There are many facets to entrepreneurial success, and internal thought processes play a huge role.
Funny thing about the human mind; it operates on cause and effect. One thing can relate to or be the cause of another. Successful business is the same. Aligning your business with your mind will spell success.
Top 10 Things Entrepreneurs Realize for Success
# 10) Pride
Staying humble is a great asset to entrepreneurs. As business people and entrepreneurs, we need to recognize our strengths, weaknesses, faults, and attributes in order to be successful.
As some would put it “know your limitations”, but more importantly know your strengths.
Pride can be a huge source of failure. We must learn to trust in others and realize that many other people have great qualities we can utilize. Entrepreneurs struggle with this; we tend to be perfectionists and only we can do the job to our standards.
Arrogance can kill any business. Nobody likes the guy that knows it all. He is always the smartest in the room, craves all the attention, and is just plain annoying. You know the guy I am talking about. He has the best house, finest car, most beautiful women, and all the money. No one can top him in anything. Don’t be “that guy”, most likely it is all show anyway.
#9) Emotions
Creating a product or service out of emotion instead of research is a perfect recipe for failure. If there is no market, there is no business. Just because we love or need something, does not mean everyone loves or needs it. We must have a passion for the business, but we also must be realistic.
We must be in touch with our customer base. People like to feel important. In order to make customers feel important, a personal relationship with the customer is essential. Examples of this would be greeting the customers, sending greeting cards and loyalty rewards.
Having the ability to say “no” to friends and family can be difficult. I am sure you have heard it said, “never hire friends and family”. If you want to maintain a relationship with your friends and family, do not hire them. Do not let them guilt you into giving them a job. Giving can be an asset, but it must be for the right reasons and carefully thought out.
Entrepreneurs keep their emotions out of the business.
#8) Attitude
A positive attitude is contagious, it will reflect upon customers and employees alike. The same goes for a negative attitude.
We all have good and bad days; think about this scenario for a moment. Wake up in the morning only to realize you’re out of coffee; so you get dressed and head out to discover you have a flat tire. You call the local mechanic to come and change the tire, but he is busy. Now you have to get dirty and sweaty, or wait an hour for the mechanic. Making it to the office late, you missed a call from an important client that cancelled his order. It’ 9:30 am and the day has already started out on a less than positive note. How would you deal with this situation?
This could be a great opportunity to regroup and reflect while relieving some stress at the gym. Afterwards, treat that client to lunch and talk over his account. Turn what started out to be a bad day into a great day. Sure beats throwing things around the office and having employees cowering under their desks.
Entrepreneurs know the importance of attitudes
#7) Focus
Focus is something that we all struggle with from time to time. We love our business, but there are aspects of the business that we just dread doing. Staying organized and focused on the task at hand can prove to be a challenge at times.
This is when we are faced with distraction and procrastination. It is often too easy to put off until later what needs to be done now. It seems there is always something that comes up needing our immediate attention. This is our subconscious mind protecting us from that painful task that we dread so much. Entrepreneurs know not give in to this temptation.
Entrepreneurs have minds that are always racing. We are constantly coming up with new ideas and solutions. The list can get quite long. Choosing which idea to focus on and see through can be a problem.
Most entrepreneurs have organizers for this reason. Staying organized and focused is key to success in any business.
# 6) Realistic Expectations
This is a problem for people just starting out in business. We start our business journey with high hopes, dreams and expectations.
We have this awesome idea in our head.” This is going to be fantastic; everyone will love us and we will be so stinking rich”. We start out on this fantastic journey only to be disappointed. Nobody loves us and we are deeply in debt.
Buying into the hype is something that people fall victim to all the time. I will not name the industry, but it takes a special kind of person to be successful in it. Things are often sold using psychological tactics like limited availability (scarcity). Many people are sadly disappointed when they realize they have bought into something that is not for them.
Entrepreneurs know the value of research and are always on the lookout for “too good to be true” offers. We must be realistic in our endeavors.
# 5) Acceptance
Entrepreneurs are human just like everyone else, we do experience failure. Failure is a learning experience to an entrepreneur. We accept our failure and learn from it.
Accepting the change that comes with trial and error is important. Entrepreneurs realize that their business may take a whole different direction than originally planned.
Most of us have financial limitations; learning to accept them is a key element in financial success. We must know what our return on investment should be verses what it is. Not being able to control our spending can be a huge pitfall. We must create a budget and stick to it.
It is often hard for an entrepreneur to admit he does not know it all, much less cannot do it all. Learning to accept this fact and employ the right people for the job often takes humbleness and humility.
# 4) Realization
Common myths among people that do not own their own business are quickly eliminated once they venture out on their own.
You are your own boss; that is not true, everyone answers to someone. This could be investors, board of directors, government, or the customer. Quickly realizing that we now have several “bosses” instead of just one is something to be “accepted”.
More freedom to spend time with the family, take a vacation or just play golf. Entrepreneurs are on the job every waking hour. We might not be physically at the office, but we are constantly working. We come up with new ideas, solve problems and look for new opportunity.
Financial freedom is another misconception. Most entrepreneurs struggle financially at some point. We often go long periods of time without seeing any profit. The ability to accept that and look towards the future is a special quality. Being able to live outside the comfort zone and security of a regular paycheck takes a special kind of person.
Realization of any one of these factors can cause a person to give up. Entrepreneurs realize this from the onset.
# 3) Personality Traits
Personality traits play a big role in success or failure. Choosing the wrong business for our personality can spell disaster.
Shy or introverted people would do well to choose something that does not include a lot of public interaction. Working behind the scenes may be a better fit. There are a lot of successful business people that are not in the public eye.
Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, and not everyone understands this. Entrepreneurship is not something that can be learned. Business can be learned, but entrepreneurship takes a special type of personality. Time and time again people think that because they bought into a business or have a great “idea” for a product or service they can open a business. The above mentioned reasons are only part of this problem.
As entrepreneurs, we do not need to be good at everything or know it all. The most important thing is learning to use your strong suits in combination with those of others.
Entrepreneurs score high on the conscientiousness level of the Big 5 Personality Traits, but not to discount the other traits one might possess.
# 2) Beliefs
We must be aware of the things that we truly believe. Napoleon Hill quoted “whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”.
Without getting into the theories of developmental psychology (and there are many), I will try to explain the concept of this theory. From the time we are born we begin to learn things from our environments (people around us) not all of them are good. Here are some examples; “money is the root of all evil”, or “money cannot buy happiness”.
As adults trying to make a better life for ourselves, we realize that in order to do this we need to make money. The more money we make, the better our lives will be.
About now, I am sure some are saying; “money cannot make our lives better”. Sorry, but that is the subconscious mind speaking from something that was learned long ago. Most do not realize it.
The theories of “self help” do work, but applying those theories is seldom taught. The key is repetition and replacing those self defeating thoughts with positive thoughts.
Entrepreneurs know the value of self talk.
# 1) Fear
Fear is the number one cause for business success or failure. Yes, it can be a force for success. What drives us to get up in the morning and go to work? Fear of loss, or fear of lack. We know that if we do not get up and go to work we will not make any money. We will then lose our house, car, security, and even relationships.
Fear can be debilitating, it can cause us to avoid things and situations that can lead to our success. Example; a person that is afraid of flying must board an airplane to get to a very important meeting on time.
Maybe it is a fear of success. A person can be subconsciously sabotaging their success because they fear the responsibility that comes with it.
Fear of failure, some will not take the necessary risks for success for fear of failure.
Fear of change; people subconsciously do not like change. They cannot get out of their comfort zone no matter how uncomfortable they are in that place.
Entrepreneurs know that in order to achieve the desired success they must take risks and do things they are not comfortable with.
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