Everything Passes... Are you prepared for the Challenge?

So you want to start and operate your own home-based business. Are you prepared for the challenge? Operating your own business is more than just the basic startup steps. A great business plan, startup capital and an outstanding product or service can get you started. Your ability to weather the storms of entrepreneurship is the real challenge. Riding the business emotional roller coaster will test your mental and physical strength. It seems that at one moment you are riding the High wave of success and satisfaction and the next moment you're being beat-up by the waves of discouragement and stress. Are you prepared for the challenge? I started my own business several years ago marketing a financial software product that I personally developed for a niche market. I had no competition and very low overhead. I sold my software to an organization that had over 5000 divisions that desperately needed the type of software that I had developed. The perfect business model. Man, was I riding the High wave of success and satisfaction! Just when I had finally stabilized my software and established a working relationship with the divisions of this organization the tides changed. I was approached by an officer of the major organization about participating in a joint venture with another Software Company. Well, I really didn't have a good feeling about this idea, but I agreed to discuss the possibilities. The other Software Company basically wanted me to give them rights to my software on a trial basic with a PROMISE that I would be compensated if they were successful. Well I told them what they could do with that deal and things started to completely fall apart after that. I was told that I either accept the deal or they would proceed without me. So I took the hard stand and refused the deal and they proceeded without me. I had just lost my gold mine. I was betting on them failing at trying to develop a software program that they had no expertise. Had I made the right decision? Now I'm being beat up by the wave of discouragement and stress. And man was it stressful! I struggled for the next 18 months trying to reload and restructure my business. Just when I had finally turned my business back around again, I got news from one of my customers that the Software Company that had taken away my gold mine went out of business. Hallelujah I thought. Not only did I get my foot back in the door with my original customer base, but I also picked up a ton of customers from the Software Company that went out of business. Again, I'm riding the High wave of success and satisfaction. Are you prepared for the challenge? Everything Passes