Have you ever spent time at your job daydreaming about doing what you love to do and making money from it? Have you ever felt hopelessly exhausted while staying up for days at a time working on your thesis for college? Have you already begun, making extra cash doing something you don’t want to do in order to get to where you need to go? When it comes to creating your own future: building what has the potential to be your entrepreneurial empire, you know that you’ve got to do what you must to make your dreams into reality.

College students know all too well that spending many sleepless nights studying for that huge final isn’t exactly pleasurable. They’re doing what they need to in order to earn that degree and go into their chosen career field. Having that diploma in hand, however, won’t be the end of it.

In this job market, I know many college graduates who are taking minimum wage jobs in order to earn a living while they look for ways to gain employment in the career field they worked so hard to enter.

It’s a means to achieving a goal, after all, and there is no shame in working a job to get by; just remember to not get too comfortable. Don’t stop searching, and don’t stop striving to build your future that is geared toward your chosen career path.

There are too many people who dread going to work. They hate their jobs and they’re only going to sell their time in exchange for a (hopefully) decent living. If you are one of them, don’t believe that you’re stuck, or that you’re destined to forever feel like a hamster running in a wheel that goes nowhere.

It’s incredibly important that you acknowledge that the company for which you work is someone’s dream that came true. The founder of your company was an innovator who found her or his niche and turned it into a lucrative passion. So much so that he or she built the enterprise to the extent that you are now building your life, benefiting from that vision.

If you’re like me, you’ve already begun building the foundation of your great idea that you’re turning into a business. I must admit that in order to create a business; you need to devote resources, not just ideas. Time and money are essential to building an enterprise.

I’ve heard of many small business owners who worked as perfume spritzers or pizza delivery people while they spent the remaining hours of the day developing their new business venture. I am also one of those people. Creating a business is not for the meek-hearted. It needs to be an obsession.

It takes blood, tears, sweat, and true grit in order to maintain the stamina necessary to endure that bullshit job you don’t want to do but have to in order to build your dreams.

Start now. There’s no better time. There is necessity and dignity in working hard.

Start small. If you love to bake and your friends and family have encouraged you to sell your goods, start that way. If you’re an artist – a painter or handbag designer, for example, find a way to show your art publicly, or wear your designs when you go out.

If there’s no market for your particular niche at the moment, create one.  Do what you must to make your dreams into a reality, small step by small step at a time.