I have the pleasure of meeting a different entrepreneur each day. Sometimes you meet an individual studiously working at the same venture for years- without ‘visible success’. Someone tweaking a product, revising the vision in his head, playing with ideas, happy in his creativity and yet frustrated by a lack of progress.

There are a lot of dead ends in entrepreneurship- behaviors that do not lead to progress; inefficient plans. That could be a weak sales and marketing campaign, a product you have never shown to consumers, an absence of networking and business partnerships; perhaps the opportunity you are pursuing is not really an opportunity; and perhaps you are too impatient to actually follow a plan in the first place.

The greatest tool we can use to ferret out dead ends is exposure; announcing your product, and getting advice. We usually do not see the dead ends facing our venture; and often, we incorrectly locate dead ends. Many of the ‘stuck’ entrepreneurs actually imagine- make up- their challenges, in order to excuse some other deficiency.

Recognize dead ends fast so you can circumnavigate them; and recognize your strengths quickly so you can focus your energy on actually productive pursuits.

Sometimes, we need to wake up to the fact that we have been stuck on the same challenge for long stretches of time; and it takes an intelligent adviser to point us in the right direction.