You might be an entrepreneur if...

...Your spouse attends family functions, with your side of the family, without you.

...You’ve ever slept in your office chair.

...You’ve gone two years without receiving any paycheck but put in 70 hours a week.

Personally, I don’t refer to myself as an entrepreneur; instead, I prefer overly hopeful, risk-taking junkie with a dash of crazy.

If you read that description and thought, “She just described me,” you might also be an entrepreneur.

I have found, through meeting with hundreds of business owners, that this dash of crazy, love for risk-taking, an overflowing cup of hope, and the fact that we just can’t work for someone else, give entrepreneurs their fire—a fire that is ignited not by money, but by a dream.

My dream was to create a company where women (or men) would be able to use their skills to build a business while being able to stay at home and raise their kids. We now have five people working with or for our company who are able to realize this dream. That gives me a greater sense of success than any balance sheet.

Some business owners strive to build a company that offers jobs and livelihoods to a family of employees; some have an idea or product they want the world to see; some want freedom; others are driven purely by the challenge of building something from nothing. In all cases, business owners, even the wealthiest of business owners, are driven by the dream—money is purely a by-product of success.

Sure, every entrepreneur dreams of making millions or selling the business to a larger company. But the common thread of entrepreneurs is that even those who achieve their dream, turn around and start working on the next one, often before the first is ever fully realized.

Every local business owner I know care deeply about his or her business, but care even more for the people they employ. Government involvement in small business can often make employees feel that owners don’t look after their best interests.  The truth is that business owners lose sleep over the difficult decisions on how to balance the health of the business with the well-being of their employees.

As government regulations, requirements and roadblocks continue to grow for the business owner, it is my hope (remember it has a tendency to fill over) that the heart of an entrepreneur will not be broken. It is my hope that my children will know what it is to realize the true American Dream – the dream of prosperity and success through hard work and perseverance.