Entrepreneurship is not easy. In fact, many describe being an entrepreneur as one of the most difficult and challenging things that they had ever done, if not also the most rewarding.
Entrepreneurs are people who tend to value time over money, wisdom over knowledge, and proactivity over-reactivity. Becoming a successful entrepreneur may not be the easiest task, but it is certainly worth it for the inherent freedoms.
Today, I want to discuss some of the key tips and tricks that you can use to make your entrepreneurial journey easier and more enjoyable than it would otherwise be. Keep in mind that these tips and tricks are useful for anyone who wants to create something big or move off the beaten path!
Without further ado, let’s dive into the first of these tips for becoming a successful entrepreneur!
Ambition
Although we all know that entrepreneurs are naturally ambitious, I bet what you didn’t know is that your ambition is going to be constantly put to the test. Recognizing that your ambition must be resilient and have “grit” in the face of adversity is the first necessary step to overcoming the doubt and struggle that entrepreneurs face all the time.
You need to solidify your ambition in something concrete and meaningful to you. Otherwise, you run the risk of justifying or tolerating mediocrity. In terms of entrepreneurship, when you are solely responsible for your own results, livelihood, and happiness, tolerating less than you are worth is going to be setting yourself up for failure in the long-run.
Ambition is the key element in challenging yourself, growing, and finding the meaning in the small things along the way to great rewards.
Passion
Entrepreneurs are obsessed with the idea that “if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.” And I can attest to that. Finding your passion as an entrepreneur is the first major sign that tells me if you will “make it or break it.”
Put simply, those who pursue their passions tend to stay the course despite the hardships, lack of money, or other major factors that limit people. This is why it is so dangerous to be an entrepreneur who only ever takes action for the money involved.
People who don’t pursue their interests and take action for the money are people who bend whichever way the wind blows and don’t often remain consistent the way you are supposed to be when building a brand or business.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, but happiness buys money. If you pursue happiness (i.e. something you are passionate about) you will find the motivation to do that thing through thick and thin, day in and day out. If you can push through the adversity and constantly grow, you will eventually become an expert in that passion of yours, and experts are paid…a lot.
No Risk, No Reward
Risk and Reward do not typically follow an inverse relationship. That is to say, when risk increases, the reward must increase as well. Otherwise, the risk would never be worth the reward involved.
Entrepreneurs are masters of taking risks, partly because they take so many and learn from their experiences, and also because they have a good sense of estimating probability, and managing the risk involved.
Without taking risks of any kind, you will find it difficult to continue on your entrepreneurial journey. The people who have skyrocketed to fame, fortune, and more are the same people that have spent a good amount of their lives ding nothing but taking calculated risks.
Psychology has shown us that humans generally lean on the side of risk-averse. That is to say, humans would rather avoid loss at the cost of gaining rewards. Despite whether the rewards and costs are the same.
Part of being an entrepreneur is learning which risks are genuinely worth taking, and how you plan on making them work for you. Most of this has to do with measuring the possibility of success alongside your passion and vision you have for yourself in the future. This gives you a better perspective with which to measure your risks along the way.
Deal with Doubt
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is taking action despite the fear involved. In that same vein, entrepreneurial success is not the absence of self-doubt, but the managing of it, and the recognition that you have worth despite what you may think at that time.
Doubt and fear is the deadly combination that cause most entrepreneurs to fall flat on their face. It has been said that fear has killed more dreams than failure ever has. This is because people often just fail to try anything new in the first place.
Dealing with fear and doubt isn’t easy, but it’ll be necessary in overcoming the limiting beliefs and debilitating thoughts that you tell yourself on a daily basis. To overcome doubt and fear, you need to prove yourself efficacious in a litany of situations.
Efficacy is what occurs when you have the knowledge and experience of properly performing an action, and it is more powerful than confidence is. If you are doubtful of your ability to succeed, I’d say you lack confidence, but confidence is derived from efficacy.
Consider this: Fear stems from our doubt that we can handle the consequences of a certain action or choice (we often always can). But overcoming fear comes from the efficacy we develop in having handled those situations before, thereby giving us the confidence to move into new territory.
Do something small each day that scares you, and I guarantee that you will find yourself growing and moving past your comfort zone in no-time.
Create a Vision
Like I’ve said before, entrepreneurs don’t just operate by going with the flow and making decisions on the fly. Entrepreneurs often create a “success vision” of themselves so that they have a yardstick with which to measure what success really means to them and what it would take to get there.
Entrepreneurs that don’t create this vision are stuck to wonder when they are successful, and this innate (and often external) measure of success is what causes them to doubt themselves and deflate as a result.
Your definition of success needs to come from within you and you need to avoid placing weight on the opinions of other people, as doing so will only leave the door open for victimhood to enter your life and make a splash.
Create a simple vision in terms of monthly, yearly, and decade-long timeframes. It is ok if these visions change over time, everybody’s definition of success can’t be rock-solid, but use them as guideposts for making your entrepreneurial decisions and you’ll find yourself closer to the “successful” you than if you hadn’t.
Overcome Analysis Paralysis
The people who get the most done are the people who know exactly when to STOP analyzing and START taking action. This way, those people get the most important information and time with which to make decisions but also don’t become trapped in that information and constantly spin their tires.
It’s hard to overcome analysis paralysis. This is because that magical point at which it is useful to start acting may be different for every unique situation, however, generally if you can ask yourself “why aren’t we moving forward” that is a sign that you’ve spent slightly too long analyzing.
Tony Robbins coined the term “CANI” which stands for Constant and Never-ending Improvement. People who adopt the philosophy of CANI are those who are motivated by the perfection of their craft. (often something that relates to their passions, remember?)
To overcome analysis paralysis, try prioritizing your decisions. Treating all your decisions as if they were equally important is a good way to become overwhelmed by the “fluff” of information that is presented to you.
By doing this, you can begin to break down your decisions into smaller and more manageable steps than you otherwise could.
Conclusion:
By starting off your entrepreneurial journey with these tips in mind, you’ll be able to make much better use of your limited time and vision in order to ensure success from the very beginning. Remember, being an entrepreneur is about trying to make the most of your time, and not the most money.
Perhaps the most important thing about being an entrepreneur is to avoid feeling as though failure is permanent. Failure really only exists when you acknowledge that it does, otherwise it becomes an opportunity for growth, learning, and eventually, success.
So keep these 6 tips in mind and conquer the entrepreneurial journey!
6 Tips For Entrepreneurial Success:
1. Ambition
2. Passion
3. No Risk, No Reward
4. Deal with Doubt
5. Create a Vision
6. Overcome Analysis Paralysis
Thanks for reading!
Work With Austin
-Austin Denison is a management consultant and coach from Southern California and founder/CEO of Denison Success Systems LLC. He is the author of The Essential Change Management Guidebook: Master The Art of Organizational Change as well as The Potential Dichotomy: The Philosophy of a Fulfilling Life.
Comments are closed