The cost of success is a reality every entrepreneur must confront.
Success is highlighted and plastered all over social media and the papers. It intrigues us and in a way motivates us to want more in life.
We check out Forbes and indulge in designer brands for a sense of belonging, to get with a movement and understand cultures. Not to forget the Ted Talks and big houses built in posh areas and although these flashy things and elite places show us someone is doing well, what does it really take to get there?
Every win has some form of sacrifice. It will cost you your social life, multiple sleepless nights, debt and burnout, repeated several times until success prevails.
Although people want to get rick quick and jump into the nice bit where they can enjoy life, real entrepreneurs know very well that if you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want will become the sacrifice. Similar to Qurbani, a practice rooted in the depths of Islam, where giving up something valuable for a higher purpose will leave you with a greater reward.
Take for instance Stoicism, this practice entails self-control for worldly desires, delaying gratification for a bigger reward. Entrepreneurs, too, must often relinquish comfort, predictability, and sometimes even short-term gains in pursuit of a vision much larger than themselves.
The Cost of Success: 4 Things Entrepreneurs Must Sacrifice
Every aspiring entrepreneur dreams of the day their vision blossoms into a thriving reality, envisioning groundbreaking products, satisfied customers, and the sweet taste of achievement. Let’s explore the crucial things entrepreneurs must be willing to give up on their relentless pursuit of success.
Understanding the cost of success is the first step toward truly achieving it. Here are some of the things every entrepreneur must be willing to sacrifice to achieve success:
1. Time: The First and Hardest Sacrifice
The clock doesn’t stop, and for entrepreneurs, it rarely slows down.
Building a business from scratch means spending endless hours learning, iterating, and executing. Friends go out for drinks, families gather for dinner, and social invitations pile up, all while you’re buried in product roadmaps or customer feedback.
Time is your most precious resource, and entrepreneurs must spend it wisely. In the early stages, you’ll often find yourself trading leisure for late nights. While others rest, you’re refining pitches, analyzing metrics, or tackling customer complaints.
This isn’t a lifestyle for the faint of heart, but it’s part of the deal when you’re chasing long-term impact.
2. Money: Betting on Yourself
Many entrepreneurs invest their savings, or worse, go into debt, to get their ideas off the ground.
You may be turning down a stable job with a comfortable salary for a future that’s anything but certain. Every dollar spent on your business could have been used for personal comfort, vacations, or security.
But in the world of entrepreneurship, financial sacrifice isn’t just common; it’s often necessary. You might skip your own pay check to cover payroll for your team. Or decline an investor’s check because it compromises your vision, even if it means struggling to make ends meet.
These are not easy choices, but they are often the right ones.
3. Comfort: Stepping into the Unknown
Comfort zones are the graveyards of ambition. Starting something new means stepping into unfamiliar territory, confronting uncertainty, and enduring discomfort both emotional and physical. From relocating cities to bootstrapping your lifestyle, being uncomfortable becomes a norm rather than an exception.
As an entrepreneur, you might face harsh criticism, unpredictable outcomes, and periods of isolation. Your mental resilience will be tested. But the discomfort is not without purpose. It pushes you to adapt, grow, and eventually thrive.
4. Relationships: A Delicate Balancing Act
One of the most overlooked sacrifices is personal relationships. Not everyone will understand your obsession with building something meaningful. Friends may drift, family might not fully support your choices, and romantic relationships could face strains.
Success requires clarity, and sometimes that means saying no to people or activities that don’t align with your vision. However, the key is not to neglect relationships, but to manage them with intentionality making time when it truly matters, being present in the moments you do share, and communicating your journey openly.
Sacrifice as a Strategy
Making sacrifices doesn’t mean blindly giving things up. Smart entrepreneurs understand which sacrifices are strategic. They know when to invest time versus delegate, when to take a financial risk versus stay lean, and when to double down versus pivot.
Sacrifice isn’t a detour on the road to success, it is the road. It’s the quiet part of the story, the one not told on LinkedIn posts or viral podcasts. But it’s also the part that builds grit, character, and the foundation for sustainable success.
So if you’re embarking on your entrepreneurial journey, ask yourself: What are you willing to give up to build what you believe in?
Because in business, just like in Qurbani, it’s often the willingness to let go of something valuable that opens the path to something far greater.
I am Adeyemi Adetilewa, a content marketing strategist helping B2B SaaS brands grow their organic traffic, improve search visibility, and attract qualified leads through data-driven, search-optimized content. My work is trusted by the Huffington Post, The Good Men Project, Addicted2Success, Hackernoon, and other publications.