What does it take to be your own boss? What does it take to be an Entrepreneur? That word, Entrepreneur, scares people. It’s a big fancy word, for big fancy people. It has a mystique about it, an association of wealth and power. French is like that, over inflated and important sounding. Really, all it means is one who undertakes, or manages an enterprise. Usually it’s associated with running a business. The actual meaning is less impressive and much less frightening sounding. The reason I go to the trouble of explaining this is to illustrate the fact that once you know what a thing is, it’s a lot less intimidating than it first seems. Running a business is the same. It sounds intimidating and incredibly hard, but the truth is, with the Internet, running a business can be no more frightening than sending email.
There are companies set up to do all the heavy lifting for you. You’ve probably gotten email from a lot of these companies telling you that you can be rich in as little as 24 hours. Truth be told, most of these companies are looking to line their own pockets at your expense. There are exceptions, and they can be found with some searching. Entrepreneurs are driven That brings me to the first attribute any Entrepreneur needs, drive. Anyone who really wants to be their own boss is driven to do it. You don’t just wake up one day and decide, ‘Hey, I think I’ll start a business, let me check my email for one’.
A real Entrepreneur wants to be in charge of their own destiny. They need to make the decisions for their life and their work. They understand that they will never get the money they deserve, working for someone else, and that the higher the risk, the higher the reward. These are people who know what they want, even if they don’t yet know how they can get it. That’s fine, you don’t have to know the exact process to getting what you want, you just have to know what it is that you want. You learn the process as you go. It’s all in the details Knowing what you want is more than simply saying that you want a lot of money. Everyone says they want to have a lot of money, Entrepreneurs say exactly how much money they want to have, and when they want it by. That goes for more than just money. Entrepreneurs specify exactly what they want, no matter what it is, down to the last detail.
This concept sounds foreign to most people at first, after all how can you be specific about something you don’t already have? The truth is, you’ve probably done it yourself at one time or another. Let’s say you want a house. Will just any old house do for you? Probably not. You have needs and desires about the kind of house you want, especially if it’s your dream house. You know for instance how many floors it should have, if it has a basement or not, and if that basement is finished. You know the type of neighborhood it will be in, even if you don’t know the exact one. You know how much land it sits on, and if it’s flat, grassy, forested, or mountainous. Inside the house, you know how many bedrooms it has, and what floors they are located on. You know how many bathrooms you need, or want, and if one of them is a Master Bath next to your bedroom. You (or the person who does most of the cooking) know where the kitchen should be located, and most likely its exact layout for ease and efficiency. Does this house have a garage? How big is it? Is there some sort of workshop in or next to the house, for hobbies? These are all things you’ve already thought about, no matter how far off it seems. These are details that help you to manifest the perfect house for yourself and your family.
Now, take that attention to detail and put it toward your perfect business. Don’t worry about what the actual business is yet, instead think about the details of your life that the business will give you. First off, it’ll allow you to buy or build that house. That’s a detail. Now, what else will it give you? Perhaps it’s the freedom to be at home and work. Perhaps you want the ability to travel to far off places, and how often you could go. With details about the life you want your business to give you, you also have an idea of how much money you’ll need in order to get those things. This is how you work out the details of how much money you want to make, and how fast. If you want to be able to take a trip to Europe for a month by next summer, find out how much it will cost to get there, and prices for accommodations, and don’t forget spending cash.
Now you have a good idea of how much money you’ll need. You also have a goal. Goals are one of the most important things an Entrepreneur has. Goals tell you what you need and when. They also tell you how far along your plan you’ve come. If you set goals for yourself, you are much more likely to succeed because you’ll know if you’re getting off track, and no closer to your goal. Create the details of the life you want your business to give you. Don’t skimp. Stop the doubt from entering your mind. Every time you think, ‘Well, I’ll never be able to do that’, or ‘I could never get that’, or ‘that can’t happen’, you reinforce your fears and doubts, and isn’t it those doubts and fears that have kept you where you are? Entrepreneurs think big If you ever want to be a successful Entrepreneur, you have to think like one. It starts with how you think of yourself. If someone asks you what you do, what’s the first answer you think of? If you have a job, it’s going to be your occupation. If you’re unemployed, you probably get embarrassed about it.
Your self image, how you think of yourself is the biggest challenge to being a successful Entrepreneur. If you asked Donald Trump what he does, he’s not going to list out all the projects he has going, he’s simply going to say that he’s an Entrepreneur. That is the same leap you must make. Stop using your job, or lack of a job to describe yourself to others. When someone asks you what you do, tell them you’re an Entrepreneur! Don’t worry about having a successful business yet, or even a business at all, it’s not required. All you need is the confidence to answer that you are an Entrepreneur. If they ask what it is you do exactly, you can simply say, “I’m in to a lot of projects.” If you can’t confidently tell someone, be it a stranger, or someone you know, that you are an Entrepreneur, you’ll never be one. This is the first hurdle in a very long race, you’d better get over it if you plan to finish. Success really is a mind game. If you don’t think you can be successful, you won’t be. Only by changing how you look at yourself, can you begin to change how you look at other things. If you aren’t successful, how can you ever hope to have the money and lifestyle you desire? Before all else, you must see yourself as successful.
It doesn’t matter how small the success may be, celebrate it! The first time someone asks what you do, and you answer that you’re an Entrepreneur, celebrate it. Celebrate the fact that you’ve cleared that first hurdle. Celebrate that your mindset is changing and you are on your way to the things you deserve. Winning the mind game The things that you feel you deserve are the things you will find a way to get. Entrepreneurs will do whatever it takes to get what they want. If you want it bad enough, you’ll do whatever it takes to get it. Speaking as a man (and being male, I can’t speak for women) when I was young, I never dated. I didn’t have a single date in high school, I was too shy. What girl would ever want to go out with me?
After high school, I realized that the people who I spent my time around most, didn’t have the history that everyone I knew in school did. I could be anyone I wanted to be. I watched the guys who were successful with women. I studied what they did, and how they did it. These were guys who had a different ‘girlfriend’ every week. After all, if they could get all these women to spend time with them, they must know something. To make a long story short, I learned what it takes to get a girlfriend. First, you can’t be afraid of rejection. If one lady says no, go to the next one you think is attractive. Don’t tie your self-worth on one woman saying yes. I learned that when a woman says no, she’s not rejecting you as a person, she’s just not interested. I learned to continue looking.
Never tie your self-worth to anything where failure is a possibility. Remember, failure is not just an option, it’s a requirement! You will fail, it’s inevitable. It’s what you learn from the failure that determines how successful you are. Learn the lesson that the failure has to teach you, and you’ll never suffer the same failure again. When I learned not to sound desperate when asking a girl out, no matter how desperate I really was, I found that I got yes for an answer a lot more. If you don’t tie your self-worth to anything that might fail, you can take the failure in stride and go to the next idea. Eventually, you will succeed.
No one becomes successful overnight, or without failing. Learn to fail gracefully, without loss of confidence, and you have succeeded! Successful people are successful because they believe they are successful, that is the real secret. Does that mean that a failure doesn’t affect them? Not at all. You will be affected by failure every time it happens, just as a guy is affected by a pretty lady turning him down for a date. He finds her attractive, he wants to get to know her better. If she turns him down, that can’t happen, but if he doesn’t tie his self worth to her answer, he’s less affected by the failure. As long as he doesn’t think she is telling him he’s a worthless person by saying no, he can continue on. (Ladies, I’m giving you a secret here, the male ego really is very fragile.) Everything is connected
It’s no coincidence that I’ve used dating as an example for success in business. First, there is no such thing as coincidence. Everything happens for a reason. Life is full of lessons, the ones we learn, never need to be repeated, those we fail to learn, will always be repeated. The lessons you learn while figuring out how to ask someone out, are the same lessons you need to know to be successful in anything else. Believe in yourself, don’t let others tell you that you can’t. Find supportive people to spend time with, and stop spending time with those who say you can’t. If your spouse is one of those people who always tells you that you can’t, perhaps you shouldn’t be married to them.
It’s always easier to believe in yourself, if others also believe in you. Change your attitude, and if need be, change your friends. Successful people hang out with successful people. Surround yourself with successful people and you must be successful yourself, or you will feel inferior. Challenge yourself by making your current situation feel uncomfortable. By spending time with others who you view as successful, you make your current situation seem less than desirable. This will cause you to change the situation. If you’re going to parties at large houses that friends own, you’re not going to invite them to your house until you have a house that you feel is adequate. Since friends expect to be invited to your house now and then, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get the type of house you can be proud of.
The more uncomfortable your current surroundings become, the more you’ll work at changing them. Being successful really is all about attitude. Stop settling for less than you really want. Figure out exactly what it is that you want, in detail. The more detail you create, the easier it will be to get. It’ll also be harder to settle for less than everything you want.
This isn’t everything it takes to be a successful Entrepreneur, this is just the first step. If you create the attitude of success, detailed goals, and learn from your setbacks, you will be successful. Don’t give up. Work harder at this than you’ve ever worked at anything before. Everything else comes as a result of a successful attitude.