Entrepreneurs: You don’t need a mentor. You need friends.

4. Entrepreneur friends pick you up when you crash and burn

“When the lows happen, people talk about it. They talk about the shit, and we help each other out. It’s creating that consistent group of people and that context that this is a safe and open and secure place that allows people to get deeper into some of that and talk about this stuff.”
Jay Clouse

“We had one woman in our community who said, ‘I resent my followers. And I don’t know what to do with that. I did market research, I gave them what they wanted, and then they didn’t buy it. And now I’m mad at them and I can’t produce content.’ It was such a unique problem. And I was so proud that we had created a space where she felt open enough to share in that way.”
Margo Aaron

5. Entrepreneur friends remind you that it’s normal to feel like you have no idea what you’re doing

“[The biggest thing is] knowing I am not the only one going through something. It is normal for mistakes to happen, prospects to ghost, clients to go AWOL, etc. Just that reassurance that it happens to all of us is huge. It’s usually dumb, small things that I just need someone to say, ‘Yeah, it’s ok to fire your client’ or ‘It’s totally ok to say no to that meeting if it’s not a good fit for your business.’”
Shannon Howard, You Need a Shannon

“I made a huge mistake and went to the wrong CPA last year and ended up paying tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Most of my other friends have single jobs and one W2. But gearing up for next tax year, all of my entrepreneur friends collaborated in helping me learn my mistakes — what to write off, what sort of LLC to set up, donations and savings, and how to make the most of my earnings this coming year.”
Jake Kahana, Caveday

6. Entrepreneur friends hold you accountable for hitting your goals

“When we see stuff slip from week to week to week, we say, ‘Okay, you’ve said this is important for 2 or 3 weeks now, and you haven’t made it happen. What’s slowing you down? What’s blocking you from starting on this?’ Then we can really talk about and address the underlying causes.

“It could be:

Entrepreneur: ‘This is too amorphous for me.’
Community: ‘Okay, then let’s break it down into pieces so you can attack it.’

Or

Entrepreneur: ‘I’m afraid that if I complete this, then I’m going to have to put it out in the world and people may not like it.’
Community: ‘Well, that’s part of the game. We’re here to support you, but you can’t keep saying this is important and not taking action on it.’”

Jay Clouse

“The very first deadline I set for myself, I hit largely because I invited my tribe to hold me accountable. I was also making preparations to leave corporate life and strike out on my own.  I committed to my … community that I would launch my website on a fast timeline (two weeks).  It took some long days and late nights, but I was determined to not let myself or my tribe down. And the website felt like a vital milestone — a message to myself and my peers that I was really doing this.”
Rachel Jordan, 929 Marketing

“I was re-launching my website and we had a group smackdown and the group tore apart my copy, asked intelligent questions, forced me to get clear on my messaging, and overall made me super uncomfortable … [Then] they bugged and bugged me until I redid my copy. They made sure I got it done without procrastinating … The result was the best work I have ever come up with.”
Joe Nissim, Strengthlete

7. Entrepreneur friends give you the strength to do what you need to do

“It’s all about the focus. Because our work is quiet work and no one knows about all the hours put into creating the product or service that will one day see the world, it’s easy to lose hope because we have to get used to a world where validation doesn’t exist.

“My tribe got that — and they helped me remember that those quiet hours are the most important moments of our venture — because they push us to determine whether or not the work is worth it, and require us to learn how to work with validation only from ourselves.”
Reagan Pugh, Assemble

But where do I find my people?

If you’re reading through this post and thinking to yourself, “Wow, all of this sounds amazing — but I have never experienced anything like what these people are talking about,” don’t panic. It’s never too late to find entrepreneur friends of your own.

Here are some things to try:

Attend a meetup.

If people are attending meetups about entrepreneurship, there’s a good chance they’re looking for entrepreneur friends same as you. Try searching Meetup.com for entrepreneur or business events happening in your area. It can take some trial and error to find people who are interested in building the same kinds of businesses that you are — but once you find them, it’s well worth the effort.

Find a mastermind group.

Dedicated groups for entrepreneurs who are at similar stages of their business can be the best way to meet other entrepreneurs and get actionable advice on moving your business forward, and more of these are cropping up all the time. That’s the model Jay Clouse’s Unreal Collective is built on.

Join a coworking space or an online community.

It could be an actual, physical space that you go to a few days a week. Or it could be a virtual space — the self-employed equivalent to working on a remote team. If your area has a WeWork, you can start there — although you might have better luck with smaller spaces with a clearer focus on solo entrepreneurs like you. (WeWork spaces are increasingly getting taken up by startups and even corporations.) If the entrepreneur scene in your area is quiet-to-nonexistent, a virtual coworking space like The Arena could be right up your alley. Try searching “virtual coworking spaces” and see what you find.

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We’re curious: who are your entrepreneur friends? Where did you find them? How have they made a difference in your life — professionally and personally? Tell us about it in the comments below!