Posts Tagged ‘success’

Before I left home as a seventeen year old to begin my first year of college, my mom gave me an odd and metaphorical pep talk about the experience I was about to have. She compared getting my degree to eating an elephant. She said that the prospect of getting a degree was intimidating and seemingly impossible from where I stood, but that I had the opportunity to create a lifestyle for myself that would allow me to achieve it. It would take a long time, but if I worked on it every day I would look back as a sophomore, with half of the “elephant” gone and I’d be motivated by the progress. On graduation day I reflected on my achievement and was surprised by how simple it was to accomplish. I was able to hold down a part time job, maintain a social life, and still graduate on time. I was busy, sure, but the lifestyle I maintained was perfectly sustainable for the four years I was in college.

Anyone that wants to lose weight or accomplish any kind of goal that takes more than a month or two to finish needs to make their goal a part of their lifestyle. Crash dieting, for example, is ineffective because it can’t be sustained. Long term goals are most likely to be achieved when they are broken up into small and simple tasks that can be worked on daily.

If you spend time thinking about and working toward your goals every day, it will become a habit. You will get closer to achieving your goals every day without getting burnt out. Before you know it, you’ll be looking back from the finish line and wondering where the time went.

Any time someone makes the decision to start a business, they prepare by creating a business plan, setting up an office, hiring employees, and outlining marketing strategies. Inspired by the success stories of their entrepreneurial heroes, new businesspeople run on enthusiasm, adrenaline and caffeine for the first few months of their business’ existence. There’s plenty to do at the beginning of a business launch, so energy is easily spent on important tasks. However, after a little while, the adrenaline runs out and businesspeople are left exhausted, unenthused, and wondering why they aren’t rich yet. This is when a lot of would-be successes burn out, close up shop, and head back to the cubicle farm they came from.

I have a friend whose mother found out how much a few food bloggers in the local area were making with their blogs and decided that was her ticket to success. The next day she slapped together a blogspot and started cooking. After two weeks filled with hours of kitchen experimentation, picture taking, recipe tweaking, and two or three blog posts per day, she became irritated that, despite her hard work, only three people were reading her blog and that none of the A-listers had given her any links. She decided that she would never amount to anything in the blog world and gave up. After two weeks.

Everyone knows about the hard work and passion that is required to start a real successful business of any kind, and most entrepreneurs are able to hit the ground running, but nobody talks about the waiting that’s involved. No matter what, success takes time. Nothing of value can be build overnight. It takes months and months to build links, networks, traffic, and brands, and entrepreneurs need to be prepared for that. It’s vital to the success of a business that the owners work out a schedule that is sustainable for the long-term. Patience and perseverance are just as crucial to a business’ success as passion and hard work. The businesspeople that make it past the post-honeymoon new business slump are the ones that have what it takes to make it big.

Knowledge is one’s ability to mentally access information. You can know Pi to 100 decimal points. You can know all the films Stanley Kubrick directed. You can know that a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is one’s ability to make the best use of that knowledge. This means not reciting 100 digits of Pi on a first date (save it for the second or third), not ignoring all the other great movie directors in the world, and not including a tomato in a fruit salad.

We’ve all met people who have plenty of knowledge but no wisdom. And there are plenty of people out there who have a minimal formal education (it should be noted: a lot of schooling does not automatically equal a lot of knowledge or wisdom) but are wise beyond their years.

Both wisdom and knowledge are important, and both take work and practice. In business, wisdom can make the difference between success and failure. Even someone with a lot of knowledge and a lot of fancy letters at the end of their name won’t automatically achieve success. It takes the ability to intelligently apply that knowledge, to observe one’s surroundings, to properly assess potential options, to make informed decision, and to work hard toward achieving success.

Some say wisdom can’t be learned; they say it’s either something you have or you don’t. But that simply isn’t the case. Once that knowledge is in place, anyone can take it and make the best use of it. Anyone can create a product or service or idea that helps the world. Anyone can use knowledge to achieve success.

“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but on significance – and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning”  – Oprah Winfrey
People who spend their time working at a job they love  not only have a better quality of life, they are more likely to be successful than those of us who toil at jobs that have no meaning apart from the paycheck we get.

Most of us focus on the end result – the ultimate goal – when choosing a career path to fit our lives.  This practice can result in frustration when our work isn’t met with the immediate success we desire.

If, instead, we chose careers that were fulfilling – careers that we would want to do even if we weren’t being paid for them, we might learn to enjoy the process and not only the end reward.  Then, like Oprah said, “even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”  I would add that even the failures would be valuable if we pursued careers that we could love.  Failures provide valuable learning experiences that are hard to appreciate when all we care about is cash.

Does this mean that we all need to quit what we are doing and become artists and firefighters and schoolteachers in order to be happy and successful?  I don’t think so.  Sometimes a slight adjustment in attitude or position can make all the difference in the amount of enjoyment someone gets from their career.  Maybe a similar job at a different company or a similar job at a company of your own would give you the enthusiasm you need to start appreciating the little victories.

Life is too short to focus only on monetary success.  We need to be able to enjoy the ride as well.  What can you do to make your career more fulfilling?  Start thinking about your career as your own, and you might be able to appreciate each step along the way as a valuable lesson or victory.

Setting a goal is an important step to take. It means that you identified something you wanted and decided what you needed to do to obtain it. One technique that will help you clarify and understand your goals even more is to write them down. While it may seem like an archaic function in our digital world, writing your goals will always be a powerful way to internalize them. 

It’s important to be specific when you write your goals. Of course, this requires you to think carefully about how you intend to reach it. Diana Hunt once described goals as “dreams with deadlines.” Specificity dramatically decreases the ambiguous type of New Year resolutions that so many of us proudly proclaim and then promptly forget. It’s the perfect way to stimulate the creative force of your mind. You’ll discover new aspects to your goal and come up with realistic solutions. These solutions are a practical set of instructions for your subconscious mind to follow. 

Another important point is that you should write your goals with a confident and positive tone. By coming up with positive solutions, you’ll enjoy positive results. Speaking of the importance of this approach, Arnold Glasgow famously said, “Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.” The truth is, by confidently presenting yourself with a solid set of instructions for success, you have already set yourself apart from most of the world. And you’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish.

Sometimes, as an entrepreneur, there can be pressure to have all the answers. As the leader and the one in charge, it may seem like it’s unacceptable to have to go elsewhere for help or not know exactly what to do at all times. While an entrepreneur is confident and educated, they are also teachable. At PMI Coaching, we help teachable students get the most out of their experience and help less-teachable students learn the value of lifelong learning.

If you don’t already have the attitude of teach-ability, you may have a long road ahead of you. But here are some ways to ensure lifelong learning.

• Continually ask questions In some situations, you may feel uncomfortable asking questions. You need to get over that. Very few people will ostracize you for asking a question, and those who do may not be the kind of people you want to do business with. If you do have questions that can’t be answered immediately, write them down and look up the answer later.
• Constructive criticism is, in fact, constructive If someone is critical of a decision you make or suggests something, they may have a point. Every suggestion isn’t always a good one, but every sincere suggestion deserves at least a few seconds under the microscope. The added perspective from a coworker, employee, friend, or even competition may be just what your business needs.
• Learn on your own Take a class or read a book. There are many different organizations which offer education and training on various business-related topics. Alternatively, check out a book from the local library or buy one. There is a whole world of resources out there to help you pursue a lifetime of learning.
• Seek out others Whether it be a mentor you can work with one-on-one, or a community of professionals who meet regularly to discuss business, other people can be a great resource. Allow them to teach you what you may not know, bringing their own experiences, troubles, and solutions to the table.

Stay teachable and you will stay successful. Don’t, and you quickly limit your success. The moment you think there’s nothing more to learn about your business, your market, or your industry, you put a cap on your success. If you don’t know how to be better than your competition, how to efficiently reach your customers, or how to improve your product, expect a plateau on the horizon. Your inability to continue learning will only bring failure.

As an entrepreneur, you have a constant laundry list of worries to deal with – paying bills, product fulfillment, customer service.

Not too bad, right?

Well, you’ve also got to come up with innovative marketing strategies, effective website content, and creative new products.

Now how do you feel?

On top of that, you’re ultimately responsible for taxes to be paid, licenses to be renewed, and paychecks to go out.

Have you had enough?

And then are plenty of other responsibilities to deal with, which are all in addition to any personal life you may have, which could include a spouse, kids, mortgage payments, credit card bills, and (heaven forbid) having a little time to relax or have fun.

It’s easy to get frustrated, weighed down, or depressed about everything on your plate, especially if success seems to remain just out of reach. But regardless of all your responsibilities and the status of your business, a successful entrepreneur remains optimistic.

The whole world is not working against you and past failure does not prevent future success.

A successful entrepreneur doesn’t allow negative thoughts to take over. A successful entrepreneur focuses on the positive and possibilities. A successful entrepreneur learns to maximize the good in any situation.

This isn’t to say one needs to ignore or dismiss the bad things that are just part of business. Shipments get lost. Customer gets angry. Mistakes get made. And it’s important to learn from any negative events and do what you can to prevent them from happening again.

Was it just human error, a one-time event? Or was this mistake evidence of a bigger problem? What part of the process could be altered to remedy the situation, and what is the ultimate cost of (or revenue from) such a change? Is a short-term fix enough, or is there a long-term solution which needs to be implemented?

With all of these questions, the focus is on the future and on the possibilities for improvement. Without becoming too cliché, trials, failures, and mistakes really are opportunities to learn, to grow, and to improve.

Here are some tips on how to be an optimistic entrepreneur:

• Affirm the Positive It may sound cheesy, but mentally repeating such phrases as “I can do it” or “Choose to be positive” really can help you focus on the good. It’s also okay to take some time to relish the feeling of success.
• Be Efficient with your Time This is twofold. By remaining busy – solving problems and working hard – it becomes harder to get in the downward spiral of pessimism. Additionally, having a mindset that every minute counts will keep you motivated.
• Be Patient You likely won’t become an optimist overnight. Keep a record – either mentally or on paper – of times you’ve felt optimistic versus the time you’ve felt pessimistic. Try to best analyze what was different about each situation, looking for what may have caused you to react differently (keeping in mind, it could be something as simple as a traffic jam in the morning or stubbing your toe).
• Take Time for Yourself It may just be a few minutes, but take some time each day to do something you want to do. Catch the sports scores, read the comics, go to YouTube.com (just don’t stay long; it’s very addictive).
• Learn to Move On You need to accept what’s happened in the past as a reality; there’s nothing you can do about it now. Move on to the future and focus on what lies ahead.
• Be Honest with Yourself Don’t become delusional, in either direction. Don’t become so deliriously optimistic that you refuse to acknowledge failures, and don’t treat mistakes so seriously that they engulf you. Success is a long and winding road.

And if this song can’t cheer you up, I don’t know what will.