What being a long distance runner taught me about entrepreneurship

I’ve been a long distance runner for about 12 years now. It started with the 5km and 10km distances. Then 21km. Then the full marathon (42.195km).

Saturday mornings are usually for the long slow distance runs. I would typically be doing 32-36km this time of the year for marathon training. But today I can only manage 4-5km at a time. An unexpected thigh muscle strain causes a sharp pain in my knee and reduces me to a sad limping person if I go any further than that.

But that doesn’t deter me.

I aim to increase my distance by 1-2km at a time, and hopefully the gradual improvement will put me back in the game of marathon running again next year.

Reflecting on this I see many similarities with entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurs we put in the hard work and we keep grinding, hustling, selling and whatnot. And just when everything seems to be going in order, some unexpected ‘thigh muscle strain’ will hit you and all you can do is go back to the drawing board and start from scratch again.

But entrepreneurs don’t get deterred. They keep going and going and going.

And that is how they succeed.