The Discipline of Excellence

My son returned to New York today. He was more sad than happy (between you and me, he admitted to crying a little bit in the car when his father dropped him off). His life, family, girlfriend and friends will be miles away. His first semester at NYU was filled with woes most freshman college students face: relationship issues, family crisis, entitlement mixed with guilt, self-doubt, feeling overwhelmed and sometimes just downright scared. Yet he managed to make straight A’s his first semester of school. I was so proud of him—not for his smarts, but for his discipline. The road to excellence is paved with many stones: talent, luck, varying degrees of intelligence, support and much much more! However, 99 percent of that road is paved with discipline.

As you move toward your dream of entrepreneurship, you will find most of the time you will feel doubtful, frustrated, confused, overwhelmed, stupid and downright scared. The reason most people stop pursuing their dreams is because they are under the misnomer that they were meant to do something or they will always feel motivated, see clearly and it will be easy. The truth is that the road to fulfilling any goal, including entrepreneurship, is discipline.

Discipline is the constant that keeps your pace steady and focused. Support, talent and motivation give you bursts that might help you progress a little more quickly for short periods. However, unless you have discipline your progress will be just small bursts of progress where you will spend most of your time covering the same ground over and over again. Discipline enables you to weave around the loose stones of self-doubt, frustration, lack of motivation and the ultimate urge to give up.

I often chuckle aloud (or sometimes snap) when people tell me how smart I am or how lucky I am. My life, just like the lives of others, has been paved with loose stones—alienation from family, relationship issues, family crisis, job loss, betrayal and financial hardship. However, discipline has enabled me to reach goals at a steady pace. Discipline has been the key to my successes. So as you move toward business ownership know that it will take perseverance and the ability to be committed to reach your destination. To achieve your goal you must know it will take the discipline of excellence, which is finding a way to do what you need to do each and every day—no matter how you feel.

About the Author

Jowanna Parris-Daley owns and operates jowanna inc™, a small business consulting company that offers business plan writing, website design and technology consulting services for startup businesses.

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