Council Post: Why 2020 Was The Super Bowl For Entrepreneurs Running Non-Essential Businesses

Paden Hughes, CEO of Gymnazo, is a motivational speaker who went from burned-out employee to seven-figure entrepreneur.

One year ago, my business was celebrating hitting seven-figures in our single-location brick-and-mortar fitness facility. That might not sound like much, but in fitness, it’s a big deal. As a female entrepreneur, it’s also a big deal. We went into 2020 soft and complacent. 

As we know now, by March 17, 2020, every entrepreneur running a small business deemed non-essential would be in the greatest fight of their careers to stay afloat. My business was shuttered, my team scattered to their homes wondering if they’d remain employed and our members panicked about losing their jobs and health. 

What I write next is the single biggest takeaway I want to share with entrepreneurs as we head into 2021: 2020 has been my unintentional Super Bowl. 

I didn’t see it coming, but by the end of March, I woke up to the reality that I was competing in a mental athletic event. Like many of us, I stepped up as the coach for my team. In doing so, I have embraced four lessons I did not predict this year. 

The battle begins in your mind.

Competing has looked like focusing on controlling only what you can control and choosing to see the opportunities in front of you. It is not accepting loss as a reality. It’s choosing to stay positive. It’s choosing to welcome life as the opportunity to build real grit in your life. 

There’s an art to game-time strategy adaptation.

2020 wasn’t like a game of chess where the rules are known and predictable. It’s been more like a video game — each closure or re-opening has felt like a graduation to a new level with new rules and adaptations. This level of strategy requires a heavy reliance on your intuition. It takes extreme focus to keep your clients and team in the forefront of your considerations and make service the rallying cry. It requires obsessing about how to build revenue streams that will only grow after the pandemic. 

The importance of motivational pep talks cannot be overstated.

I’ve never given more pep talks in my life — pep talks to myself, to my partner, to my team and to the greater community around us all. Inspiration is needed daily. I thank this year for forcing me to this realization. Pep talks may have felt cheesy before, but now they are uplifting and powerful. Trust me, people around you are starving for them.

There is only room for visualizing success.

Failure has never been in the cards. I mean that. If you’re a non-essential entrepreneur, your success has to be determined. It cannot be the thing you question. You will win. You will survive this. You will innovate. You will dominate — because there is no scenario you have thought about, meditated on or visualized with a different outcome. 

This was my Super Bowl. I may not have wanted it, asked for it or consciously trained for it. But here I am and here you are. And guess what? The game is not over.

Here is what inspires me about 2021 and the increasing likelihood of a second closure: There is still game time left. There is still a chance to show up as the MVP for your team or as the genius strategist on the sidelines. You are not in the stands. You are in the arena. You are playing a high-risk game, the kind you will talk about for decades to come. 

What you do in 2021 will create a legacy of your leadership. It will serve up the grit you needed to level up. It will push your business to a new level of growth, only attainable at the end of your comfort zone.

So as we all sit back and reflect on this year, feel a sense of pride and gratitude. We didn’t know we’d be playing in front of a world watching to see which entrepreneurs would sink or swim. But we showed up, we rallied and we played to win. Cheers to 2021 and cheers to you!

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?