Those who know me well know that I can pretty much lock in and obsess on a notion, when I put my mind to it.

I am the kind of person who can sit in front of my PC and troubleshoot why my stereo mix will not feed my audio editing software for multiple hours. I will click, and click again, until I have worked the problem. I just can’t let it go. I need to solve the problem.

When I get an idea about a product or service I want to launch, I focus on it. I want everyone involved to share my passion and drive.

When I was a manager, I wanted my employees to have the same fire and desire that I did for reaching the goals we had laid out.

The PC problem is unique; you are working on that… alone. The other two examples I mentioned require the participation of others.

The truth is, not everyone is going to have equal buy-in. A manager who expects her team to come in early and stay late just because she does is setting the bar at an unreachable level.  While they may punch in and out when you do, it’s impossible to expect them to care as much as you do.

Everyone has different levels of motivation and different agendas. You will be met with resistance from contrarians, naysayers, Negative Nellys and those who consider themselves “realists”.

Being an entrepreneur is really, really hard; most people will not believe in you. You have a few options available – make sure the core of your executive team shares your vision, lead by example, and most of all, trust your gut.

I am starting several enterprises this year which require buy-in from others to be ultimately successful. I have already learned hard lessons about the process. I have, right out of the gate, made mistakes. Our natural tendency is to slow down, take the foot off the gas, and question the relevancy of our ideas. It’s easy to slow down, or even give up, because it’s a lot easier that forging ahead, right?

Do the best you can to avoid the Resistors. Sometimes sheer force of will can get you where you need to be; sometimes you will have to cajole, obfuscate and blow smoke to get the folks you need to jump in the pool with you. Charisma and chutzpah are valuable tools you will need to convince the universe to believe in your dream.

You are doing this because it is hard. You understand this, and you embrace the difficult road ahead of you. As long as you understand that many will be uncooperative or even hostile to your dream, and forgive them for these completely human behaviors, you will have the stamina to take it to the starting line – Launch Day.

Listen to your heart, and trust your gut. They aren’t sending you false positive signals.