The Biggest Hurdle

In the pursuit of my new venture, I am oft asked about the hurdles I have faced, am facing and expect to face.
Having just crossed one of my stage-gates (namely, a business proposal that has reached one of our target customers) the question recurs.
And the answer remains the same, past present near-future: Self Motivation.

When it comes to my company, I'm driven. I really, really want to succeed.
This is true for a number of reasons, not least of which is monetary remuneration. But neither is it at the top of the list. I'm also driven by the need to constantly improve. To make existing solutions more efficient. To produce a reality from something I've envisioned. Truth is, even if I fail I succeed: I have improved myself, learned from my experiences, grown overall.
Most of the time I feel the way I just described. I'm fired up, ready to win in success or failure. But there are crucial moments when something dampens my drive. It manifests after a lengthy time period with no progress, or bad news that hits hard. When that happens, I feel incredibly alone. It's like being on a hike where I know the path, and I've seen the mountain peek, and I know how beautiful it will be when I get there ... but the fog has got me so blinded that I'm doing circles. I've lost my way, and I just don't know how to get back. I halfheartedly try one or two new tactics, but without committing to one or the other, I further obfuscate my situation. Eventually, I've expended so much energy that I am forced to sit down (which I should have done in the first place) and just soak in the mess I've created.

Motivating myself in this cycle is extremely difficult, to the point that an unsuccessful attempt will further depress my attitude, driving down my motivation to attempt to self-motivate. How Confuzzling.

Naturally, I have had to break this cycle to get to where I am. But I have yet to break this cycle by myself. I am proudly dependent on my wife, my partner and my mentors to help me through these situations. I don't do so without some effort myself, but without their help and advice, I would have sunk this ship a long time ago. My process is as follows:

• I remember that this whole venture will only be a true failure if I don't pursue it until there are no avenues left to reasonably pursue.
• I remember that I have solved this problem in the past. Even if I haven't, I imagine that I have.
• I pick up the phone and make the call. To whom is irrelevant, the act of calling one person is enough to get momentum in eventually making the call to the right person for the current situation.
• I don't complain. I don't want to bring the other party down... I want them to bring me up. I explain the situation without bias.
• I listen with an open mind. I curb my arguments and just let the information soak in.
• I take a day or two to think. Inevitably, a course of action comes to light. An advantage that can be spun from the bad news, or a

It's important to note that, most of the time, it is not my mentors / network that come up with the answer explicitly. It is something they said, or a combination of statements, that I combine with the current context to come up with a solution / go-forward action. This is something I used to overlook, but is quintessential to the success of any venture: The entrepreneur has an advantage that no one else does, be it a sixth sense, a skill or a network. This is the context that needs to be applied against thoughts / suggestions from peers.