As the co-founder and the CEO of the Endeavor company, Linda Rottenberg has served as an inspiration to many. She has made it her life’s mission to provide budding entrepreneursRead More
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]]>As the co-founder and the CEO of the Endeavor company, Linda Rottenberg has served as an inspiration to many. She has made it her life’s mission to provide budding entrepreneurs with the help that they need to turn their bright ideas into decisive action. Even if the person does not have a great deal of experience or a concept that seems outrageous, Rottenberg still takes the time to provide aid.
No idea is too crazy or out there for Rottenberg and her work serves as an inspiration to anyone who has been told that they cannot achieve their goals. After taking a dive into her book, Crazy Is A Compliment, these are the top five lessons I believe that every entrepreneur can learn from the works of Linda Rottenberg.
Whenever a would be entrepreneur comes up with a brand new idea, they are usually called crazy by people who cannot take the time to think outside of the box and see their vision. Rottenberg believes that anyone who is going to try something new and seemingly insane will experience blow back from a variety of sources. She is quick to tell her acolytes about the problems Henry Ford experienced on his way to the top and how Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart idea was considered crazy at the time.
It is important for an entrepreneur to realize that there are no physical barriers standing between them and success, their obstacles are purely psychological. One of the most enduring mottos that she shares in her work is that “crazy is a compliment.”
While most people see entrepreneurs as being wacky and adventurous types, Rottenberg is quick to tell her audiences that this perception does not always match up with reality. She is quick to speak about the importance of taking risks that may seem crazy to the outside observers, but are actually calculated in nature. A common piece of advice that she gives is to keep your day job while you are trying to get your business off of the ground.
Rottenberg speaks about how crucial it is not to bet the entire farm on one idea. Craziness and the ability to stomach risk taking are great qualities to have, but only when they are properly utilized. Even some of the biggest names in the world of entrepreneurs hedged their bets. Phil Knight worked as a tax preparation expert before Nike took off and even Richard Branson (who is seen as being wacky and nuts) talks about containing the potential for disaster. Rottenberg makes sure that these parts of the story are not left out.
Rottenberg takes great pains to dissociate people from the common mental image of the disheveled, rumpled entrepreneur who drapes themselves in old hooded sweatshirts, telling stories of women who launched successful enterprises in the comfort of their own kitchens at home. Despite what you may think, you do not need to be a young male clad in a sweatshirt in order to meet the stereotype of what an entrepreneur should look like.
Young males are no longer the predominant group of budding entrepreneurs. Statistics now show that an entrepreneur is just as likely to be an older male (over the age of 55) or a female. With more and more Americans being forced to work for themselves during this turbulent economic times, it is crucial to get with the current program or end up being left behind.
Many startups employ family members, not because they are the most qualified for the position, but because they have the time on their hands and are able to work for little to no money. That is why a startup prenuptial agreement is necessary. As your company grows, you may need to replace some of these beloved family members with people who have more experience in the particular areas of expertise that you require.
When you start your business, Rottenberg preaches the importance of coming up with a formal partnership agreement and having it in writing. The vision that you and your family members start off sharing for the company can change and in many instances, a family member may even want out, but be too timid to speak up. Avoid these circumstances by spelling out exactly what you expect from your employees and/or partners during the early stages.
Rottenberg often talks about her past as an extreme workaholic and attempts to teach her audiences about the importance of work/life balance. When you are a workaholic, not only is it difficult for you to maintain a normal lifestyle, but it can also be difficult to retain talented employees. Make sure that you get a life and encourage anyone who works alongside of you to do the same. After all, what good is success if you don’t take a moment to enjoy it?
The idea that you have to ignore your family or put the people you love on the back burner is a foreign concept to Rottenberg and she often speaks about the surprise in people’s voices when she mentions her daughter’s dance recitals or other family events. In order to be successful, your personal life does not have to fall by the wayside, a lesson that Rottenberg goes out of her way to preach.
Preview Crazy Is A Compliment with Linda Rottenberg herself
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Visit LindaRottenberg.com to learn more about Linda and her work
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]]>Carol Sanford has risen to prominence as a consultant in the world of business development and is also well known for speaking to potential business owners in a number ofRead More
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]]>Carol Sanford has risen to prominence as a consultant in the world of business development and is also well known for speaking to potential business owners in a number of different settings. She has authored a book, The Responsible Entrepreneur, where she discusses the importance of responsibility and accountability in the entrepreneurial field and her insights continue to be shared in the business community time after time.
“Entrepreneurism isn’t born within a rare few; it’s a fire waiting to be lit inside us.” – Carol Sanford (highlight to share)
There are a number of lessons that every entrepreneur can learn from Carol Sanford and the following list focuses on the five that I find to be the most crucial for you to learn more about how you can emulate Sanford’s tactics.
An entrepreneur does not fail or succeed based exclusively on his or her own merits, a lesson that Sanford teaches in all of her works. Success is achieved within a team context, while failures are typically achieved alone. The entrepreneur who tries to do it all by themselves or ignore the needs of those underneath is setting themselves up for continued disappointment.
One of the most common pitfalls that a budding entrepreneur falls victim to is the perception that they need to take on each of the most important tasks by themselves and minimize the amount of help they need from partners and staff members. However, a truly successful entrepreneur knows how to hold themselves accountable and delegate duties to those who are more talented than themselves. No one ever rises to the top alone, but there are certainly more than a few would-be entrepreneurs who have sunk to the bottom all by themselves.
Carol Sanford speaks about the importance of self-awareness and talks about what it takes for a person to leave their mark on the world. She communicates her thoughts and ideas about the traits needed for a person to reach their full potential. One of the ideas that she regularly touches on is that a successful person does not take any event that takes place in their life too personally. In order to achieve success, an entrepreneur must be able to look at the bigger picture.
Instead of allowing the outcome of certain situation to affect how they feel about themselves, Sanford talks about recognizing the impact of their actions and remaining focused on the task at hand. No one rises to the top without experiencing a few setbacks along the way and none of these issues should ever be taken personally. Your higher aim is what matters most.
When Sanford speaks to her audiences, whether in person or through her writings, she consistently focuses on the responsibilities that come with along with responsible entrepreneurial work. No one starts off their entrepreneurial journey knowing it all or being able to predict the future. Problems lie ahead and while there is no way to control them, you can control the manner in which you react to them.
Rather than being waylaid by every single challenge that comes along, Sanford shows her acolytes how to use them as learning experiences, as a method for enriching themselves intellectually. Thanks to her years of experience, she knows about how rewarding it can be to face a challenge head on and learn from it. There is going to be resistance along the way as you climb the ladder to your ultimate goal, so embrace these challenges and use them as a tool for self-improvement.
We often have moments in life where we feel a certain magnetic pull that encourages us to shoot for a certain goal or to pursue a particular endeavor. Carol Sanford encourages her audiences to stop ignoring those feelings and start pursuing the goals that will truly make them happy. When you pursue the goals that are most important to you, your capabilities will be stretched to the limit, which is the best way for a person to shake off their current comfort zone and grow into a successful entrepreneur.
Your capacity to grow is as limitless as your imagination. If you are someone who is constantly doubting themselves and refusing to see the bigger picture, then you are going to struggle to pursue your true calling. We all have that magnetic tug inside of us, that little voice in our heads that encourages us to stop working at jobs that we hate and to go after our dreams. Sanford ensures that her audiences do not continue to ignore that voice.
Another area of emphasis for Sanford is the importance of self-reflection. She urges her audiences and readers to take a moment to really reflect on what is important to them. What is your goal and even more importantly, what are you going to do in order to reach it? Goals are great, but without a definitive plan, a goal is merely a dream.
Until you can look deep within and decide on what your true goal entails and what you are willing to do in order to achieve it, you will remain in your current state. An entrepreneur is someone who is not afraid to challenge themselves and a person who thrives when they are pushed out of their preferred comfort zone. Thanks to Carol Sanford’s lessons, what once seemed like a dream can become a reality, when you are ready, willing and able to put in the work necessary.
Preview The Responsible Entrepreneur with Carol Sanford herself
Buy The Responsible Business by Carol Sanford on Amazon today
Buy The Responsible Entrepreneur by Carol Sanford on Amazon today
Visit CarolSanford.com for the free workbook deal and more info on the book
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]]>Who is Bo Burlingham and what you can learn from him: Bo Burlingham is a shining example of what can happen when a person does not take no for anRead More
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]]>Bo Burlingham is a shining example of what can happen when a person does not take no for an answer and simply finds a new way to do their own thing. After years working for Inc during the early 1980s as an executive editor, he resigned that position down to an editor-at-large in order to pursue his own interests.
From there, he wrote many successful books about life in the modern business world, giving out helpful tips to all of his readers about how employees can own their own companies. There is a great deal that an entrepreneur can learn from Bo Burlingham, so let’s focus on the five most crucial lessons.
It would have been easy for Bo to get comfortable and settle down at Inc. After rising to the position of Senior Editor, Burlingham could have allowed himself to become satisfied. Most people would have been fine with remaining in that position and thinking of ways to advance the company that gave them the job.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make it to any sort of senior editing position at a major publication. Most would not have wanted to see all of that effort potentially go to waste while they take the time to chase after a dream.
However, Bo Burlingham is not most people. Instead of settling in, getting comfortable and allowing himself to fall into complacency, Burlingham decided to strike out on his own path, leaving Inc to publish his own books. Had he not had the courage to do this, he never would have had the time to write The Great Game Of Business, a book that has sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Burlingham wrote a book entitled Small Giants. In this book, he does a deep dive into what makes small businesses successful. One of the main reasons he discovered? Smaller companies are more able to train their focus on being the absolute best at what they do. Whereas larger companies may find that it is more important to be everything to everyone, a smaller company spends their resources on performing one particular task.
By specializing, smaller companies are able to stand shoulder to shoulder with their larger counterparts and experience many of the same benefits. People are not looking to make purchases from the largest company possible. The consumer is all about finding the best quality at the most affordable price. The company that provides a top notch service and does not allow themselves to be hemmed in by traditional success definition is the one that will prosper over the long haul.
Small Giants delved into a variety of smaller companies, with the objective of showing readers how all of these companies were able to become so successful, so quickly. Whether it is a record company, a deli or a microbrewery, there are a variety of principles that define prosperous small businesses.
Even a tiny company can go about the same tasks as a corporate giant and experience continued success. While these tasks take place on a smaller scale, a company still must raise the necessary capital, invest the funds wisely and choose the right times to expand their operations or make pivotal acquisitions.
One of the most pivotal that an entrepreneur can take from the works of Bo Burlingham is that it does not matter how big or small a company is. The route to success is the same as it would be for a large company. Small business owners are encouraged to take the lessons that have worked for big companies and apply them to their own situation.
A common mistake made by entrepreneurs is that they do not trust their employees to get the job done. In Burlingham’s book, The Great Game of Business, he outlines the benefits of an open book management style. He did not come up with these strategies in a Fortune 500 boardroom or at a high end business meeting.
Instead, Burlingham investigated the plight of a company known as International Harvester. When all of the employees of this heartland factory stood to lose their jobs forever, they banded together and came up with a solution: the open book management style.
When employees feel like they are truly an integral part of the equation, their performance becomes much better. Burlingham has preached the importance of allowing your employees to know about how the company is functioning as a whole. This keeps them from being taken by surprise when certain events occur.
When Burlingham came together with Norm Brodsky to write Street Smarts, he did so with one goal in mind: showing people that there is no magic list of bullet points that an entrepreneur can hit that will guarantee their long term success. He preaches the importance of your overall mentality when trying to start a new business and displays the importance of street smarts.
Being book smart is not enough. An entrepreneur needs to know how to read people and judge a situation that may not come with a helpful handbook. Burlingham also teaches his readers that there will be mistakes made along the way and that these mistakes do not have to come to define you. It is how you rebound from these errors that determines your level of success.
Preview Finish Big with Bo Burlingham himself
Buy Finish Big by Bo Burlingham on Amazon today
Visit BoBurlingham.com to learn more about Bo and his books
Visit SmallGiantsBook.com to learn more about Small Giants
Visit TheKnack.info to learn more about Street Smarts
Visit EvolveUSA.org to learn how Evolve is using Finish Big to build its organization
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]]>Who is Peter Voogd and what you can learn from him: Peter Voogd has received a great deal of attention from a variety of outlets, due to his inspiring trueRead More
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]]>Peter Voogd has received a great deal of attention from a variety of outlets, due to his inspiring true story. Voogd was completely and totally broke, but did not allow his circumstances to define him. He set out on the path to riches and was able to go from being dead broke to having six figures within a mere six months. Peter Voogd was not content to sit back and rest on his laurels, so he wrote a book. The book, entitled 6 Months To 6 Figures became a bestseller.
The following are some of the most important lessons that every entrepreneur can learn from Peter Voogd and his book:
While most people would be inclined to give up when they are completely broke, Voogd did not let his situation bring him down. As a result, he was able to triumph under difficult circumstances. If nothing else, Voogd’s story should serve as inspiration to every would be entrepreneur out there. No matter what your current situation is or how many obstacles stand in your path, there is way to make all of your wildest dreams come true.
“Never let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of yours.” – Peter Voogd (highlight to share)
So many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of allowing themselves to be defeated before they have even had a chance to begin. Voogd did not. Since his story is no fairy tale and he provides realistic ways for his readers to achieve the same goals as he did, there is no reason why an entrepreneur should not be able to take some level of inspiration from it.
A regular complaint from the majority of entrepreneurs who are starting out is that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Voogd knows this and his work is dedicated to showing entrepreneurs more efficient ways of doing things. He shows his readers how to get their bigger tasks accomplished in much less time, without taking any shortcuts that could potentially damage the quality of the work being produced.
His strategies are not sugarcoated for mass consumption and he did not rely on any sort of gimmicks to achieve his fortune. Voogd was able to make himself a millionaire several times over by the young age of 27, so his tactics are proven to work. His success is what gives him an immense amount of credibility in the entrepreneurial community.
A lesson that Voogd constantly preaches to his acolytes is the importance of selecting your inner circle wisely and knowing about the dangers of associating with the wrong kinds of people. There are certain people in your life who are just not as vital to your day to day survival as you may believe they are. There are some people in your life who do not matter and never will.
If you hang around with people who do not have goals and plans for their life, then you will end up in the same boat as them. On the other hand, if you spend your time around those who are driven and goal oriented, then you are able to soak up the lessons that their presence teaches you.
The term that Voogd uses to describe this phenomenon is “circle of influence”. In an ideal scenario, a person’s circle of influence would include several people that they can look up to, some true role models. While the term is bandied about too much in modern times, it is crucial for an entrepreneur to spend time around like minded people that they can gain valuable perspective from.
Voogd preaches the importance of being able to do more with less time and not being afraid to tell people no if what they are asking for will interfere with your ability to accomplish all of the necessary tasks for the day. Organizing your schedule is key and Voogd shows entrepreneurs how to organize their schedule in a manner that leads to maximum productivity.
Whereas some entrepreneurs believe that spending 80 hours a week working is the path to success, Voogd shows them how to work smarter and not harder. He realized that he was using 80 percent of his effort to accomplish 20 percent of his goals and made the needed changes so that he could flip those numbers to his benefit. He began to focus on the most important 20 percent of his daily activities, the ones that created 80 percent of his overall results.
Voogd speaks about confidence and why an entrepreneur needs to destroy their insecurity to move forward. In order to have the utmost confidence, an entrepreneur must have clarity. Clarity only comes to those who have done the proper amount of thinking and know what their goals are and what it will take for them to reach these goals.
An entrepreneur does not get anywhere unless they have a take charge attitude and believe in their own ability to make things happen. No one is going to come along and make things happen for you and this is a lesson that Voogd spends his time teaching to younger entrepreneurs who are struggling with uncertainty.
Talking about success is one thing, but having the guts that it takes to go out and actually pursue it in earnest is quite another. Obstacles are always going to be in your way, but a confident person knows that they have what it takes to overcome them.
Preview 6 Months to 6 Figures with Peter Voogd himself
Buy 6 Months To 6 Figures by Peter Voogd on Amazon today
Visit 6FiguresBook.com to learn more about Peter’s book
Visit GameChangersMovement.com to learn more about his academy
Join the 6 Months to 6 Figures accountability group on Facebook
Follow Peter Voogd on Twitter and Facebook
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]]>Who is Melinda Emerson and what you can learn from her: Melinda Emerson is known as the Small Biz Lady. She is the founder and president of the Quintessence Group,Read More
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]]>Melinda Emerson is known as the Small Biz Lady. She is the founder and president of the Quintessence Group, a marketing consulting firm based in Philadelphia, PA. Melinda founded an organization that aims to provide training materials to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Her curriculum is available for purchase, but she also gives out free advice to those who need it. Here are five of her biggest tips that I got out of her book, Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months:
One of the great things about being your own boss is that you get to set your own hours. But you should create a schedule and stick to it. Try to get most of your work done during your most productive hours. If you are a morning person, get up early and be at your desk ready to make the most out of that part of the day. If you think more clearly at night, sleep in as late as you want but don’t go out with your friends until you’ve finished what you need to get done that day.
Setting hours also helps friends and family respect your schedule. Many people will get the impression that you can take off whenever you want since you don’t have a boss to report to. While it’s okay to take advantage of this from time to time, it is not the path to success. By letting people know that you are not available for a set time period each day, they will get the message that you take your work just as seriously as they take theirs.
There is a lot of research that goes into opening a new business. Once you quit your job to pursue your own company, you are living off of savings. This gives you a limited time to start pulling in money through your new company before you have to return to the workplace. So instead of setting yourself up for disappointment and failure, do as much of the preliminary work as you while still holding your own job.
Research is one of the most important steps in pursuing any new venture. And much of it can be done before you quit your job. Spend one hour each evening looking into what the growth potential is for your business. Learn what you need to succeed in this field. Get as much lined up as possible ahead of time. That way, once you do put in your two weeks’ notice, you can tackle this project with your full energy and get up and running in no time.
Corporations have huge budgets dedicated simply to market research. You don’t have six figures to spend on this. So you’re going to have to do a lot of the legwork yourself. But this isn’t that difficult. Much of it can be done just by asking yourself a few key questions.
You can get a large number of responses simply by asking people. Once you’ve run your ideas past a few trustworthy sources, send out a Facebook message to get as many answers as possible. But if you leave open ended questions hanging out there, you are going to be overwhelmed with the endless answers you receive. Instead, ask simple yes or no questions to keep people focused and to collect the specific information that you are looking for.
Don’t assume that anyone and everyone is going to want what you are selling. Something that appeals to a wide audience is of course more likely to succeed than something that only a few people are going to want. But when you are just starting out, it’s helpful to focus in on a tight group.
This gives you a concentrated focus that can keep you centered. Particularly in the beginning stages, you are going to have limited resources for things like advertising. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, send a strong message out to a target audience. As they support your company, your reputation will spread through word of mouth. Once you’ve established yourself with your original audience, you can reach out to other groups.
A word of caution on branching out: you don’t want to betray your existing customers. If you change your image too much to attract a different crowd, you will lose your original audience. This type of change leads to a drop in customer loyalty that can have far reaching negative consequences.
Social media is a cheap and easy way to reach out to a wide audience and develop relationships with your customers. But it has to be used well to be effective. This is not your personal profile that you use to catch up with friends. You need to use it to present a consistent business image that lets your customers know who you are.
This doesn’t mean that everything has to be overly polished. Customers appreciate rough pictures that show behind the scenes action. But just because something looks spontaneous doesn’t mean it is. Thing through something before you post it. Pictures and videos can always be taken down later, but if the Internet has taught us anything, it is that nothing ever completely disappears.
Preview Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months with Melinda Emerson herself
Buy Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months by Melinda Emerson on Amazon today
Visit SucceedAsYourOwnBoss.com to get the first two chapters and some more resources
Follow Melinda Emerson on Twitter and Facebook
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]]>Who is Mike Michalowicz and what you can learn from him: Mike Michalowicz launched his first company when he was 24 years old. After selling it in 2002, he foundedRead More
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]]>Mike Michalowicz launched his first company when he was 24 years old. After selling it in 2002, he founded PG Lewis & Associates, which he sold in 2006. He now works as a writer, speaker, and consultant through Provendous Group. He helped found the company, which is a profit sharing venture group, and currently serves as the CEO.
Mike is more than happy to share his success with other aspiring entrepreneurs. His books are full of advice, and his blog is loaded with helpful articles. Here are his top 5 pieces of advice for new business owners.
Get rich quick schemes are a fool’s dream. You can build a large and successful business. But it will probably take 10 to 15 years. If you go into a new project expecting instant wealth, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. When you don’t reach your goals, you’ll likely become discouraged and may give up on your dreams too soon. Setting realistic goals is the most important thing you can do for your new company.
If it was common place to become a billionaire by opening your own business, everybody would be doing it. It isn’t uncommon for people to open a new business planning on astronomically large financial returns. Realistically, just managing a business that keeps its doors open is a huge success. Don’t expect to make millions by doing it.
You also need to step back and watch for long term results. Any new venture is going to have setbacks. Keep reminding yourself that big success takes time and perseverance. It also takes a little luck much of the time. As long as you see forward progress towards your goals, be content with the pace at which things are moving. The only really bad sign is if your company remains stagnant for a long period of time.
Just because nobody else has the exact same idea as you doesn’t mean that you won’t face competition. Any available alternative to using your product or service is competition for your business. This includes the possibility that people choose to do nothing.
It isn’t enough to convince people that there isn’t anything like your product on the market. A truly superior product almost always costs more- you need to convince your customer base that the extra features of your product are worth the extra money it costs. People might recognize that you have the best product on the market, but they don’t need anything that does what your product does. You need to convince them that they do.
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of putting their entire lives on hold as they focus on getting their business off the ground. If you don’t take care of yourself, however, your business will suffer. Everybody needs time off to relax, de-stress, and remember why they do what they do. A little time away from your company can serve to remind you how much you love it and send you back to work with a renewed enthusiasm.
Nobody can fire on all cylinders 100% of the time. As you get more stressed, you will become harder to work with and for, affecting your employees. As you get more tired, you will start to miss little details that just slip right past you in the rush. If you run yourself too hard, your health will start to suffer. In order to take care of your business, you need to take care of yourself.
Startup companies succeed in attracting employees away from established corporations by having a worthy goal for people to rally around. A dedicated team of people focused on the same outcome is a very powerful force. But if you attract different people with different messages, you aren’t going to have a unified objective. It’s okay to tailor your pitch to each party a little, but the core message has to remain the same.
This is also true in marketing. There are countless outlets for you to use to raise brand awareness. Different outlets lend themselves to different messages and you’re going to want to refine your message to reach your target audience with each marketing campaign. Newspaper ads, for instance, as far more likely to be seen by an older audience, so you’ll want to present yourself slightly differently than you would on a social media site with a young following. But you company image has to be consistent across all these platforms. If people don’t know who you actually are and what you do, they aren’t going to become customers.
The Internet is not known as the Information Highway for nothing. One tiny leak can spread across the globe in seconds. For this reason, it is very important that you are always upfront about everything. It is almost certain that anything you try to cover up will become public knowledge. People will forgive and forget a mistake that you own up to relatively quickly. But a cover up that gets exposed in a juicy scandal will hang over your company for years. Your reputation may never recover from such a blow.
Preview The Pumpkin Plan with Mike Michalowicz himself
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Preview The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur with Mike Michalowicz himself
Buy The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz on Amazon today
Preview Profit First with Mike Michalowicz himself
Buy Profit First by Mike Michalowicz on Amazon today
Visit MikeMichalowicz.com to learn more about Mike and his books
Follow Mike Michalowicz on Facebook and Twitter
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]]>Who is Hal Elrod and what you can learn from him: Hal Elrod, known as “Yo Pal Hal,” started hosting his own radio show at age 15. When he wasRead More
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]]>Hal Elrod, known as “Yo Pal Hal,” started hosting his own radio show at age 15. When he was 20 he was hit by a drunk driver. He was clinically dead for 6 minutes and in a coma for 6 days. Doctors told him he may never walk again. Today, Hal is an ultra-marathon runner.
Hal is the author of 2 of the most acclaimed books on Amazon, regularly appears on television shows all over the country, and is one of the most popular life coaches today. Here are 5 lessons that all entrepreneurs can learn from Hal Elrod:
The first thing you need to do to start reaching your goals is to accept responsibility for all areas of your life. It is impossible for you to determine the course of your life when you are placing responsibility on someone else. When someone else is to blame for the current situation we find ourselves in, we often become passive. But when you accept the responsibility of getting yourself out of that situation, you reclaim power over your own life.
Many people hesitate to claim responsibility because they assume that they have to accept the blame for that situation as well. But responsibility and blame are two different things. Blame identifies who is at fault. But the fact is, it doesn’t mean why you find yourself in any given situation. What matters is that you commit to finding a way out of it. And that is responsibility.
It is only natural for people to be very emotional about a new business that they are starting. This venture makes up a large part of your life and it only makes sense that you would feel very strongly about it. But when we allow our emotions to dictate what we do, we become reactive. This always puts us one step behind. Instead, we need to be guided by our minds, which makes us proactive.
“The number one cause of unfulfilled potential is never deciding that now matters more than any other time in your life.” – Hal Elrod
When we make emotional decisions, we choose things based on what will make us feel good right now. No business will ever succeed if it is built on such short-sighted goals. We need to take the long term view of everything. It may require sacrificing short term pleasure for long term happiness and success. Before making any decision, take a step back to review the consequences of each choice objectively.
One thing that is true of all great leaders is that they help other people reach their personal and professional goals. When you focus on how you can help others, you will find yourself receiving countless offers of help in return. The more people we help, the more influence we will accumulate. This directly translates into more success.
If you help people get what they want, you will be much more likely to get what you want. Far too many entrepreneurs treat competitors like the enemy. The fact is, the market is almost definitely big enough to accumulate your company and theirs. Partnerships and friendly cooperation are the building blocks of success.
Everybody has bad days. It’s just a fact of life. You will encounter obstacles and setbacks in reaching your goals, some of them of your own making. Unsuccessful people use these bad days as an excuse for future failures. Because yesterday was bad, they are running behind today and that negatively affects tomorrow. With this mindset, they create a whole series of bad days out of one mistake.
Successful people, on the other hand, learn from their mistakes. They own up to their bad choices and use them to grow as a person. They refuse to let one bad day turn into two. Instead, they seize the opportunity to analyze what led them to that bad day and study how they can avoid repeating it in the future. The difference between success and failure is not the number of mistakes you make, but rather how you react to those mistakes.
Doing anything for the first time is uncomfortable. It’s often at least a little scary as well. It is perfectly natural to feel fear when you are beginning a large project. That fear does not mean that this is a bad idea or that you are not ready to start something. It just means that you are trying something new and unfamiliar.
Fear paralyzes. The best way to combat fear is with action. Once you actively begin pursuing your goals, the fear will fade away. It is when you stand still and allow the fear to overwhelm you that your goals elude you. You don’t have to deny the fear or pretend that you don’t feel it. But you do have to move ahead through it.
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]]>Who is Carol Dweck and what she can teach you: Carol Dweck is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her work is mostly focused onRead More
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]]>Carol Dweck is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Her work is mostly focused on studying motivation, personality, and development. She ties these subjects together in her bestselling book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
Here are five of the lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from reading her book:
Everyone has a mindset. The simplest definition for a mindset is how a person takes in and processes information. According to Carol, people can broadly be divided into learners and non-learners. Non-learners have a fixed mindset. They see talents and abilities as something that you either have or don’t have. If you don’t have them, then you can’t succeed.
Learners have a flexible mindset. They see talents and abilities as something that can be developed. If they don’t have the skills they need right now, they learn how to acquire them. They don’t worry about making mistakes. Instead, they learn from their mistakes and keep pushing forward.
If you ask people to picture Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb, most people will describe him as standing alone in a lab tinkering with various equipment. But the fact is, Thomas Edison was not a loner. The exact opposite is true. When he invented the light bulb, he had 30 lab assistants working with him.
These lab assistants included chemists, mathematicians, physicists, engineers, glass blowers, and more. Thomas Edison was a genius, but he didn’t know everything that this group of people did collectively. To be the leader of a team, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. You just need to find the smartest people in their field and cast your vision onto them so that they join your team.
Some people just aren’t good at giving constructive criticism. However good their intentions are, it may come across as harsh and judgmental. But the fact is that there is more to criticism than how it is given. You can control how you hear it as well.
It’s all too easy to react to criticism defensively. To you, it might sound like they are saying that you are not good enough. But all they may be trying to do is point out where you have room for improvement. Since you should always be striving to better yourself and your business, you should welcome this feedback. It shows you where you can target your focus in order to increase efficiency or improve service.
What you do not want to do is attack the person giving you the criticism. You might feel yourself getting angry, and it is very tempting to lash out and put someone in their place if you believe that you are being unfairly criticized. But if they are trying to help you, you do not want to drive them away. Even if they are phrasing their criticism harshly, and even if they are doing so deliberately, you can choose to find the grain of truth in their words that you can use to improve your business.
Different people are wired differently. Some people have a natural optimism that allows them to always find the silver lining. Other people get discouraged more easily and are not as naturally resilient to setbacks. But just because you have to work a little harder to find a productive lesson that can be learned in any situation does not mean that you can’t do it.
How we react to setbacks and obstacles is ultimately our choice. We can choose to see them as proof that we just don’t have what it takes to succeed in business. Or we can choose to see them as opportunities to challenge ourselves and grow. Some setbacks can be catastrophic and take years to recover from. But even these can be tackled constructively if we embrace the challenge to stretch ourselves and expand our abilities.
No matter how naturally optimistic you are, there will be days when you get discouraged. This is when it is most helpful to have friends and partners who will come alongside you and help you find your motivation again. But ultimately, no one can change your mindset except you.
Setbacks can present such huge obstacles that we don’t even know where to begin on damage control. This is when fixed mindsets tell us that we just aren’t good enough to do this. If we were mean to succeed, we’d know what to do. Since you don’t know what to do, you end up doing nothing.
Instead, take action. It doesn’t matter what that action is. It may not even begin to address the problem as a whole. But identify one small step that can get you moving in the right direction. And then take that step. As tiny as it might be, that first move towards growth is the most important thing you could possibly do.
It helps you feel like you are in control again and it snaps your brain back into action. Nobody is every entirely comfortable when they feel like events are out of their control. Doing even the smallest thing to reclaim some measure of control is a huge first step. And it also sends an important message to your employees and your investors. Yes, things have taken a turn for the worse. But you are letting them know that you are still in control and still hopeful for a positive outcome in the end. This is the most important image that you can portray when facing any large obstacle.
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]]>Who is Guy Kawasaki and what you can learn from him: Guy Kawasaki is one of the most famous entrepreneurs alive today. He has worked for Apple and Google, writtenRead More
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]]>Guy Kawasaki is one of the most famous entrepreneurs alive today. He has worked for Apple and Google, written for Forbes and MacUser, founded Fog City Software, and is now a successful author and speaker. He also founded or helped found Garage Technology Ventures, Truemors, and Alltop.
With so much success under his belt, it is no wonder that entrepreneurs all over the world want to learn from him. He shares many of his secrets to success in his book, The Art of the Start. He recently updated it for 2015, and The Art of the Start 2.0 has only just hit bookshelves.
He understands that one of the hardest parts of starting your own business is finding the capital you need. In his recently updated book, he shares the following 5 tips for how to get the startup money that you require to launch your new company.
People are always more willing to loan money to people that they know. If you are lucky enough to be on a first name basis with someone who could potentially hand you a large amount of funds, obviously they are going to be your first pitch. If you don’t know anyone with the appropriate funds, or if you need more than one investor (and both of those are almost certainly true for most entrepreneurs) then you’re going to have to reach out to people who aren’t familiar with you.
When you meet with potential investors, you’re going to have to create a feeling of familiarity. The best way to do this is through common ground. To establish this, you need to do your homework on potential investors. Social media profiles are a perfect place to find background information on a person. Find out if there is any overlap between you and them. Attending the same school or frequently travelling to the same destination is the perfect place to start. Other connections like shared hobbies are also fertile ground for making connections.
Above all, be truthful. Never lie to your investors. Trying to make up common ground is almost sure to end in disaster. Name dropping people that you don’t really know or faking enthusiasm for something you are completely ignorant about will destroy your credibility.
Have something to show investors when you meet with them. It is supremely unlikely that anyone will invest in your company if all you have is an outline and a dream. Throwing money at such a venture requires an enormous leap of faith on the part of your investors. Anything tangible that you can show them increases the chances of them supporting you.
Actual sales are one of the best evidences of forward progress. If you can show that people are buying your product or service, investors will be happy. Even if you haven’t sold anything yet, there is still evidence that you can provide. Set up a website and track the traffic flow through it. Ask people to register on your site and show an increasing number of users. No matter how little it looks to you, any traction at all is better than none.
People often meet with investors to pitch ideas with independent studies that show a demand for their product. While this does provide hard evidence that there is a market for your company, it is still a finite vision. It is better if you can drop a few numbers that allow investors to do their own calculations. This will lead to them building their own fantasy. Not only does this create the idea of a vast market, but it also gives them more interest in your startup. When they are casting their own vision, they are much more likely to support you.
An example of catalyzing fantasy is how Pets.com got their start. They showed investors that there are 300 million Americans and 25% of them own a dog. The math leads investors to the conclusion that there are 75 million dogs in America. Then you let your investors know that these dogs need 2 cans of dog food per day. Which means that 150 million cans of dog food are being used in America every single day. That is a huge market that investors will naturally be attracted to.
The hardest investor to get is the very first one. Everyone is reluctant to be the first person to put their money in a new venture. If you can show them that even just one person has already invested in your company, they will be much more comfortable supporting you.
It might sound like a good plan to cast a wide net in order to attract as many investors as possible, but that isn’t the best way to start. Do your research on possible investors and target just a few that you really believe you can convince. Focus on them until you get your first investor. Then you can start reaching out to more people. It is better to have one investor fully committed than to have ten investors who are thinking about it.
People are much more likely to act if you let them know that this is a limited time offer. Tell them that you are raising this set amount of capital and once you reach it you won’t be accepting any more investors. Or determine that you are only going to accept a certain number of investors, at which point it will no longer be possible to join this exciting new venture on the ground floor.
As previously stated, you cannot lie to your investors. If you set a cutoff number, once you reach it you have to stop accepting investors. This might mean that you have to get creative in order to raise any money you need over and above you original investments. While this might seem like a step in the wrong direction, it is a proven way to make your venture more attractive to possible investors.
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]]>Who is Stephen Key and what you can learn from him: As an award-winning inventor and author, Stephen Key and his runaway success serves as a motivator to all otherRead More
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]]>As an award-winning inventor and author, Stephen Key and his runaway success serves as a motivator to all other entrepreneurs. His belief that all a person needs is a well-executed idea in order to be truly successful provides hope to those who lack it. Key is determined to show budding entrepreneurs the ropes and give them the lessons they need to turn their fortunes around. Here are five of the most important ones.
Key teaches his followers to trust in their gut and believe in their instincts. He achieved his success by trusting in his instincts and you can too. Key preaches the importance of accepting when something does not have the right look or feel to it. When a situation does not feel right to you, there is typically a very good reason for that.
If you are looking into something that does not sit well in your gut, it is time to do your homework and take a long look into whatever aspect concerns you the most. We tend to minimize our own intelligence in these sorts of scenarios, but Key teaches us that we are much smarter than we believe.
The old saying that if something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck holds true here. There is no need to over think a situation to death. Trust your instincts and go with the choice that makes the most sense to you.
Rushing into a decision due to time constraints goes against every principle that Key attempts to teach. He is not afraid to talk about times that he made a decision hastily and how it did not benefit him to do so. Since he makes it so easy to learn from his mistakes, it becomes easier to make the right choice in our own lives.
One of the most important lessons Key teaches is that hastiness has no place in the world of business. When a deal is being made, there is no reason why the other side of the negotiation table should be pushing for a fast decision. If they do, this should serve as a gigantic red flag.
In order to come to the right decision, a person needs time to think it through. While others will try to convince you that there are great reasons for urgent behavior, Key preaches the importance of not buying into such a mind state.
Key has experienced a great deal of aggravation by trying to convince businesses to change their ways and try something new. By spending time selling his inventions, he has been able to get an insider’s view as to how business is done and is not shy about sharing all of his revelations.
As such, he has learned the importance of tailoring your products towards the people who actually need them, as opposed to selling to someone who has no need for your product. When you waste valuable time trying to pitch to someone whose mind is already made up, that is time that you cannot get back.
Most people have a comfort zone that they like to remain inside of and pitching to those is a hopeless endeavor. Even the best idea of all has little to no value when it is being wasted on someone who has no interest, so plan accordingly.
Just because we want something badly does not mean that we are meant to have it. Key teaches us that things not going our way is not always a cue to work harder. Sometimes, we must accept that a situation will not turn out in a way that is favorable to us. Instead of continuing to battle, it is preferable to cut our losses and live to fight another day.
While having a great deal of willpower is great, it does not always serve us well. Stubbornness and the ability to fight are great, but they are not always the most useful tools we have at our disposal. Letting things go is often the best course of action, whether we want to admit it or not.
Pushing too hard to make something happen that is not meant to be can lead to regrets. One of the hardest lessons in life is knowing when to push harder and when to let something go. Navigating this difficult divide takes time and no one should be expected to fully grasp this concept overnight.
In a world where more and more communication takes place over e-mail and text message, lack of proper communication is bound to happen from time to time. When you are in doubt as to whether your message is being communicated in the manner you prefer, do not hesitate to pick up the phone.
Key teaches that e-mail and text message are convenient, but do not have the personal touch needed to properly convey a message. When a person is unable to witness or hear the intent behind your words, this leads to issues that can be tough to solve.
Picking up the phone can be inconvenient, but it also nips minor problems in the bud before they have a chance to become major ones. By making the call and/or taking the time to meet someone in person, you demonstrate a far greater level of commitment, giving you an advantage over your competition.
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