Last year our dryer broke. It would run, but it was just pushing out cold air.
When my husband texted me and told me, all I could do was roll my eyes. Here was yet another thing that needed to be fixed.
When I got home, he told me everything that he had tried. I pulled out the manual and tried some things, too. Nothing was working.
Then he said the dreaded words, "We're going to have to get a new dryer."
All I saw was money going out of the window. The dryer was only about four years old.
I consulted my best friend, Google. I Googled the make, the model, and the serial number and discovered that it could be the heating element.
I found a YouTube video on how to fix it, and the next thing you know, I'm taking the dryer apart.
I went to get my nails done that day, came in from the nail salon, took a shower, and remembered about the dryer.
This was about 730 or 745 on a Friday night.
I'm pulling apart the dryer when my husband comes upstairs. He looks at me and then asks, "Do you know how to fix a dryer?"
I told him, "No, but YouTube does." He looked at me again and said, "OK, we are doing this."
We're watching this YouTube video, pausing, rewinding, and reading the comments.
We wanted to give up because we were stuck on one part. The video omitted a crucial step, but reading the comments helped us determine what to do.
Finally, we get the dryer apart; Then the power goes out.
Now, we think we caused a power outage or blew a fuse. I kept thinking, "But I unplugged everything."
I came to find out that the power had gone out briefly in the whole neighborhood.
The power comes back up, and we finish the next step. It is the heating element, and it was burnt.
We found a replacement on Amazon for about $60.
When the part arrived, I planned to watch football (because it was Sunday) and then fix the dryer.
Back to the video I go.
My hands are getting cut up because the inside of the dryer has sharp edges. I'm getting frustrated and annoyed because now I can't keep the heating element in place.
There's a slot that it was supposed to fit in, but I couldn't get it in there. When I finally did, I had to get the support beam to hold it up.
On the support beam, there are two screws that you have to do by feel because you can't see them because they're on the back end of it.
I wanted to give up; I dropped the F-bomb so many times and screamed out in frustration, I screamed out in annoyance, I screamed out because I had cut myself, but never once did I give up.
At this point, you're probably like, cool, you fixed the dryer, but what does this have to do with entrepreneurship?
It has everything to do with entrepreneurship because being an entrepreneur is about the unknown.
Going into trying to fix the dryer, I was going in blind.
I consulted Google and had the YouTube video, but I was still blind.
I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing, and that's the same with entrepreneurship.
You'll need to learn some things that you need to do or should do.
So often, when something breaks or doesn't work right, we feel the need to throw it away and start fresh.
In reality, we need to take the time to assess the situation and see if and how we can fix it.
If we had decided to get a new dryer, we would have had to make the time to go shopping.
Due to other commitments, we did not have time to go shopping that weekend.
It would have taken a few hours to shop for a dryer. Once we decided we would have to work out delivery time and ensure that someone was home (which meant someone was taking off work).
That new dryer now costs more than just the money we would pay out of pocket.
It's the same thing with entrepreneurship. Every time you start over, instead of trying to figure out and fix the problem, you cost yourself and your business money, time, and energy.
Often, those are things that we don't have.
Consider how much it costs you every time you quit without assessing the situation.
Every time you have to start over, think about how much progress you've lost in that time.
I was so frustrated and annoyed with the dryer. This was my first time doing this, and it was not in my wheelhouse—we barely have tools in our house!
Sometimes, you must step back, look at the situation, and say, OK, how can I fix this?
How can I save myself time?
How can I save myself money?
How can I save myself energy?
What can be done?
Sometimes, it is just a quick Google search to see, oh, OK, instead of going left, I should have gone right.
Don't be so quick to give up on something you invested in.
Yes, it's tough.
Yes, you may get cut up.
Yes, you may have to pause, rewind, fast-forward, read the comments, and yell.
But pause.
Don't quit.
Take a minute to regroup yourself.
Take a minute to refocus.
Take a minute to pray about it and see what solution you are being led to.
Entrepreneurship is scary. Fixing a dryer was scary, but I got through it.
When trying to fix this dryer, I never said, you know what, I'm done.
I quit.
I walk away from it.
If I was unwilling to give up on this dryer that we could have replaced, why am I so quick to quit my business, which I put way more time, effort, and sweat into?
From now on, I will give my business as much effort and thought as I did with that dryer.
From now on, whenever I think about giving up on my business or anything related to it, I will remember that dryer and that I didn't quit on it, so I'm not going to quit on my business.
There were a lot of F-bombs that I dropped when fixing that dryer, but there was a lot of prayer that went into me fixing that dryer as well. The two don't go together but stay focused on the story here.
If you're stuck in your business, pause and pray, but don't give up.
How I felt fixing the dryer and in my business at times!
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