I had a phone call with an old friend last week. She's wanting to get her new business (life coaching) established and needed some input on entrepreneurship from me. I was happy to help.
As we talked, we discussed big dreams (income, client load, growth) as well as immediate next steps. She's currently working another full time job as she continues to chase down her dream job.
When she's not at work, she's still working: networking, planning, practicing, dreaming, marketing, sharing, designing, coaching, writing, trying. There is always work before the work.
I reminded her: let's say you need to put in 1,000 hours of work before you can do (get paid for) the work you love. You can either do two hours a week toward that and in 500 weeks (nearly 10 years), you'll be ready to launch your business.
Or you can accelerate that. You can do 20 hours a week of this work (before the work) and by the end of the year you'll be ready. That means long nights or early mornings, but there's no escaping the work. But the choice is yours of when to do it.