What Next Year’s Rising Stars are Doing Now

Published in

The Startup

3 min readDec 16, 2017

Overnight success rarely happens overnight. There’s a lot of hard work, creative approaches, networking, and more that goes on long before an entrepreneur or startup becomes a success story. In fact, next year’s success stories are hard at work right now. Here’s what they’re doing.

Dreaming Big

This is the time of year where many entrepreneurs pause to reflect on the previous year and plan for the next year. Next year’s rising stars are gaining clarity for the year ahead. They’re dreaming, and they’re dreaming big!

Don’t be afraid of your dreams, embrace them. Visualize them. Expand upon them. Figure out what it is that you are working toward and own it. Think about what you want to achieve in 2018. Once you’re crystal clear on your aspirations, summarize your vision for yourself in about two to three sentences. Post your vision statement where you can see it frequently.

Planning for Success

Next year’s overnight success stories are planning for their success. Having visualized their dreams, they’re breaking their goals down into small, achievable tasks.

Remember, you don’t have to do everything at once. Doing a series of small, manageable tasks is a great way to make steady progress without burning yourself out.

Solving Problems

Next year’s up and coming entrepreneurs are spending time getting to know their customers and the problems they face. This understanding is crucial in product development, marketing, and customer relationships.

If you can uncover your customers’ problems, develop a solution, and communicate its benefits to your potential customers, you’ll be well on your way to being successful.

Wowing Customers

Tomorrow’s rising stars know that it takes more than a great product and clever marketing campaign to earn their customers’ trust and loyalty; it takes amazing customer service.

Wowing customers never goes out of style. Upgrade your customer service skills and instill service as a fundamental business value from the beginning and you will be setting your business up for success.

Taking Chances

Tomorrow’s overnight success stories are taking chances, but not recklessly. They’re taking calculated risks, going in knowing full well what could go wrong and what their rewards would be if everything went right. They understand that taking calculated risks can give them a competitive advantage and open the doors of opportunity.

You’re already an experienced calculated risk-taker. Becoming an entrepreneur was a risky move, and yet here you are! Think about some of the risks you’re likely to face in the coming year, and start evaluating them. Which risks make sense? Which ones are you ready to take?

Making Mistakes

Few entrepreneurs succeed on their first try; they’ll make plenty of mistakes along the way and it’s likely that some of next year’s rising stars are fumbling right now. Perhaps a calculated risk didn’t work out as planned, or maybe it was human error or poor judgment. Whatever the cause, our future successful entrepreneurs will bounce back, taking some time to reflect and learn from their mistakes.

Mistakes happen, and they’re humbling for sure. However, you have two choices when you make a mistake: wish it never happened or learn from it.

Taking Time Off

2018’s success stories are passionate people who care deeply about their work and their lives. They love what they do, but they also seek balance. They take time off to unwind, spend time with their loved ones, explore, satisfy their sense of curiosity, and let their creativity soar. They aren’t consciously working on their businesses, but make no mistake, their subconscious minds are hard at work.

With the holidays fast approaching, now’s the perfect time to take a few days off to rejuvenate your entrepreneurial spirit. Happy holidays and may 2018 be the best year yet!