Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.
Somehow, this title comes today with the allure of the spotlight, the bells and whistles of social media status, Shark Tank media publicity and other online and in-person speaking events.
On the one hand, it’s this person who has risked everything to become a ruthless businessman or businesswoman, willing to prioritize business over anything and anyone. On the other, they are extremely successful and are seen as “prophets” of business, having a special ability to make gold out of water, and in some cases that’s not far from the truth.
For those who see this “entrepreneur” out there, let me tell you this: you can do so much better than this.
You are human
— You will face challenges, have a lot of opposition, face adversity, and by overcoming hurdles you will learn and grow. It’s how we develop our ability to foresee, to deal with the expected and unexpected. You might upgrade tools, processes and hire smarter people. However, if your expectation is for you and your business to be perfect from day one (or two) you’re missing the point of the business marathon. It can’t be won overnight, and requires a lot of work! If anyone promises you overnight success, run!
Know your priorities
— And do not sacrifice anything or anyone just so you have a few extra hours per day for your business and one extra zero to your bank account. We all have families, dear ones, and friends. If your life is just about making transactions, then you’ll lose the ability to be human, and will be tempted to treat any human connection as purely transactional. There are plenty of articles about ruthless entrepreneurs, as if they have no personal life, limitations, vulnerabilities or failures. That’s fake (read incomplete, half-truth).
Serve your clients
— Like you would serve yourself and the people you love. Caring for the way you serve your clients comes before being experienced, popular or mainstream. Make your whole business about them (business still assumes profit). Clients feel when they are given genuine attention for the money that they pay, and will return the favor with loyalty. There are large organizations that spend hundreds of millions on ads, and fail miserably at providing the basic (common sense) service to their clients.
Know there’s the unknown
— No, I don’t mean “go and search for a crystal ball” but rather consider that there is no one man all-knowing (or company for that matter), and that includes you. When things fall apart down the line, is there anything you could do today to smooth out that scenario? Anything you can do to avoid it? And when the unknown hits, make the best out of that situation. It pays to be a little paranoid about failure since that’s how you prepare for it. When (not if) you fall, do it gracefully, learn from it, and get back up as fast as you can.
Take risk
— Risk has many faces: educated, quantified, gut feel, somewhere in the middle, and so on. As an entrepreneur, risk means you thrive, grow, sometimes see your business mess up, make your client’s vision happen, or barely meet expectations. Whichever version of risk you choose to pursue, do it for the sole purpose of making someone’s life or business better. Do it to the best of your abilities and standards. Think of risk as the best coach for growth. And in the end, own it, whether it went north or south, because “you know what?” you took that risk!
Become the best one day at a time
— Of course you want to reach the highest levels of service for your clients. It’s just a matter of time. So, you’ve done everything you could and you feel you’re still doing baby steps compared to others out there? Yes, you can think out of the box, enlist the help of others, and organize brainstorming sessions. The reality of life is that it will take time. When you consistently focus on creating, repeating and improving the product or service that goes in the market, you are making steps towards your new best. As in the best version of yourself, product, or service.
Celebrate
— It’s so easy to simply be the critique master for yourself and others. And it’s useful when done right. But it only comes second to the celebration master in you. Learn to encourage, and deliberately search for any reasonable situation to praise those around you. Enjoy every small win, and give it just enough momentum so it serves as fuel for enthusiasm and positive attitude.
The end
— Is not the end. Whatever low you think you have reached in entrepreneurship, there are many others out there who would gladly prove you wrong. You made mistakes? You messed up in front of others? You ruined your client’s experience with your product or service? That’s bad. But that’s still not the end. When you reach the end (they say) you see a little white light and don’t come back from that. That’s right. In most cases, and for every other case, you should still be able to get back up.
