Rev. K. Bill Dost is a man who’s passionate about family and life. He’s an entrepreneur, an EO member, and someone with whom it’s easy to have a dynamic conversation. Bill is a really positive person, but don’t let the positive demeanor fool you, he’s been through the highs and lows we’ve all faced as entrepreneurs.
In his Paper Napkin Wisdom, Bill shares a piece of encouragement. He says: “There will be days you wake up afraid you will lose it all. It’s ok. Grab a double helping of Faith – in God, self, family, us. Then press on towards your goals. You will get through, you will make it. We all on our entrepreneurial journey go through this. THIS is proof it’s worth it.”

Have faith in something

There can be a lot of risk in being an entrepreneur and all too often we’re embarrassed to talk about the scary days but Bill says it’s important we accept that fear. “Anxiety and distress comes from ignoring fear and not believing that it’s there,” he says. It is in recognizing the fear and dealing with it that makes us succeed. We still feel the fear but we’re going to do it anyway and that’s what makes us entrepreneurs. It can be difficult to focus on having faith when it’s a nebulous thing and the negative stuff is so much more tangible, but when you’ve got to have something done you have to have faith in yourself and your company the way you’d have faith in the brakes of your car. You have built your company to function and to be resilient, you have to have some faith in that because if you don’t you will end up paralyzed and unable to grow.

“Anxiety and distress come from ignoring fear and not believing it’s there.”

Being an entrepreneur is a license to get punched in the face. Sometimes you’ll have faith and things won’t work out but you won’t necessarily lose it all either. Sometimes it feels like we’re getting pummeled but I know that in my experience, those have been the times that often lead to tremendous growth. The lessons I’ve learned and the re-tooling I’ve done in tough situations have helped me to reach new and previously unattainable heights. When you can’t have faith that things will go right, maybe it’s enough to have faith that you’ll learn from whatever happens. How do you get through moments of self-doubt?
Listen to my conversation with Bill here: