Lessons from entrepreneurship

Well, I have been on my own for the last 7 months - thought I will pen down some of the initial impressions about entrepreneurship that struck me the most, but nobody told me before :)
1. Prepare for a long haul: Patience and persistence will be the key virtues. I probably came in with an idea that everything will immediately fall in place - the marketplace is waiting to embrace my proposition. That normally does not happen - things move at their own pace.
2. Every day is judgment day: Initially, since small issues can have big impact on your business - every day is full of ups and downs. I often wonder now - what were all those worries and crises that I faced as an employee? Life as an employee does indeed look very peaceful, in retrospect.
3. You are the most powerless person on earth: An early entrepreneur has no power whatsoever - grovel in front of clients, be hopelessly dependent on your employees, and sometimes even your suppliers (whom YOU are paying money) will not give you importance, as you are too small for their business!
4. Overestimating the short-term, and underestimating the long-term: Somebody mentions this to me - it immediately rang a bell. As somebody who is starting out, we tend to overestimate how quickly things will be successful. Also, at the initial stage, we typically have no clue about how big a venture can eventually become. (While I can vouch for the first error, I have certainly no proof to offer for the second, as of now!)
5. Your proposition may turn out to be different compared to your original idea: Ideas get tested in the marketplace, and we often tweak them to offer what the market wants. Eventually, the business you are doing may be somewhat different from what you envisaged at the beginning.
6. Getting a business moving is much more difficult compared to running it: This is obvious - Newton's law of intertia (was there is law like that?). Which is why several successful managers/leaders may fail as entrepreneurs - because it is a different ballgame.
7. Flexibility has a flip-side: You may have the option of not going to office, taking holidays whenever you want - but your mind will not take a holiday. Thoughts of business will be in your mind, even when you are watching a movie on a Sunday!

Those are my seven lessons for the last seven months. Now that I read it again - they look particularly gloomy. Watch out for another post with the silver-linings soon!