Celebrating the Courage to Start and the Reality of Entrepreneurial Struggles
If you were brave enough to start your own enterprise, even if it stalls, you deserve to be celebrated and supported. The moment you decided to set up your own company, launch your own product, or retrain into something entirely new, you did something most people only ever dream about. You took the leap. That alone deserves to be championed.
The transatlantic divide nobody talks about
In the United States, failure is practically a badge of honour. Entrepreneurs are expected to face setbacks; it’s considered standard practice to “fail fast, learn fast.” Founders openly share stories of early business closures or financial struggles with a shrug and a smile. This culture views failure as a sign of experience and resilience, which builds trust among peers and investors alike.
In contrast, the UK’s approach tends to be more reserved. Mistakes are often seen as embarrassing, and when a business closes, it can feel like a personal defeat. Many entrepreneurs keep these struggles private, quietly moving forward without sharing how close they came to losing everything. This cultural silence can be costly, as it leaves new founders feeling isolated and unaware that such challenges are common.
The social media lie
Scroll through LinkedIn or Instagram for five minutes and you’ll see it—the founder who just sold for eight figures, the entrepreneur living their “dream lifestyle,” the perfectly curated journey from nothing to everything.
But is it true? Is it the whole picture?
What social media rarely reveals are the 3am panics, the months without a salary, credit card debt to cover payroll, or tense arguments with loved ones worried about financial security. The morning spent sitting in a car before facing the day’s uncertainties often goes unmentioned. Even stories of big exits don’t always reflect the reality of profits versus turnover.
These highlight reels can distort perceptions, quietly making others feel like they’re failing at their own ventures. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this,” they think. This feeling is common among founders—it’s just rarely shared publicly.
My truth
I’ll be honest with you, because I think honesty is the only thing that actually helps.
There were times I put salaries on a credit card and genuinely thought I was going to lose everything. During the COVID-19 pandemic, external forces beyond my control threatened to bring down a business that was previously doing well. I questioned whether I was a good enough parent because I wasn’t spending enough time with my son. I wondered if I should just walk away from all of it. Those doubts don’t just appear once and disappear; they come back, evolve, and show up differently at various times—and they will for you too.
But here’s what I know: if I hadn’t tried, I would be angrier at myself for never knowing than I ever was during the hardest moments. Resilience was key—tough, but I love what I do. I would rather have fought, struggled, and questioned everything than spend the rest of my life wondering, could I have done it?
That question—could I?—is what keeps us going. There will be highs and lows; failure and resilience; changes in tactics—but one day, hopefully, success.
What to do when it gets dark
Because it will.
So here’s what actually helps:
Get honest with your inner circle. Not performatively truthful—actually honest. Find one or two people who will sit with you in the mess without trying to immediately fix it or minimise it. Your support network isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s survival.
Separate the business problem from your identity. A cash flow crisis doesn’t mean you are a failure. A lost client doesn’t mean you were wrong to try. The business is something you are building—it is not who you are.
Ask yourself the right questions. Not “am I failing?” but: is this the right journey for me? Am I on the right track, or should I change? What do I want? And critically, what’s my contingency plan if this doesn’t work? Having an answer to that last one takes away so much of the fear.
Talk to someone who’s been through it. A mentor, a peer group, a founder community. Not for advice necessarily—just for the reminder that someone else sat exactly where you’re sitting and came out the other side. Remember why you started.
The honest truth about failure
I believe most founders—regardless of gender, background, or where they are in their journey—fear failure. I’d be surprised if anyone told me otherwise. But fear and failure are not the same thing. Trying and not succeeding is not failure. Giving up before you’ve given yourself a real chance, without ever knowing what might have been—that’s the thing most likely to haunt you. It would be me.
What’s your experience? Have you ever come close to giving up—and what kept you going? Share it. Someone out there needs to read exactly what you’ve been through.
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