With family members it can be difficult as it’s not easy to tell them that you want to end the relationship. I’ve been lucky in this aspect, as those negative family members are not close relatives and I don’t have a strong relationship with them, so getting away from them is usually simple.

Every entrepreneur has a different and unique case, however my recommendation is to analyze those people who are close (or not too close) to you and who are harming you. It is probable that an honest talk can change the current situation. In other cases, such as the ones I’ve described, the solution is to drift apart.

I want to say it again, because the idea isn’t to ignore other people’s commentaries and criticism, as this can be valuable for you. I recommend having some distance with people who are negative and poisonous. If they don’t add value to my life, it’s better to create a distance and avoid their poison reaching my life and what I’m fighting to accomplish.

Image taken from Flickr.com

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