Why Entrepreneurship is 100x Harder Than The British Army

Hey friends,

Last Saturday, I celebrated my coaching business turning four years old! 🎉

It’s been an incredible journey, and I wanted to share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt, not just in these four years, but over my eight years as an entrepreneur.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been at this for a while, I hope these insights resonate with you.

The Hard Truth: Entrepreneurship is Terrifying

Firstly, this journey of entrepreneurship is scary. There are constant decisions that need to be made which push us outside our comfort zone, and it requires us to constantly feel uncomfortable.

When I first started out, I remember thinking that I would feel comfortable and safe once I hit a particular milestone, but every time a milestone was hit, I was then faced with the next ones, and each new milestone required me to grow and show up in new ways.

Entrepreneurship has been the biggest, most intensive self-development journey I have ever gone through. And this is coming from someone who has served in the Britis Army as a doctor, and who has actively engaged in self-development work, therapy and other practices for decades.

Being an entrepreneur exposes our limiting beliefs, self-doubt, self-identity, and our perceived strengths and weaknesses in ways I had never faced before.

Why it is Harder Than Military Training

To put it into perspective, I have found entrepreneurship to be 100 times more demanding than my 7 years serving in the British Army as a Medical Officer (including the intense, gruelling training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 2010).

And I don't say this lightly. Military training pushed me to my absolute physical and mental limits. But there is a key difference: in the Military, the structure was already there. Yes, the training was brutal and demanding, but there was a clear path, defined objectives, and most importantly, other people making the big decisions. Someone else bore the ultimate responsibility for outcomes. I could push myself hard, follow orders, and at the end of the day, there was a point where I could mentally clock out.

Me on a military exercise in Kenya

In entrepreneurship? There is no clocking out. The weight of every single decision sits entirely on your shoulders. Every outcome - good or bad - is a direct result of YOUR choices. There's no commanding officer to fall back on, no established system to guide you, no one to tell you what to do next. The uncertainty of carving your own path is relentless.

The Military exposed me to many physical and mental toughness challenges, but entrepreneurship exposes something deeper - every insecurity, every limiting belief, every part of your identity that you've been avoiding. It forces you to confront who you really are and what you're truly capable of. And unlike military missions where you have built-in camaraderie and a collective purpose, entrepreneurship can be deeply isolating. You're making decisions alone, figuring things out alone, and carrying the weight alone.

The wonderful combat medics I got to work with whilst providing medical support to the infantry units - Kenya

That's why it's harder. Not because the tasks themselves are more difficult, but because entrepreneurship demands you show up as the fullest, most authentic, most courageous version of yourself, every single day - with no script, no backup, and no guarantee it will work out.

The rollercoaster of emotions is no picnic. One day you could be experiencing ecstasy after delivering an impactful workshop. The next, you could be crawled up in bed, paralysed with fear, worried that your business will crumble.

Entrepreneurship requires us to constantly face up to our insecurities, our self-doubt and our inner critic. We constantly need to make our dreams bigger than our fears in order to take action.

It Takes Time (And That's Okay)

The other thing I've learnt is that it takes time to build a business. Back in 2018 when I co-founded a tech startup, I thought I would have a global business with hundreds of thousands of clients within 6 months. I felt like a failure when the reality was entirely different.

By accepting that building a business requires patience, time, and hard work, we don't quit when we haven't yet seen results. We continue working consistently until all of those seeds sprout and we start gaining traction. Honestly? The main reason why a lot of businesses don't succeed is because the entrepreneur quits too soon. It's really important to go into this with a long-term vision (I'm talking at least one to two decades).

So many marketing 'gurus' will try to tell you that you can achieve some wild business outcome in a tiny space of time. You buy into that dream, only to be met with the reality that you didn't achieve the results promised. You blame yourself and you quit.

It's similar to dieting and exercise - the fitness industry constantly sells quick-fixes that never work long term. Same in business - quick fixes and shortcuts will not create instant success. It takes consistency and time, and there is no magic trick. But it does work when we persevere.

Imperfect Action Beats Perfect Inaction

You can be very imperfect and still achieve great results. I confess, I am not the most consistent person - I have ADHD and I struggle with routines. Despite this, my imperfect action over the past several years has still yielded wonderful results. Why? Because inconsistent and imperfect action beats perfect INACTION!

So many people think they have to have it 'right' before they start. So they never do. This isn't life or death (like it was for me in the military and in medicine!) - in entrepreneurship, you need to embrace making mistakes and make tonnes of them! It's only by doing this that you iterate and improve, eventually finding the sweet spot.

Entrepreneurship requires us to do the exact OPPOSITE of what we got taught at school - we need to just start now, get better later.

'Mistakes and failures should be celebrated - they are on the same continuum as success.' - Dr Marcela Aguirre

The Loneliness is Real

Entrepreneurship is lonely. Working for oneself and working from home has so many advantages, but it can be isolating. In 2018, apart from my co-founder, I had no community around me. And it killed me. I am a people person, and I feed off people's energy. Working on my own made it so hard to stay motivated and it affected my mental health.

Thankfully, I learnt my lesson. Since launching my coaching business, I've been very intentional about surrounding myself with supportive communities. This is a game-changer and it's what's made me remain happy and steady in my business.

So Why Would Anyone Choose This Path?

Ok, so I've talked about a lot of the struggles and challenges. You may be asking yourself - why would you put yourself through all of this? Why not just stick to your regular conventional job with good pay, pension and benefits?

Let me tell you why.

1. AGENCY - You're Finally the Boss of Your Life

As an entrepreneur you have AGENCY. Yes, you get to be an adult that is fully and 100% in control of your life, your finances, your schedule, and your destiny. This is both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. But once you get a true taste for what that's like, it's VERY HARD to even contemplate going back to having a job.

Not having a boss that tells you what to do is incredibly liberating. Being able to sit with a blank sheet of paper and design your week EXACTLY how you want to feels fantastic. Being able to take time off or go on holiday whenever you want without requesting annual leave - absolute freedom.

2. CREATIVITY - You Get to Build Something Meaningful

Being an entrepreneur means being a CREATOR. Businesses are vehicles through which we solve meaningful problems. As human beings, we are ALL creative by nature. Corporate jobs strip away a lot of our creativity, and this is part of the reason why a lot of us end up feeling so unfulfilled and empty after a period of time.

In entrepreneurship, you get to be highly creative! You can create your own products, frameworks, methods, and unique solutions. You can work with clients in different ways, and you can incorporate your personal brand and personality into your work, thus making your day-to-day work feel more meaningful, purposeful and creative. Being able to tap into our creative powers makes our souls happy.

3. FREEDOM - In All Its Beautiful Forms

Entrepreneurship allows you to achieve that elusive word - FREEDOM. All human beings crave freedom, and entrepreneurship allows you to work towards many kinds:

Financial freedom - there is no income ceiling. Once you figure out how to create value, you can make a lot of money and create financial freedom.
Time freedom - as you put systems in place and scale, you can actually scale back your own time investment, gaining the freedom to do whatever you want with your time.
Creative freedom - you have full creative freedom, which is very fulfilling for our hearts and souls.
Location freedom - with digital businesses, you can work from anywhere in the world and serve a global audience. This allows us to travel, visit family, and explore.
Freedom of purpose - you get to choose exactly how you add value to the world. I cannot begin to tell you just how fulfilling it is to work on something you love, and to do work that feels meaningful, impactful and positive.

4. FUN - Because Work Should Be Enjoyable

I think entrepreneurship is really really fun! I genuinely enjoy my work - both the coaching side (and the wonderful clients I get to work with) as well as the 'working on the business' side. I love having time and bandwidth to create solutions to meaningful problems, in ways that feel aligned with who I am and my values.

For instance, one of the things on my business bucket list is to host an 'Adventurous Business Retreat' once per year - getting a group of like-minded entrepreneurs together for a week of deep-dive business coaching in the mornings, followed by awesome, fun, crazy activities in the afternoon, and socialising in the evenings. I plan to launch this in the next 18 months!

Final Thoughts

I still have so many more learnings I could share with you. This journey has granted me the opportunity to learn, grow, expand, and develop hugely as a business owner as well as a human being. I feel I'm just getting started, and I will continue to share as much as possible about my own journey.

Please also know, entrepreneurship is not for everyone nor does it have to be. This is just my own experience. My main advice to anyone regardless of whether they are an entrepreneur or not is this:

Get crystal clear on who you are and what your values are, and align your life and your work as closely as possible to this, so that you can live a meaningful and purposeful life.

The vehicle or path that you choose is entirely personal and there is no right or wrong. But please do start being intentional about your life and your decisions, so that you don't one day wake up with the painful regret of 'what if'.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week,

With love and courage,

Marcela 💛

Dr Marcela Aguirre

🚀 If you'd love to have more support on your entrepreneural journey, here are a few ways we can work together:

🏄🏻‍♀️ Adventurous Solopreneurs Community
My brand-new Business Coaching Community is up and running with 11 wonderful members - and we have so many exciting things coming up!
If you’d love to join our tribe and get ongoing business coaching, accountability and support, learn more here.

👩🏻‍💻 1:1 Coaching & Mentoring
If you’re ready to build strong foundations for growth and scale your business with clarity and confidence, I offer private coaching packages designed to take you & your business from unclear and overwhelmed to sustainable, profitable and enjoyable.
Find out more here.

☕ Free 30-Minute Consultation
If you’re not sure what you need but would love to chat, I offer a free consultation where we’ll explore your goals and next steps - it's a no pressure consultation where I always aim to leave you with clarity and some intial actionable steps.
Book your call here.

8 Years of Entrepreneurship: The Hard Truths and Beautiful Freedoms