How to Wake Up Ready
by Case Lane
When you set out to take control of your life, by starting your own business, there are two things you are trying to do at the same time – transform your life to the routine you really want, and start a business.
These ambitious plans and activities should not be taken lightly. To accomplish this major rewiring of your attitudes and your actions, you need to wake up ready to go. Each morning has to be about jumping at the chance to put yourself exactly where you want to be.
But at the same time you’re facing your reality – going to a job you might not like, family demands, financial issues. You need to psyche yourself up for the amazing plan you have to get to lifestyle freedom.
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
Set Your Reason for Getting Up
First and foremost, you want to control your own life – your working life. You want to be your own boss, do work that you really value, and bring your ideas forward into the global marketplace.
To do that, you want to start your own business. You want to become an entrepreneur, be that person who takes the risks, but reaps the reward of doing something unique.
Given that goal, you need your energy, perseverance and courage to make the changes you need to make to be where you want to be. You need to wake up ready.
Value Yourself
You must believe in your personal value, and your contribution to the world because when you do – you wake up with a smile on your face, ready to roll.
When you value yourself, each day is about achieving more, challenging yourself and embracing opportunity. Your ability to be ready is tied to your own vision of why it’s important for you to be ready.
You have something to offer. An idea for a product or service that the global marketplace wants or needs. And you are willing to take the risk to bring this product forward so that you can help people solve a problem.
Give yourself all these great reasons to wake up in the morning? To jump up and get on with the job. You have a clear purpose. But just as important, you know you are the person who can fulfill that purpose.
Picture Your Entrepreneurial Life
Have a clear idea in your mind of exactly the life you are trying to achieve. Not just in a general sense of a product or service you know you want to deliver. But the entire picture. What does your perfect life dream look like?
Make sure you know your own vision. If you wake up thinking about your plans, you can give yourself the spark to get to work immediately on making the dream a reality. Fall asleep with your goals too. And wake up ready to implement.
Someone once said ‘it doesn’t matter where a girl comes from, as long as she knows where she’s going.’ That’s a great phrase.
Have a Morning Phrase
Give yourself a morning phrase – a summary of your intention. Pick a line like the one above and repeat it. Make sure it’s a phrase that gives you confidence to get things done.
Establish a Morning Routine
Create a consistent morning routine. Hal Elrod’s best-selling book ‘The Miracle Morning‘ is a great place to start. Hal took six commonly known self-reflection activities – reading, mediating, visualization, affirmations, exercise and writing – and developed a process for you to do all six each day with intention. The key to getting the activities done is to get up earlier, and make the routine the first thing you do each day.
TMMers (that’s the community built around the book) recognize that the early start to specifically focus on having a great day – sets up a great day. Not all advice fits every lifestyle, and the six practices can easily be modified or adapted to suit a particular lifestyle.
But the basic concept remains the same. But the key is to give yourself something to do immediately when you wake up.
You may even prefer different activities like – sing a song, cook, check the stock market figures – any consistently done morning activity gives you a reason to get up and start your day.
Know Your Daily Goals
Know the key activities you want to accomplish each day to advance your business. These goals can be set and reset as often as needed, and can be tactical activity in support of larger annual or monthly goals.
You want to give yourself designated activities to do every day. Daily goals include activities you want to be doing consistently.
Also keep a goal to review all goals on a regular basis so you are adjusting to the changing reality of your situation.
Summary for How to Wake Up Ready
You are working on transitioning to the life you really want by becoming an entrepreneur and starting your own business. To wake up ready every day…
- Start by valuing yourself. When you wake up knowing that you are a valuable person with a contribution that must be made, you can instantly put a smile on your face and a spring in your step
- Have a clear idea of the life you are trying to achieve. Go to bed thinking of the world you are building for yourself and others, and wake up each morning with that vision ready to set you up for the day
- Give yourself a morning phrase – what can you tell yourself each morning to keep yourself on track
- Have a morning routine. When you wake up and you instantly have something to do, you prompt yourself to act immediately
- Set and review your goals. If you have daily goals already set, you can look at them the night before, and be ready the next day to execute on exactly what you need to do
Disclosure: Links to books and physical products are affiliate links to Amazon.com. I earn for eligible purchases. There is no additional cost to you.
The Thing About Money
by Case Lane
One of the number one reasons aspiring entrepreneurs say they cannot start a business is because they don’t have enough money.
This thing about money is a top three excuse for not getting started. Yet 10 times out of 10, the aspiring entrepreneur who makes that statement does not know how much it would cost to bring their business idea to the global marketplace.
And 10 times out of 10 the wantrepreneur does not know how much money is actually available to them, if they were actively looking for it.
Instead, people with business ideas in their head are taking themselves out of the game before it has even started. And by putting money ahead of action, aspiring entrepreneurs are losing the life dream of running their own business.
To avoid this trip, entrepreneurs need to change their attitude about identifying startup money.
Eliminate the mental restraints
In societies that do not talk about money, many people have mental restraints around the subject. The most basic one being: don’t talk about money.
There are many reasons why people do not talk about money, but this article will purposefully ignore that history to focus on the topic.
Money is a thing of value. We use it to exchange for other things of value we want or need. It is important to our lives, it makes things run smoother, and we could always use a bit more.
Talk About Money
To start changing the rules, be willing to talk about money. And to talk about it in specifics.
As an aspiring entrepreneur with a business idea, you want to be able to state exactly how much money you will need to start your business. Not ramp-up, grow for global markets, or hire staff – but just to start.
You have decided to participate in the global economy as an entrepreneur because you have a business idea in your head, and you believe you can add value to the global marketplace. You may be a little uncertain about what being an entrepreneur means so you’ve read books and articles, and watched videos and documentaries about successful entrepreneurs.
You’ve begun to develop a mental picture of what you will need to do to join those people on the road to success.
You are ready to launch your business. What do you need to do first?
This is the point when you begin to calculate – literally – what you will need to start your business.
Start with Resources You Can See
Some of you will say – zero beyond the value of your own time.
Some businesses, specifically online businesses, can be started with no money and use free resources.
Or you may have a service to offer that you promote through social media. Sometimes you can start your business with nothing and that’s how you get going.
Others may be thinking about a brick&mortar business, like a storefront, that requires a lot more upfront capital. But how much more? You still have to figure it out.
You have to know how much money you will actually need.
The thing about money is that it’s ubiquitous, it’s always around. And the best way to get your hands on it is to make sure you are prepared when the time comes to build the business.
Of course money is important, and we all want more than we could spend in a lifetime so that we can live as comfortably as possible, and do whatever we want to do. And of course having a pile of money that lets you start any business you can dream of would be fabulous because you could experiment and play around and see what works for you.
But if that’s not an option for you, there is still no reason to believe you will not have the resources to start your business when you’re ready to start. Because you can start with the resources you have around you. But you don’t know what those resources are until you do your research, and understand the actual cost of starting your business.
If you just keep saying you don’t have the money and therefore you cannot start a business, you’ll get nowhere.
Focus on getting the business started. Learn about the resources you need to make your idea happen. Stay committed to bringing your business idea to fruition.
Successful entrepreneurs know how to pull resources together when needed, and how to utilize resources to their advantage. And you can do the same thing.
Avoid all Excuses
Negative money thinking is an excuse not to get started, which could be hiding your real fear about taking a risk and putting yourself out there as an entrepreneur, when you could always do the 9-to-5 like so many others.
Hiding behind the money excuse as a way to stop you from getting started only limits your life. If you are dreaming about lifestyle freedom, the ability to control your own schedule, and run your professional life as you see fit – then you want to get your business going. You think like an entrepreneur and want to put into reality the expectations you have for your own life.
This includes managing your concerns about money and any fears you may have.
Think Value
The thing about money is that it’s a product to be valued. But you manage and control it to your advantage. You set the parameters for what you need. Many successful entrepreneurs have spent their last dollar, leveraged every asset they owned, and dipped into the pockets of families and friends to make their business a reality.
You may end up doing the same thing. But you won’t know until you have begun to put together the pieces of the business that you want, in the way you want to run it.
Your actual goal – lifestyle freedom – is the most important part of your process, not money. Because as long as you keep in mind why you are pursuing your business opportunity, you will be able to sustain a vision for yourself that will take you exactly where you want to go.
Summary for how to think about money when you are getting started:
- Focus on getting your business started
- Know how much money you need to get started with your business.
- Start at zero and see how far you can go with planning and action before needing a single dollar
- Utilize the resources you have around you, especially free options
- Remember your goal is lifestyle freedom and dream you have for the life you really want
Offline U: The Education You Get from Not Going to College for Business
by Case Lane
Aspiring entrepreneurs have heard they do not need to go to college to obtain the information they need to run a business. There are other ways to obtain an education. But the ‘other ways’ are not always clearly defined.
The value of post-secondary education has always been in its formality. Not only do you do through a prescribed set of courses that result in a diploma, but also the diploma is recognized because other people understand the process, and the value of the paper.
But given the cost, time and demands of a formal college education, many are opting to move forward with a business and you do not want to use formal education to help you. Aspiring entrepreneurs want to learn in the real world, doing real business activities.
How do you succeed without the college formula?
Neither business school nor college is necessary to become an entrepreneur. Many successful entrepreneurs did not go to college, and few (as a percentage of all entrepreneurs) come out of the B-schools.
But both business school and college are also considered outstanding opportunities. College is still the ticket to higher wages, professional careers and advancing in life.
The challenge is to determine which path fits for each individual situation.
Go ‘Offline’
An aspiring entrepreneur can obtain an education, learn the facts and concepts necessary for business outside of the formal college campus. A self-disciplined person can pursue an ‘offline ‘course of study that will help achieve the success they’ve been looking for.
And self-discipline can be imposed if the person has some idea about what to do to achieve similar results to the formal college student.
This approach is Offline U because many courses of study are presented online, and are still formal methods of learning.
Offline U means turning away from all structured education to learn through direct action, observation and doing.
Image by Sebastian Šoška from Pixabay
You get the information you need from available sources, usually for free. Following this path, you have to remember the information is not going to be presented in any particular order or context like in business school. You are not going to be able to segregate the marketing information from the finance information. You are going to require your own system for doing that.
So to start, you decide how you are going to organize the information you receive.
If you already have a business idea, the ‘offline’ course of study can be even more productive because questions and information gathering can take place within the context of turning your idea into a business. The research becomes directly practical.
If you don’t have a business idea, you can use one that already exists to practice how to frame your ‘offline’ studies around a specific product or service.
Once the organizational infrastructure has been set-up for your offline education, you can implement the following practices to give yourself an Offline education that advances your business opportunities:
Read books and articles about successful entrepreneurs
The information you need about how entrepreneurs built their businesses is readily available in thousands of magazine articles and hundreds of books. The blueprints are spelled out in black and white.
If Sir Richard Branson were your best friend, you would read all his books to have the answers about how he built his business, not ask him to explain the story (or else he would know you had never read his books).
Reading the entrepreneur’s story allows you to understand the background how the enterprise was built.
Reading entrepreneurs’ stories also reveals one obvious and timeless fact – the most successful entrepreneurs did the work. They worked night and day on their business enterprise, and reaped the reward. It’s as simple, and as difficult, as that.
Interview someone who is doing what you want to do
If you know anyone near you who is a successful entrepreneur, ask for an interview. For the cost of coffee or a lunch, you may get information that is never taught in school.
To get the interview, honestly make the request from the perspective of a niche demographic that is either unique or aligned with the person’s causes or ideas. Even if you are a working professional, if you belong to any type of club or organization find a connection with the person you want to interview.
You can also interview on behalf of the organization perhaps as a profile for their newsletter. But make sure the request is legitimate.
Research the information other people are saying
Today you can find a lot of material about entrepreneurs and businesses, including interviews, documentaries and profiles that reveal more about how the business is run than you may have calculated.
Do a search for these resources, both positive and negative. Give yourself time each day to spend an extra hour or two with stories that give you ideas. Take notes, and then go back and review your notes, and put them in the context of your own business idea.
Meet like-minded people
Take a look at the meet-ups for entrepreneurs in your city or events that involve entrepreneurs. If you’re shy, approach different people with the same prepared set of questions. For example, ask:
‘I’m curious, how’d you get started as an entrepreneur?’
‘What do you wish you knew from the beginning?’
‘What do you think was the one key to growing your business?’
People love to talk about themselves, especially if they have a willing, eager audience. While stroking an ego, you can give yourself an entrepreneurship 101 lesson.
Go to work for an entrepreneur or organization you admire
If you want work that is meaningful, but are not quite ready with your own business, you can check the job openings at companies you admire, or with organizations you are interested in exploring.
One caution, going to work for any company may not be as glamorous as you could hope, and you may never meet the founding entrepreneur. In fact, the experience may even be a turn-off. But you will learn.
All experience – work, education, going to the store – could teach you something you did not already know which could help you in your business.
If there is a business run by someone you admire, and you think they could use someone like you, there’s no harm in applying, and earning money instead of spending it to get the information you believe you can use in your own business.
Attend conferences
Conferences will cost you some money, but the events are rapid-fire learning experiences. Pick the conference that focuses on your business idea or industry, and use the opportunity to not only learn about the industry, but also to meet other people working in the same field.
You might even find the connections that will feed back into interviews, meetings or employment opportunities that lead you exactly where you want to go.
In summary, to get an ‘offline’ business education outside of formal college or B-school:
- Read books and articles about successful entrepreneurs, and learn how businesses are built
- Interview someone who is doing what you want to do, and ask them about getting started and growing a business
- Research the information other people have about successful entrepreneurs including through interviews, analysis, documentaries and articles, that present both positive and negative views.
- Meet like-minded people at your local meet-ups or entrepreneurial events
- Go to work for an entrepreneur or organization you admire
- Attend conferences
Disclosure: links to books and physical products are Amazon affiliate links. I earn for eligible purchases at no additional cost to you.
Be a Contributor
by Case Lane
Lead, follow or get out of the way – phrase attributed most often to General George S. Patton and others
Some people have great ideas for how to get things done; some people want to work for, or with people with great ideas; and some people are indifferent one way or another. They are prepared to consume the good ideas when they are made available, but they have little interest in participating in the rise or fall of changes and risks.
And then there are people – too many people – who are not interested in any ideas. These are people who have something negative to say, or pushback against ideas, and generate essentially zero progress for the evolution of humankind. Those people are the obstructionists.
Identify the Obstructionist
Obstructionists try to convince rising entrepreneurs not to start their business, or tell ambitious self-starters they will never be successful, or are convinced the life they are in is the only life they – or anyone else they know – will ever have.
Obstructionists are standing in the way of those who want to move the world forward. And quite often obstructionist thinking is standing in the way of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs who also operate as obstructionists diminish their own chances for success while negatively affecting others.
Plan to Be a Leader
The fundamental idea of an entrepreneur is to take a good idea and put it where people can make use of it.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
But often the road to make that happen is full of obstacles. Some physical, some verbal, some administrative. Obstacles that are erected and maintained by people who do not want you to go where you’re going.
The first time an entrepreneur decides to verbalize a business idea is often fraught with peril. The entrepreneur likely had an epiphany perhaps after seeing something in a store or experiencing a frustration in the marketplace. The idea is based in a genuine recognition of a gap in the marketplace, and a consumer need.
But often when the idea is communicated, in non-entrepreneurial worlds where the majority live, the response is negative.
Those closest to a rising entrepreneur – family, friends, neighbors, teachers, religious leaders -are often the last to support the idea. They fear the risk of beginning a new venture with no guarantees.
They may also be embarrassed to have that one person in the – family, neighborhood, community – who will not do what everyone else says is the right thing to do.
Some aspiring entrepreneurs will get past the negative thoughts and start a business anyway. Others will never be able to move forward.
Unfortunately negative programming leads people to believe that the others are right. If no one you know has ever done what you are proposing to do, you must have the courage to face the unknown. And few hold to that courage.
Where leaders rise
In the entrepreneurial world, leaders are the people who take their business idea and turn it into a viable business regardless of the obstructionists. Courageous entrepreneurs face obstacles, overcome negativity, struggle to find the time and the money, and patiently refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer while making their business a reality in the global marketplace.
The example set by these entrepreneurs has set the stage for many other who eventually follow.
Where followers begin
Followers watch and learn from leaders. In fact, many leaders are also followers, incrementally adding to their knowledge by emulating what other leaders do.
Followers are excited to be around leaders. They have an opportunity to contribute by supporting the leader in achieving a vision that they support.
When an aspiring entrepreneur gets started as a follower, they put themselves directly on the path of leaders. With digital resources that facilitate the ability to follow a leader through articles, videos and on social media, an aspiring entrepreneur can pick a leader they admire, or a company to learn more about, and read, watch, listen and support the leader’s activities.
Followers even go to work for the leader or their company for the experience of learning from a proven success. These learning experiences help the original follower become a leader.
And obstructionists disrupt
What about getting out of the way?
Leaders and followers need obstructionists to get out of the way. Those that try to diminish the work of innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs and investors are limiting their own world.
Obstructionists tend to be those who are trying to slow down the world to suit their purposes. Instead of contributing ideas and inventions to build a better world, obstructionists are trying to hang on to the status quo, to protect themselves, and fading power.
Rising entrepreneurs have to find a way to get beyond the obstructionists and keep pursuing business goals. But sometimes the obstructor is in an individual’s own head.
Overcoming obstructionists, includes surpassing a personal tendency towards limited thinking and negative programming to become the businessperson you really want to be.
It also means overcoming the human need to better than the next person by criticizing other people’s work, plans or dreams while sitting on your own unfulfilled intentions.
There’s no reason to obstruct yourself or others. There is plenty of room for everyone who wants to create a business that adds value to the global marketplace. You can be a contributor who makes a difference in the lives of others by bringing a product or service into the market.
Be a contributor
Entrepreneurs are contributors. Leaders within their own world, followers of other leaders who provide constant daily fuel for the global economy, and hope and opportunity for employees and customers.
As you work on developing your business, keep in mind that you want to stay connected to contributors. Trying to stop others from achieving their stated goals will not make you successful. Neither will negative feedback, comments or bad-mouthing.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others are doing. Stay on top of your plans and dreams, not the activities of others that have no effect on you.
Top-flight global entrepreneurs do not spend their whole day criticizing others? Not if they want to be successful.
They work on continuing to deliver value. They focus on personal development, and meeting and surpassing their business goals. If you turn your own mind on to such pursuits, you will reap the benefit in the rising success of your business.
Contribute to your own life
Contributing also applies to how you run your life. Eliminating obstructionist behavior in business can transform to improving your personal relationships, and the opportunities of your own life.
Focus on positive, individual effort and goals. Focus on what you are doing and how you can make your world better through your entrepreneurial business ideas.
To Be a Contributor:
- People are asked to lead, follow, or get out of the way
- Unfortunately many people choose not to move, they are obstructionists who refuse to do anything but get in the way
- Obstructionists try to prevent you and others from achieving goals by providing negative feedback, or physical or mental barriers to success
- Sometimes that obstructionist is you.
- Perhaps you have been negatively programmed by other obstructionists, or perhaps you like looking for excuses
- To push back against obstructionism, you must be a contributor
- Global entrepreneurs are contributors
- You provide value by bringing a product or service into the global marketplace
- And you reject obstructionism and its many barriers, in favor of having the life you have always wanted running your own business as an entrepreneur
See the World like a Global Entrepreneur
Some people call themselves globalists because they believe in trading freely with other countries, and having world-level companies and organizations managing products and services.
And some people call themselves isolationists because they prefer to deal only with those within their borders, and to stay out of other people’s troubles.
But throughout history, for better or for worse, people have been influenced by those who are outside their borders. And in the 21st century, if you’re an entrepreneur, the influence is more often than not, a key factor in running your business.
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 CEO or a sole proprietor who put up your first website yesterday, the entire world is your market, and if you call yourself an entrepreneur, you need to know how to look at everyone.
Your community, audience, customers or client base is the whole world.
This is your neighborhood…Your Market for your product or service
This is a 21st century reality you cannot ignore. And to navigate effectively you need to know how to look at your community, how to recognize your place among everyone as you offer your product or service to the global marketplace.
So what should you do?
See the World as Your Market
The key idea is the entire world is your market. This has happened because technology makes it possible to connect with people across great distances for nominal costs. People now search for universal concepts and ideas. And if you are the one offering what they are looking for, then you win the business.
That means you can look at the world as your neighborhood. When you are reaching out to your customers they are as good as next door. This is not meant to sound kumbya. The idea is to operate with a world view.
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Maintain Your Unique Brand
This is also not meant to sound politically-correct. You don’t have to genericize your product or service idea, or try and be all things to all people. You just have to recognize you may have a customer base in places you did not originally expect to have them.
So be aware – not stifled by this opportunity. But stay authentic and true to your brand.
That’s not a conflict. Your value to the market lies in your uniqueness, your voice, and original presentation. Your ability to deliver to the market is in your capabilities and effort. So you keep your product unique you while still making it global.
Common problems, Multiple Solutions
Many people face the same challenges and are searching for the same solution. If your business operates in a universal industry like technology, food or fashion, you will be able to reach people who understand the underlying concept because it is the same in different places.
The next thing people will decide is if they like how you deliver it.
In the same way that there are thousands of personal development approaches, there may be thousands of takes on your idea. Individuals will decide which one they like. You may think Tony Robbins is too rah-rah, and you prefer the zen of Eckhart Tolle. Usually you make this decision based on your own personality, not because you live in a particular location.
Of course, sometimes you can associate particular cultures with specific approaches to how things are done. But this may also depend on the product or service you are offering. A culture may be open to one type of product, and closed to another. You will not know until you reach out with yours.
As an entrepreneur you look at the world as the marketplace where you can deliver your product or service. You respect the consumers in every market, but you are really only looking for the ones who are aligned with you.
Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to those customers who are critical or want to do things differently. Those are not the people you are looking for in your community, they can go elsewhere to find someone else’s version of your product or service.
You also do not have to be overly aware of holidays, time zones or standard work weeks. We live in a 24/7/365 time-shifting world. Whenever you decide to present your product or service, someone is awake somewhere in the world. And those who miss it the first time can catch the replay.
This is another benefit to operating in our high-tech global environment. There is plenty of scope for you to work when you want to work and still reach those who are looking for you.
So as you look at the world – your neighborhood – think of it as an always on, always open space.
Operate Inside the Walls
I have an analogy I use to explain the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing, but I think the idea also suits this topic.
Imagine a walled city, like you see in the movies and on TV, you know like Winterfell. Imagine in the center is the public market. Entrepreneurs are there all the time selling products and services, and buyers are there all the time as well.
The idea with traditional publishing is that you the author stand outside the wall and try and talk a sentry into escorting you in. Once you enter with a sentry people will notice you. You still have to deliver a product people are interested in, but you have a little attention already built in.
With self-publishing, you enter through the open door. You walk right into the midst of the marketplace, where everyone is trying to get everyone else’s attention. To get people interested in you, you really have to perform and figure out a way to grab their attention. You are in, right from day one. But you are on your own.
Frankly I prefer to operate from inside the walls, not outside. And you can imagine your place in the global marketplace the same way. You are in once you create your product or service that’s available for sale to the global marketplace. And you stay in as long as you continue to draw attention to your business.
If people like what they see, if you deliver the value they seek, they will notice you and come to you.
That’s what you want to be doing when you are looking at the world as an entrepreneur – you want to be participating.
How Do You Force Yourself to Do What You Really Want to Do
by Case Lane
Aspiring entrepreneurs can learn about entrepreneurship by reading about or listening to successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Martha Stewart or Oprah.
But hearing about success sometimes leads to a limiting belief that what those people did is not possible for everyone. There is an idea that the successful are wired differently, and therefore have capabilities that do not apply to the average person. Aspiring entrepreneurs are left wondering, how the successful are able to actually do the work they do.
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Famously Bill Gates spent endless hours tinkering with computers; Martha Stewart obsesses over every tablecloth; Oprah chased the good stories. They all seem to have some sort of special trigger inside them that propels them forward to success down the entrepreneurial path. If that’s true, how does the average aspirant to entrepreneurial wealth and achievement become one of the them?
Is it possible to make yourself…force yourself to become the successful person you’ve always wanted to be?
The Success Words
The chapter headings from Lewis Howes’ book The School of Greatness, read like the step-by-step lines from any familiar success manual. The headings are: create a vision, turn adversity into advantage, cultivate a champion’s mindset, develop hustle, master your body, practice positive habits, build a winning team, live a life of service.
The book emphasizes greatness in general, in how you live your life.
But the challenge for so many is that those success lines and even the tips that come along with it are all great advice that so many people have difficulty implementing. These are the actions and ideas you need to develop if you want to reverse the struggles of your life, or any type of past backwards pace. But understanding that fundamental fact is often only the first step.
Understanding the intention of the advice helps you realize what you need to do. The next, and more complicated step is to determine ‘how’ you are going to fulfill those success goals. And the ‘how’ must be compatible with your personality, your lifestyle and your best efforts.
The step to learn next is to figure out how you do the activities that you know you want to do because you want to achieve greatness by building your entrepreneurial dream.
Here are 4 strategies to help you achieve the ‘how’ for making yourself that person you wish you were…
1. Think about Your Plan all the time
The best way to cultivate your entrepreneurial mindset is to think about your business idea and your plans 24/7/365. Immerse yourself in your own vision of being a successful entrepreneur with a business you own, and control of your lifestyle.
The most successful entrepreneurs think about their business – the opportunity, scope for improvement, operations, the team, all aspects of the enterprises – in all situations. You can do the same with your business idea, and the plan for your business.
Image by Pexels from Pixabay
You become an entrepreneur, by being an entrepreneur. Transforming to your dream life through entrepreneurship is about reinventing yourself, changing who you imagine yourself to be, and doing what you have always wanted to do.
You may feel that constantly thinking and talking about your business will alienate you from your friends or family. But you are on a mission to improve your life. If those around you do not support your actions, they have alienated themselves from you.
Create a vision in your mind of your future as an entrepreneur, and hold to that vision in your present. Think it, operate in it, push it all the time as your singular purpose. At a certain point, you are going to want to be living that vision. You are going to want it as your reality because you have made it possible.
2. Clear Your Space
With the minimalist movement gaining support and adherents the idea of working in a less-cluttered environment has become a trend. But the clean-up is also a proactive way to set yourself up in a success-promoting environment.
You want to operate in an environment without distractions. Sometimes our inability to do the activities we need to do to become successful are a reflection of being around too many things we do not want to do – like cleaning up – that all provide an excuse for not moving forward.
Begin your movement towards being your own champion by clearing away a piece of clutter each day. Pick up the piece of clutter you have been seen in the same place for more than six months and…throw it away.
Top performers work in an environment that focuses on their business. You need the tools and resources you will use to be close at hand, and all other diversions to be tucked away. You are trying to put yourself in the same shoes as the most successful entrepreneurs you know. People who focused on building their business. If you want to be one of those people, you have to focus too.
Any item that is truly meaningful or beneficial to you should be appropriately organized. You may already have shelves, boxes or envelopes where you can put items of value. Everything else can go.
Clearing your space can reduce your sense of overwhelm by giving yourself room to function in the best environment you can create.
3. Look for allies
Setting out to build your own business can be lonely and difficult. You may not have any support among family or friends. You may be afraid to talk about entrepreneurship at work because you think people will think you’re out of your league. And you may be tolling away with trying to create your business idea without any help.
But you can find motivation and support by quietly, and confidently, asking around to find out if anyone is doing, or wants to do, what you want to be doing.
Unless you’re in Silicon Valley, finding people who support the idea of starting their own business may be a quick way to lose friends. But you can carefully begin looking for allies by speaking about your business whenever it’s appropriate. Learn who responds well and who quickly changes the subject. You may be surprised to learn who your allies are.
Say to your spouse, partner, sibling, colleague, friend a statement like: ‘hey, I’m doing some research about the business idea I’ve had for years, would you be interested in the things I learn?’
For every person who replies ‘no way,’ there may be one who says ‘yeah, I’ve always been interested in starting a business, tell me more.’ The idea is to find someone who aligns with you. If that person becomes your accountability buddy that’s even better.
To help you stay on track with your dream, and make your plan a reality, you can make a commitment to someone other than yourself. If you form an alliance with someone, you’re more likely to get things done.
However, if you come from a world where no one at all responds favorably to your low-key approach, you can still form alliances – with virtual mentors. Your virtual mentors are the people whose books, videos, speeches, interviews, courses and shows become part of your life when you are researching how to be successful with your business.
You can listen to hours of someone encouraging you to be strong, stay committed to your dream and so on. This provides you with effectively the background soundtrack to your aspirations. And a chance to be aligned with people who are on your side, even if you’ve never met them before in your life.
4. Plan to Work
Writing down goals you plan to complete is much easier than actually doing the work to see those goals finished. To make the exercise more tangible, write down goals, that are accompanied by specific action.
Step-by-step, hour-by-hour goals are designed to take you exactly where you want to be in an orderly and planned fashion. Instead of a lofty ‘I want to be a millionaire’ goal, write down exactly what you would have to do to become a millionaire. What would you have to do every day?
For example, in my book A Better Plan, I encourage financially challenged readers to calculate exactly how many hours they would have to work, at their current wage to earn one million dollars. If your current wage is $12 an hour, you would need to work eight hours a day for about 83,000 hours or 40 years. Once you have that baseline, you can figure which variables to change to reach your goal faster.
But at the same time, each hour that you’re working is still getting you towards your goal.
A detailed plan for building your business may take you months to write, but the goal is to get started. Think of the plan like the notes for your autobiography, how would you describe the detailed story for anyone who wanted to ask.
The plan becomes your blueprint for how you are going to create the business. Write the story in all its detail. For example if you get a loan for one million dollars, write out how you would go about procuring that loan. Who would help you and why? Write out every word. And take all the time you need on doing it.
You can write a line or two in the morning, or at work. Buy a planner or desk calendar and write on each of the days of the week. Lay out your plan in all its glorious detail.
The point is to give your a roadmap, a point of reference, a vision that you can use to lead yourself exactly where you want to go. And to help you to move forward on achieving your life dream.
These four strategies can help you think clearly about yourself as an entrepreneur. You can force yourself to do what you really want to do – which in our case is transition to lifestyle freedom by becoming an entrepreneur – by making strategic moves towards your goal.
Even if you’re still saying – but how? – think of these four strategies as the activities that help you identify the ‘how.’
If you want to know how to literally force your fingers to start writing, or how to open your mouth to ask a friend if they’re interested in business, you may not be committed to the goal of achieving the life you want through entrepreneurship.
If you are sit on the couch and do not move in any form or direction because you believe your dream will materialize without effort, then neither these strategies or any others will help you.
But if you’re ready to move forward, to take the initial steps, then you are on your way. Improve your life for yourself and take action to achieve your dreams.
To help yourself do what you really want to do:
1. Think about what you want to do all the time
2. Clear the space around you of distractions and diversions
3. Find some allies, either real or virtual, who will support you
4. Plan the work you have to do in specific detail
When you lay out your vision, you find you are compelled to move forward and bring it all into fruition. And before you know it, you will be walking, talking and living as the entrepreneur you have always wanted to be.
Disclosure: links to Amazon.com are affiliate links. I participate in the Amazon Affiliates program and earn for eligible purchases
How to Successfully Take an Online Course
by Case Lane
When researching how to become an entrepreneur, many people watch and listen to the pitches for online courses made by a variety of ‘gurus’ who claim to be able to get you to a million dollars, in ten minutes, doing nothing – if you just pay for their multi-part program.
Course are offered for everything from how to make money on Instagram to how to launch a product. These courses often come from successful millionaires with plenty of testimonials and ideas around – their ‘proven’ system that anyone can emulate.
And there lies the catch. The course program often comes from the creator’s process that led to success.
But how do you know if it will work for you?
Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay
An online course is a shortcut. Instead of trial and error, you follow a step-by-step process that has a proven record of success. But people rarely finish the entire course, or they do finish, but are discouraged by the results. This disconnect can be avoided by understanding a few points about the process.
The Value of Online Courses
Online education in general is growing and critical to the way we function in the 21st century. Learning from successful people who have done the work you wish to do is highly valuable. But most people can only reach those great teachers through an online course.
The course price ranges from free to thousands of dollars, with access from one-time to lifetime, and the time commitment from fifteen minutes, to months. The results are just as varied and unyielding.
Some include plenty of additional materials, some provide access to a private Facebook group, some provide coaching, some keep trying to upsell you additional modules, some are subscription based – and everything in-between.
For an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to use an online program of study to learn how to start a business, the value for money offered by the program is important. This article covers this type of experience and intention, and covers how to evaluate a course, and use it to your advantage.
Courses provide aggregated information and save time in researching blog after blog or watching video after video about a specific subject. Many are set-up around processes you can follow to create and launch a business based on the topic you have chosen.
When it comes to online courses that make a promise for your business – like how to build an audience, sell more product, or grow X times – it is important to consider these four factors when deciding to whether or not to move forward with the course purchase:
1. Listen carefully – Do you understand the context for the promised success?
2. Do the work – Are you prepared to do the course work?
3. Hold the course creator to the promise of the course
4. Measure your ROI – How much will you need to earn to recover the cost of the course?
Audio fans! Prefer to ‘listen’ to the content of this blog. You can check out the podcast of the same name, Episode 48 of The Ready Entrepreneur Podcast is available at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
Before you start…
Keeping those four points in mind, there are also common ‘technical’ factors you should consider.
Price
If you are taking the course to learn how to start a business, you will have no idea if the course will be worth the money. Until you have seen the course, gone through the work, and applied it to your business, you will not know the benefit.
If you are buying the course because you saw a webinar or online seminar from the course creator – and that material was solid – you can have some confidence that the whole course will be good. At that point, you can consider the money an investment in your education like the $100 grand you spent on college.
Testimonials
Course creator will inevitability use testimonials to encourage you to believe in the value of the course. Go beyond the course creator’s word for feedback on the course. Sometimes this is difficult to find because people with buyers’ remorse are reluctant to confess they spent thousands on a course that turned out to be useless for them. But sometimes you can find the information you’re looking for if you look at forums or Facebook groups where people are posting comments
Time
Once you make the dollar commitment, you must set aside the time to work on the material. If the buy offer is time sensitive, you have to decide quickly if you intend to keep the course. Often there are money-back guarantees, but only if you act within a certain timeframe. So make sure you are ready to work right from the day you buy. More on this below.
1. Listen carefully – Do you understand the context for the promised success?
Many how-to types of courses are based on the course creator’s own experience, which is great. But you have to decide if that experience applies to you. When the course creator is promising success, listen carefully for the context that the creator is telling you about especially when they give background material about how they created the process.
Is the creator an expert in the field based on work or experience?
Has the creator taught others offline, and therefore applied the process in the real world?
Did the creator have a once-in-a-lifetime event like a specific mentor who propelled the business along?
Listen for what they’re not telling you. What part of their background story has been left out? If they seem to have gone from 0 to $1 million overnight, ask about that. Many presentations have Q&A sessions where you can ask about the details.
Take advantage of this time, or send an immediate e-mail to the facilitator or directly to the presenter’s business e-mail. You may be told the the answer is in the course, but you have to decide if the story makes sense to you.
Does the proposed path to success fit the circumstances of your life?
2. Do the work – Are you prepared to do the course work?
Sometimes a course creator will guarantee a refund within a specific time if you can prove you did the work. That is valid. If you’re going to spend the money at least do the work before complaining that the process does not work. Start from the beginning, and work through every module and exercise.
Determine the ‘extras’ you have to do to make the process work. For example, if the course is about how to use Facebook ads that will grow your business – does it include how to write copy, select pictures and create clever headlines? Or will you have to learn that separately or figure out how to outsource the work?
As you’re watching the videos or reading the documents, pay close attention to every step that you have to do. Keep a step-by-step list of exactly which resources you will need, and estimate how long each step might take. If you’re not sure about a step, send them an e-mail and ask for clarification.
For example:
If their example has images – make a note that you will need to look for images related to your product (and that takes time).
If the recommendation is to create an e-mail list, an account will be required, so you will have to sign-up.
If they are showing you software or apps, you might want to take a separate day or two to review all your options before picking the one they show you in the video. Often the course has a discounted offer, but you may not like the features, or it may not be the best option for your business.
Keep track of all these extra steps. Believe me when they tell you it will only take 5 minutes to do a particular step – it never does.
One way to get a good overview is to review every video once just to understand the general intent, and go back and do the work in ‘real time’ with my own business.
If you took solid notes on the ‘extras’ you’ll be prepared, and not overwhelmed by surprises.
3. Hold the course creator to the promise of the content
A good course should absolutely provide you with a support email or process for contacting the creator or course organization. Make sure you follow-up on any questions you have. You can send e-mails every day about the course materials.
Some creators may try and prompt you to their ‘coaching’ offering. But if you are asking questions specifically about the course materials (not your business), you should be able to get direct answers.
Especially ask questions if you followed the process to the letter, and it still did not work for you. Maybe policies have changed, or an application became super expensive, or any other reason that separates their method from your success. Although courses can be upgraded, materials are all created in the past, and can become outdated.
These clarifications are helpful to course creators who should want to know if there are mistakes or outdated material. Also by taking advantage of their support process by pointing out a disconnect between the material and the current marketplace, you might get an extra bit of coaching or assistance included in the price.
4. Measure your ROI – How much will you need to earn to recover the cost of the course?
Make sure you keep track of exactly how much you spend on the course, including any ‘extras,’ and therefore how much you want to get back in the form of increased revenue to your business.
If you’re just starting out and trying to learn as much as possible, you probably won’t have an ROI, but you could be saving money in the future because you are learning shortcuts that will help you in the business.
Keep track of these ‘wins’ to decide if the course is really valuable.
If you have been doing a lot of individual research and decide to do a course – compare the process of reading blogs and watching YouTube videos to having everything in one compact place. There are some courses that provide hints and ideas that do not appear anywhere else.
Courses are a great way to get started, gather a lot of information related to your business, and learn a path for moving forward. But you do not need to believe the promises made by the course creator.
Instead, you can methodically approach the material, and make sure it delivers to your expectations.
If you would like to ‘listen’ to this information. Check out the podcast on this subject, Episode 48 of The Ready Entrepreneur Podcast is available at Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
Yes, Shy People Can Be Entrepreneurs too
Aspiring entrepreneurs who are a little intimidated by those ‘slick Willie’ type of entrepreneurs who come at you strong, almost shouting, about how you can do it too, as they ooze confidence and bluster all over a stage may think that the world of entrepreneurship has no place for those with less bombastic approaches.
For the quiet, serious and methodical in life, the question of whether or not there is an entrepreneurial personality type, also evokes the question of whether or not you’re on the right path.
But you are.
In studying entrepreneurs all over the world, one trait is clear, the common denominator is not personality type – it’s doing the work.
Entrepreneurial Personalities
When asked to name some entrepreneurs , many people pick from the same same dozen or so familiar people who are known to have started their own business. The most famous people are seen on TV, and make news.
And that’s not a coincidence. People who make noise, make news, and some make themselves famous as part of their overall business strategy. So outgoing people who happen to be entrepreneurs can become well known.
But the most famous people do not represent al entrepreneurs.
In the United States alone in 2016, the census bureau says there are 5.6 million employer firms, and that does not count the big Fortune 500 companies that were started by one person whose name you know. Around the world, estimates say there are 600 million entrepreneurs. That’s a lot of personalities. And it is doubtful that every one of them is a Slick Willie Salesman.
An entrepreneur is anyone with an idea that they are willing to bring into the public marketplace.
Using the definition from UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:
An entrepreneur is an individual who identifies opportunities in the marketplace, allocates resources, and creates value.
Entrepreneurship—the act of being an entrepreneur—implies the capacity and willingness to undertake conception, organization, and management of a productive new venture, accepting all attendant risks and seeking profit as a reward.
The definition applies to action, not personality.
The definition does not say an entrepreneur must be able able to talk to strangers.
Nor does it say the entrepreneur has to be funny and make jokes in an interview, or on stage.
The definition definitely does not imply the ability to get rich quick, make a million dollars in ten minutes and let others know about it.
Being an entrepreneur is about identifying a big idea…and running with it. Since you cannot copyright an idea, you have to write the book. You have to bring your idea into fruition.
Entrepreneurs allocate resources – often your own. If you’re shy or slow or both, you only need yourself to get your business going. Allocate your own resources to researching your business idea, figuring out how to bring it to the marketplace, and defining the other tools and resources you may need to help you.
Working this way, you do not need to ensure that thousands of people ‘like’ you before you get started.
You need to create value. Entrepreneurs create value. And thousands or millions of people recognize that value if appeals to them and their needs.
If you have business ideas in your head and you are thinking about opportunities to bring a product or service to market that will help people. You have to get it out there. No one will know about it if it stays in your head. The key is to bring it forward for people to see. The validation comes from the market.
New products and services are introduced all the time. When speaking about your business idea, people love to make comments like – ‘it’s been done before,’ or ‘no one is asking for that’ or ‘why would anyone buy that.’
But time and again the market defines what it wants – after the product or service has been introduced.
So many products that we take for granted today like corn flakes – which apparently was a cooking experiment by a guy named Kellogg – were just invented and placed in the market. No one asked for the exact product, but the entrepreneur had an idea that could appeal to many others.
The definition of entrepreneurship does not include the need to laugh, smile or glad-hand (pretend to be nice).
You have to be a person – often exactly the type of person who is shy and slow – who is willing and able to turn the idea into a business, and willing and able to meet the risks – and more than willing to reap the rewards.
Options for promoting your venture
Even knowing this definition, an entrepreneur may struggle with the idea of bringing a product or service into the marketplace. At some point, the new venture must be presented to people in some forum.
When the product or service is developed, a shy entrepreneur can look for other methods for introducing the venture. For example, advertising, giving away free samples, writing promotional materials or creating a video.
When Help from Others is not Intimidating
If those activities fail to attract attention, you can partner with one or two kindred spirits, outsource to someone you pay to promote for you, or hire someone else with the skill to promote your product or service.
Each option has its own risks and rewards. But those factors can be considered in any plan you move forward.
The key is go ahead and create your business even if you think you are too shy or too slow. The personality traits you need to start the business applies to you regardless of who you see on TV, and who you think might be a more classic example of an entrepreneur.
It’s the people who start the business who are entrepreneurs. Willing and able to make it happen – that’s the key.
The common trait for entrepreneurs is getting the work done to bring the product or service to market. Successful people get the job done. You can work full-time, part-time, weekends, do all-nighters, take a month from work, take 15 minutes a day, update on the ride home – any time frame or time allotment that you can give yourself brings you one step closer to realizing your dream.
If you have business ideas in your head, you are already thinking like an entrepreneur. The next step to being one is based on your ability to accomplish your own dream.
If you are shy, or slow or doubting your entrepreneurial personality traits, understand that entrepreneurship is for anyone who is willing and able to do the work.
You are an entrepreneur if you identify an opportunity in the marketplace, allocate resource to it, and create value, which is something the shy and slow can definitely do.
The Information Privilege
Robert Kiyosaki’s best selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad explained a reality that is rarely spoken about out loud.
In life, some people are successful not because of demographics or wealth or education, but simply because they get great information early enough to apply it to their life choices; and other people…most in fact…do not.
In a world built on democracy and free enterprise, there’s a belief that people operate on a leveling playing field – that the society by virtue of its success values will encourage anyone to be successful. But in reality, success often comes to those who have the right information, and you get the right information by either having a ‘Rich Dad’ who will impart it, or by knowing where to get it.
Image by Shahid Abdullah from Pixabay
A ‘Rich Dad’ is any human who pro-actively teaches or demonstrates how to maximize wealth and grow for success; and ‘Poor Dad’ teaches nothing, but moving along with the status quo. So ‘Poor Dad’ leads a life of paying monthly bills, earning a salary, and scrimping and saving for retirement.
People who grow up with ‘Poor Dad’ often believe they are doing everything right, and they are, until they hit financial concerns. ‘Poor Dad’ learners are the ones who are shocked by financial crises, rising mortgage rates, equity market swings, and the interest rates on their car loans, student loans and credit card debt.
Being taught by ‘Poor Dad’ means spending on the items you believe you need like a house and car, and being worried that you cannot afford those same items when you run into financial difficulties.
With ‘Poor Dad,’ you are surviving life, and not exactly having a good time. Even the ‘Poor Dads’ who teach frugality, and end up with a couple million dollars in the bank at retirement, don’t seem to be having a good time because they have never learned how to spend money for enjoyment.
Many people who are interested in entrepreneurship and starting a business are discouraged by their ‘Poor Dads’ who preach caution and security. Entrepreneurial ideas go untested because of fear and the inability to break habits from the past.
But those same people, maybe even you, are watching ‘Rich Dad’ and trying to determine how to have a great life now.
Entrepreneurs are risk takers, but it’s calculated risk based on their ability to find gaps in the consumer marketplace. ‘Rich Dads’ are focused on long term wealth creation and never having to worry about money. Rich Dad teaches to invest to earn the money to buy the items you want, including a house or a car.
Since financial education is not taught in schools, you have to be exposed to a ‘Rich Dad’ to get the information you need to be successful.
If you have an intellectual ‘Rich Dad’ consider yourself among the privileged – you will end up living better than probably everyone you know because you have been given the information you need to be successful.
But if you don’t have a ‘Rich Dad,’ and you know you are missing out on the information you need, you create that valuable mentor for yourself by absorbing and applying the lessons learned. It’s never too late.
If finances are leading you to delay your business plans and questionable past choices are discouraging you from moving forward, focus on getting back up.
You can make yourself information privileged as an aspiring entrepreneur by giving yourself the information you need to be successful.
Read to Wealth
Start by reading. Of course Rich Dad Poor Dad, and many other books about personal money management will give you the crucial information you did not receive when you were growing up. These are books that can help you understand how to accomplish your dreams.
Being one step ahead of others and making life happen for you is about having information.
The Information Privilege means you know:
A) You do not have the information you need to be successful, and
B) Where to get the information
Even if the information is that you need more information, you are one step ahead of the next person who has no clue they are working themselves into a trip
Successful people rarely blindly move forward without some other piece of information that helps accelerate their business plans.
To get the information you need, and make yourself an information privileged aspiring entrepreneur:
1. You have to put yourself where information flows
2. Gather to the information
3. Use the information you get to drive the creation of other information that you can use
1. Put yourself where information flows
Attend meetups and conferences, go to college or vocational school, form a mastermind, ask a few questions at parties, offer to do activities at work that give you proximity to senior executives or leaders, volunteer in the community with accomplished people, and/or seek those with whom you most wish to align.
2. Gather the information
If you don’t like people or can’t afford to go anywhere, you must uncover and gather the information you need. Use books. If no one ever told you, you could get the information you need from reading books, consider yourself told now, but there are also other options.
Find the information in free YouTube videos and PDFs, and free ebooks. Sign-up for free ebook distribution sites that will send you a curated email each day or week with free books that are available in the genre you seek.
3. Use the information you get to drive the creation of other information that you can use
However you choose to get the information, use it to uncover more of what you need. Learn at every step. If you spend time developing your own website on WordPress, use that information to learn, for example, how people leverage websites to drive affiliate advertising. One thing can be the base or foundation for the next. You build layer upon layer upon layer.
You make yourself the top of the heap in your own sphere by learning and understanding the information that moves you forward as a person, an entrepreneur, and a deliverer of value for the product or service you bring to the marketplace.
Disclosure: Links to books are affiliate links to Amazon.com, and I earn from eligible purchases
Read to Wealth: How to Select Books for the Road to Success
by Case Lane
You have probably read that many successful people read. The world’s movers and shakers, billionaires and influencers read books (and magazines and newspapers). They read to stay informed, learn practices and strategies for success, and to continuously improve their minds.
Part of your success strategy for transitioning your life to entrepreneurship, should include reading.
But where do you start?
There are hundreds (probably thousands) of “best book” lists that you can Google and reference. But how do you even choose which books to read from that list?
One way to start is to think first about what you want to get out of the books. What do you want books to teach you? You want to be reading for implementable action, things you can do to improve yourself as you build your business.
Here are five categories of books to begin with:
The Definition of an Entrepreneur: Read biographies, autobiographies, and books about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship to learn who entrepreneurs are, what they do and how they are formed.
Skills of Successful people: Read personal development books to learn how to improve your success skills and yourself, so you can move more efficiently in the entrepreneurial world.
General business environment: Read books about the business of business, the histories of specific industries and companies to learn how the broader global economy functions.
Think like a Billionaire: Read books about investing, the road to super-wealth to understand how markets work, and how entrepreneurs access private funds to fuel growth.
Life in Action: Read fiction about successful people, business people and business-related ideas to see the big picture, and get background and inside information about how people function in a success-driven life.
Here are suggestions in each of these categories. There are dozens of books in every category considered “the best” or “must-haves,” below are only some initial suggestions. You can start in any order.
If you find you would prefer to read books about your specific product or industry, of course add those ones as well. The key is you want to understand which books to read, and why. You want to be able to implement the learnings from the book into your lifestyle
DEFINITION OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
When you are starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur, and the only idea you have in your head the concept of starting a business, you might not be confident about what your vision will really mean.
To develop a more specific idea of how entrepreneurs are formed and what entrepreneurs do, you can read biographies and autobiographies, and books about entrepreneurial ideas. People often wonder: how did so-and-so get rich? One of the best ways to find out is to read the biographies about rich people, and learn the facts for yourself.
You are looking for an in-depth accounting of the entrepreneur’s story – what were the actual steps this person took to become successful. The best biographies tend to be those thick ones that take you back not only to the entrepreneur’s childhood, but also through his or her parents, or other significant influences. This additional insight will help you realize the most successful entrepreneurs come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and have had an even wider variety of experiences on the road to success.
While industry and technology do change our economic landscape, the day-to-day realities of humans rarely change. Everyone still must secure food, clothes and shelter to have a civilized life. The actions taken by John D. Rockefeller in the 1800s – walking up and down the street to ask for a job – are still relevant today. Despite all the online employment services, in the 21st century people still often find work by word-of-mouth.
Use biographies and autobiographies to help you understand how you can write your own story as you transition to entrepreneurship. Look for the lessons that explain the idea of an entrepreneur.
Books in this category include: Biographies and Autobiographies
The Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran
Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
Morgan, American Financier by Jean Strouse
Entrepreneurship:
The Four-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-to-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness by Jeffery Gitomer
Zero to One: Notes on Start-ups or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
SKILLS OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE
Most of us are not born ready to take on the world with our entrepreneurial ideas. In fact, when you realize how big the personal development book market is, you realize that being an organized, attentive, polished, successful person takes information – ideas and strategies that you can learn and implement for yourself.
Successful people have a mix of skills, but they are not always the same. If you learn some of the basic, timeless behaviors, you can use those attributes anywhere. Personal development must be taught and practiced. It is not enough to read the books, you also have to implement the ideas from the book. And you must be consistent in applying the changes to your life.
Perennial sellers like Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich have been around for decades, yet the number of people who stick to the advice is certainly not visible in today’s economy. If everyone who had bought or read Think and Grow Rich had applied all the activities, average incomes would likely be much higher.
You can be an exception. You can use personal development books to actually make changes to the way you behave. The advice exists (and continues to sell) because it works. And it works because people like you make it happen.
Books in this category include: Personal Development:
Choose Yourself by James Altucher
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale
GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
As an entrepreneur, you want to be thinking about the global economy in which you run your business. Even if you have a small enterprise, you are affected by global economic changes in the price of oil or the value of the dollar. Having a more knowledgeable background on these issues can help you manage your business rationally.
You can muse about inflation or trade like the average person, or you can read books that explain current economic development and trends. These books will provide you with an insight that you can use to develop your own business. They tend to be interesting histories giving you the information you did not know, and helping to dispel certain fallacies about business, trade and investment.
Although these reads can often be dense, they are well worth the effort to give you a broader grounding and overview of the business world that you now occupy.
Books in this category include: Business of Business:
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
Guns, Germs, Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power by Daniel Yergin
THINK LIKE A BILLIONAIRE
As you read the biographies of entrepreneurs, you may notice a pattern – the big money, mega wealth, came from the stock market. Either the entrepreneur became an investor or was invested in, when the company was taken public. The real jump to billionaire wealth, comes from owning the factors of production, from owning capital.
You can begin to build your billionaire mindset by reading books about investing. These are books that help you develop a money consciousness, to see money not just as the tool that pays the bills, but as a factor that can be transformed into changing your life for the long run.
Many people have a poor financial management and investing education. Without these types of books, the situation would be even worse since this information is not taught in schools. In fact, good investment advice is passed on from one generation to the next within the same family, but not transferred horizontally through a society. This is information you are unlikely to hear.
So your best bet for putting yourself in line to understand the business of money is through an investment in time spent learning more about how investment works in the global economy. Educate yourself before you become an investor.
Books in this category include: Investing and Financial Management:
The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham
Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley
LIFE IN ACTION
As a bonus, fiction books featuring characters in business can give you a broader overview of the world you are entering. By reading about fiction characters, you have a sense of day-to-day life, as well as the road to wealth.
Unlike a biographer, a fiction writer can tell you everything. You get inside the character’s head, and maybe even read words that resonate with you, and your entrepreneurial vision for yourself. You may even decide to emulate the behaviors and practices of business or success-oriented fiction characters who you feel connected to through the story.
Books in this category include: Fiction
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The High Flyer by Susan Howatch
The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
If you are starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur and looking for guidance on how to face the entrepreneurial world, start by reading. When you set aside, 15 minutes a day to work on your business, your time can be focused on reading, your research for creating the life you really want.
Many of the classic books now have e-reader versions and you can upload copies to your phone or tablet to read when you are standing in line or commuting on public transit.
If you have no idea where you want to start, begin with a few books. You will likely find yourself inspired to keep going until you have your business up and running, and you can begin to live your life on your terms.
NOTE: In future blogs, I will follow-up on each of these books and provide more detail about what you may be able to learn from each (especially the fiction) as you move forward on your entrepreneurial journey.
Disclosure: book links are affiliate links to Amazon.com which if used may result in compensation to the author to help support this business and future posts
