When you first start off with a hobby or a new career track, people around you will generally be supportive. That’s awesome! You’re excited for what you’re doing, family and friends are excited because you’re excited. It’s great! But then things change.

It’s not necessarily all at once, but the initial support you found in those friends and family members wanes. If 80% originally supported you, it won’t be long before, say, only 20% still care at all. I think this is why.

Everybody wants to be a part of something exciting. If you’re excited, they’re excited. But these “hobbies” all start out as a side projects – writing, photography, music, network marketing. It’s fun when people think it’s just a hobby. When you start taking it seriously – as you should – those who were just supporting you suddenly feel uncomfortable.

What you’re doing goes against the norm. Most people don’t turn these hobbies and side projects into full careers. It’s not because they’re incapable, but because it’s really difficult to do. It takes a lot of time and effort on top of your full-time job, which most don’t want to do for an extended period.

Your friends and family – your initial support system – knows this pattern. They’ve seen it before. They know it’s more common to fail than to succeed, and they don’t want to support something they’re “sure” won’t work out.

You get support for the first month, maybe two, but it falls away once they realize you’re doing this crazy thing that works out for maybe 1% of the population. You’ve got a few people who stick with you, but not many. What now?

Now you have to prove yourself to gain support, and this new wave of support will probably come from people you didn’t previously know. If you keep your head down and keep trucking along, that support will come. Here’s the problem, and the light at the end of the tunnel.

When you take a hobby and turn it into a serious goal, your support system is soon going to fall by the wayside. There’s going to be a period where you’re busting your tail and you feel like no one is paying attention to you or cares at all about your goals, and you’ll be right to think that!

But, as you keep going – as you begin to prove that you can, in fact, do this crazy thing and do it well – you will find support. It’ll probably be from complete strangers, and it will be the most rejuvenating and encouraging experience.