So, the questions are simple: Are you in a dip? Are you going through a rough survival phase and thinking of giving up?

Everyone knows when they are going through a dip, they are in pain, struggling to pay expenses, struggling to get the market to embrace and pay for your services, not having enough money for petrol to move around, going through pain to pay staff salaries let alone your own salary, you are going through pain, but is it the pain that comes from being in a dead end — a cul-de-sac — situation that might very well get worse but probably won’t get better?

Or is it a difficult phase, where sufficient effort can push you through and get you out the other side…You better know the answer.

If you are not ready for the difficult phase, the dip, it’s a lot harder to stick through it and see it through.

Are you at a cul-de-sac or are you in phase where more hard work and effort will (in time) get you through the dip. Knowing the answer to these questions, is the difference between giving up or keep pushing.

Will you survive and grow like the rose that grew from the concrete:

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it’s dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.” — Tupac Amaru Shakur

or

Will your dream be deferred?
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

— Langston Hughes

Better still, know how your difficult phase will look like before you start your business.