Despite what Hollywood adaptations may lead you to believe, the life of the working entrepreneur is rarely glamorous. The real-world life of an aspiring entrepreneur isn’t all it’s been rumored to be. For every social media celebrity sporting an Armani suit accessorized with a pet tiger at their side, there are hundreds of driven individuals who struggle to make ends meet. The important thing to keep in mind is that you can achieve your ambitions if you put in the time. Success isn’t just handed to us in this world, especially in the slow ebb and flow cycles attendant with working for yourself. There are certain paths to success, but more often than not they are paved with a lot of incidents that make you question why you’re doing it in the first place.

Every seasoned entrepreneur has one: a pivotal moment when they almost decided to give it all up in frustration. In fact, for many entrepreneurs, the business they run today isn’t the first one they tried to start. In order to find a niche that you can spread your roots in, you have to explore other options and learn for yourself how to run your business the right way. This takes patience. This takes late-night coffee runs and burning your wick at both ends when you could be watching the ball game — or sleeping. This is the life of the entrepreneur, and this is our plight.

Nothing worth doing is going to be easy. This hits particularly close to home for the individual who has chosen to live a life based on their own hard work and their own sheer creativity. Standing out doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t get discouraged when that night turns into months and those months turn into years. The grind is what will make the pinnacle that much sweeter. Just don’t burn yourself out before the going gets good.