Entrepreneurial Success

 

3 Essential Shifts for Entrepreneurial Success

The Olympics will be in Rio de Janeiro next summer. There are few places in the world where you can witness so many examples of greatness and achievement—where winners and losers are determined by tenths or hundredths of a second—there’s no other place like the Games.
An Olympic competitor prepares for success by doing certain things routinely, but also by refraining from doing other things. They train hard daily for four years (some have trained most of their young lives) to become as fast, as accurate, as strong, or as graceful as they can be in their particular sport. They also must avoid certain things that will subtract from their progress. For instance, alcohol, street drugs, junk food, and too many late nights lazing in front of the TV have no place in the life of an Olympic hopeful.
This “pump up the good, cut out the bad” idea has everything to do with your own success as a business owner. You create your own success; it doesn’t just happen. Success is directly related to your own attitude, habits, and choices. Here are a few shifts you can make that can create the right circumstances for success:

1. Choose the Right Mindset

The actions of an Olympic athlete are the result of a champion mindset. In the world of business and entrepreneurship, the word “mindset” is mentioned quite a bit. To keep it simple, mindset would be an attitude of taking full responsibility for achieving your success, in the same way that an Olympic hopeful takes responsibility for achieving theirs.
Mindset also includes persistence, optimism, and a “no such thing as failure” attitude. It means not blaming others for your problems, but accepting them as your own and learning from them.
But at the same time, no man is an island. We are all humans and can be influenced by people, things and situations around us. So, it’s important to be able to identify those positive influences, as well as the ones that aren’t so good.
Simply put, it all boils down to the kind of communication you allow into your life. This refers to communication from people you know and also communication from other sources, such as the media.

2. Choose the Right Company

There are many people who consider entrepreneurial kinds of thoughts and actions to be impossible. Maybe you’re intimately associated with a few of these people. This kind of negativity can be contagious, says a 2013 clinical study.
Make sure to take note of any naysayers who criticize you or doubt your business. You don’t need that. Always understand who you are—you are an entrepreneur.
It’s important that you surround yourself with successful, goal-oriented people who believe in you and support what you are trying to accomplish. You may be creating something that’s never been created before—bringing something into being that does not yet exist. And in your position, you need as much support as you get—or at least as little negativity as possible.
In his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Eker points out that wealthy people tend to associate themselves with positive, successful people. Though money may not be your primary motivation, as an entrepreneur, you are trying to succeed. So, you don’t want to spend too much time around those who either directly or covertly negate what you’re trying to do and prevent you from reaching your goals. For instance, they may:

• Mock your dreams or ridicule your efforts
• Tell you “for your own good” that you’re wasting your time
• Act like what you’re doing is nothing
• Are impatient with your enthusiasm, etc.

3. Choose Your News

As mentioned earlier, we are all influenced by the world around us, including the people in it. But you can choose what influences you.
Many people start their day by reading the news feeds on their smart phones or computers, or by listening to morning broadcasts or talk radio in their cars. “News” is really just a shortened way of saying “bad news.” If you think that sounds glib, try this experiment: Next time you watch TV news or look at your news feed online, keep track of the number of stories presented and note how many of them are bad news. More often than not, you will always find it to be the majority.
What effect do you think this has on your general outlook? Your productivity? It’s been noted that just a few minutes of negative news can have a significantly negative impact on both mood and performance.
This should not be surprising, since most media stories consist of problems that most people feel powerless to do anything about (murders, disasters, terrorist events, etc..) This can increase stress and negativity.
You may not want to “bury your head in the sand.” If you don’t want to or can’t just turn off all the news all the time, you can at least reduce it. Try turning off the notifications feature of your news app. When you’re in the car, listen to self-improvement or business audio books instead of news. See how you feel.
You can also increase your exposure to good news. There are also sources that not only report on positive events, but also provide solutions to not-so-positive situations. Makes you feel more in control and less like a victim. Here are some of them:

• Upworthy.com (though a bit liberal-leaning at times) focuses on “content that educates and inspires, while still being as rich and compelling as the best viral videos on the web.”
• Huffington Post’s “What’s Working” Series focuses on “stories of creativity, innovation, ingenuity and compassion the media too often overlooks.”
• CNN’s “Impact Your World” is the network’s “empowerment initiative that gives people an opportunity to interact with and respond to the news.” To facilitate interaction, CNN connects readers and viewers with organizations that enable them to act. They can then share how they impacted the world.

Final Thought

Like an Olympic athlete, an entrepreneur must constantly do the actions that will lead to success. That means increasing and fortifying what’s good for you and reducing what’s not.
Though we each generate the thoughts in our heads—the positive and negative ones—we can’t ignore the influence that people and the environment can have on our happiness, productivity and success.
Try adjusting yours with the suggestions given above, and see what it does for your stress level, productivity and ultimate success.

To find out more about a successful business, click here

All Things Are Possible,
Susan Tuck
susantuck.com