Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

In 1993 I wrote, designed and published my first book. I wrote and published one more book and then I started my first company and eventually started blogging.

And that pretty much sums up my career as a writer.

But in 1993 I was pretty serious about writing and my books. The whole thing suited me well. People like writers. There is a romantic side to the whole writers thing that attracts, ehm, people.

Anyway, when I was a semi-official writer I often spoke to people who told me they were going to write a book too.
Maybe.
One day.
If they saved enough money to take a year off.
Because they wanted to do it right.
Or not at all.

I don’t believe they ever did write that book, took that year off and did it right. A lot of people are very good in implementing If Onlys for themselves. If Only…

…I would have enough money
…I had more visitors
…I was a little bit more lucky
…my boss would give me more resources
…I would have been a bit earlier
…that other guy wouldn’t have stolen my idea
…we would have more funding
…my laptop wouldn’t have crashed

These days I speak to a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs. They tell me they dream of becoming an entrepreneur and quiting their jobs.

But Only If.

For an entrepreneur there are no If Onlys. Only Despites.

Despite…

…the fact that we didn’t have any money
…the competition
…the fact that we had NO resources
…the weather, our health and the fact that my hair was on fire
…the circumstances

Despite whatever comes on your way you do what you gotta do to get things done.
No If Only/But/When/Only If.
No excuses, no way out.
Only possibilities, in spite of reality.
Despite becomes Because.
Limitations are Circumstances.
Not If Only But Despite.

So tell me, are YOU an ‘If Only’ or a ‘Despite’ person?