It's Not Always Fun

It takes willpower, a strong mindset and focused work to run a successful business.

This is even more true for those who just get started, as many new entrepreneurs need to do all the work required to run a business until they grow their funds to hire a professional team. 

Success Doesn't Happen Overnight

Again, social media makes success look like it happens overnight.

It is much like the singer or band that is an overnight success after ten years of playing small venues, coffe shops and bars for audiences that are not raving fans.

Even those who seem to get exposure within a day don't.

Their skillset and expertise still took time to grow. It's highly uncommon to reach your business goals within a year.


To be a successful entrepreneur, be ready to do the work without any rewards to start with. 

Failure Is Part of the Entrepreneurial Journey

At some point, you are likely to fail. or example, a campaign will flop, a product release won't sell, or you don't get enough people buying your program to break even.

However, that doesn't mean you need to give up. You have gained costly knowledge on what didn't work.

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs create products that fail on purpose to understand their target audience better. In addition, it is a great way to learn about your industry.

Not only that, not every idea you come up with will be a good one.

However, all it really takes is one good idea to be successful. 

Don't let a few failures get in your way.

When polled, most business owners are thankful for their mistakes because they ultimately believe they wouldn't see their success today without experiencing failures

Conclusion

As you can see, becoming an entrepreneur takes a lot of work that is uncomfortable for everyone. In addition, becoming an entrepreneur means entering into a competitive world with what seems like never-ending work, failure, and challenges that you must overcome to see success.

However, if you can handle these challenges and are ready to realize your dream, becoming an entrepreneur may be right for you. 

They are the heroes of the free market system. Unfortunately, that's not how Hollywood portrays them. Instead, they are the hero or the villain depending on the show or movie.

The government treats them like a whipping boy when discussing social inequalities but wants them to create jobs. They want them to take all the risks but complain that they don't pay their fair share of taxes.

So, who are these mysterious maligned group of people and are you one of them?

It is safe to say that entrepreneur thinks differently and has a different passion level for their idea than the average person.

Entrepreneurs look at a problem and try to find a solution that they can turn into a product that will generate profit.

The entrepreneur looks at the world differently than an employee. As a result, they ask different questions that lead to profitable, practical products.

Entrepreneurs are passionate about running their own business or making income without relying on an employer. They are independent.

Entrepreneurs take a passion and generate products based on that passion. This focus on their passion can provide a livable income or riches beyond belief.

Entrepreneurs are builders in our society.
We are going to look at five traits that most entrepreneurs have.

The question is, "How many of these traits do you have?"

This list is a shortlist of common traits but is not exhaustive.

Does this mean you can't make it as an entrepreneur if you don't have these traits?

No, it doesn't mean that, but you will have a few more obstacles to get around on your entrepreneurial journey.

Are You More Comfortable on Your Own

Most businesses, especially when you first start, can be lonely and require you to do most work.
There are reasons for this.

Chief cook and bottle washer is a term that does apply in the early days of any entrepreneur's journey because you have to do everything from sales to finances.
Working alone or in a small group makes sense as you learn how to do things and explore your ideas.

Especially at this part of the journey, the entrepreneur can be lonely because they spend much of their time working which means spending less time with friends and loved ones. They don't understand and might get upset with you because you don't spend time with them.

This can be very difficult for the entrepreneur because unless his friends and family are involved in a business as an owner, they will have difficulty understanding why you can't spend time with them.

It takes self-discipline to keep working at something for hours while your friends enjoy themselves without you.

Most people will not be as passionate as you are about your idea, which is okay.

They don't want to talk about your latest breakthrough in marketing, product enhancements or your newest customer and how your products and services are perfect for them.

If you know others that are developing their business then get together with them to talk about business things that others don't have any interest in.

You Value Freedom and Flexibility

Being an entrepreneur enables you to create your schedule. But, like many things, this is a double-edged sword.

You must discipline yourself about how you spend your time and balance your activities to get the best results. For example, too much time spent on research and not enough time on sales will reduce the amount of cash you have to finance your research.

It's not just time that you have freedom and flexibility. You also have this in what projects you pursue. You decide when you show up and have time off to refresh.

You have to keep your customers happy and hopefully convert them into raving fans of your work.

If you want to be a career coach, you will likely need to be available after regular working hours, as many of your ideal clients will typically be working nine to five business hours. However, this limitation doesn't mean you have to work five days a week. I know of one coach that works three days a week and makes a high 6 figure income.

Working hours convenient to your clients is part of the job when you start, but the idea is to get the financial freedom to choose your hours and your clients.

One of the driving forces for most entrepreneurs is the ability to buy time freedom. The ability to do what your want, when you want, and with whom you want is a major driving force.

In his book "The Four Hour Work Week," Tim Ferris describes how he works four hours a week by creating systems and assigning tasks he doesn't like to other people. Tim only spends four hours a week doing things he doesn't like to do.

When you love what you do, it isn't work.

You Are Confident and Creative

The entrepreneur looks at things differently than the average person.

The average person sees a problem and falls back on their experience and know-how to solve it. They say things like, "This is the end of the world. How will we survive this?"

The entrepreneur looks at the same problem and finds new ways to solve the problem. Can we create something that solves this problem? Is this a common problem? Can we combine two or more ideas to make something that can solve this? Is there a root cause that if we solve it, the problem never happens? The entrepreneur says," Well, this is inconvenient. How can we make this an opportunity?"

Being an entrepreneur takes passion for your ideas, skills, and value to others.

A business's success is dependent on the client receiving value from your solution. Therefore, the entrepreneur's idea must provide value to your client.

In addition, it takes confidence to know you have the skills and knowledge to achieve your goals and provide value to your target audience.

As an entrepreneur, you are confident in your skills and are confident that you can learn new things quickly to fill the skills gap that your clients might need.

You Don't Like Following Orders

No matter your role, being an employee requires following orders.

It requires working when and where your boss tells you to. Take lunch when your boss tells you. Have breaks when your boss lets you. You take a vacation only after your boss has approved it.

For many, this can mean working during the weekend or working overtime during the week and following any demands the boss asks. All, so you are not fired from the job.

Following orders doesn't always have to be negative as this can add structure to many people's lives.

This structure can be challenging for entrepreneurs as they are more free spirits and non-conformists. As a result, it can feel like a cage.

So if you are the type to push away or come up with better ideas often, then it's probably time for you to take the entrepreneurial leap and work for yourself instead.

You Enjoy Taking Risks

Most business ideas, even the best ones, are risky. But the entrepreneur would rather fail than not try. Most business ideas change on the way to market.

The entrepreneur is willing to make the changes to make the idea better and more valuable to the client.

Becoming an entrepreneur means you are willing to step into a world that relies only on yourself and no other person. If taking risks gives you energy and makes you want to do the work, you are a natural-born business owner.

Conclusions

These are a few common signs that you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and stop being an employee.

If you recognize these signs, you must acknowledge that you won't find the life you are looking for without finally leaping into entrepreneurship.

Indeed, you will probably not find your inner peace until you make the leap to becoming an entrepreneur, but my suggestion is to STOP.

Don't do anything rash.

Start building your idea, put your plans together, gather the resources you need, and test your idea in the marketplace. Then, seek out people that can help you move forward.

You do need to start on your journey.

I hope you have enjoyed this post about the signs you could be an entrepreneur. I hope it has encouraged you to think about moving from an employee to an entrepreneur and prove you can thrive on the independence and creativity entrepreneurship can bring. 

Vision boards are visual depictions or collages of the things you want. They create visual reminders of what you are spending your time and energy creating in your life.

As you think about your future, you may not get a clear vision of what you want.

You want the new car but what colour is it?

You see, unless you can keep all the details sorted out, it gets hard to develop a clear picture of what you want.

You can imagine how hard it is for a house, cottage, or item with many details.

Using a vision board gives you a visual reminder about all the details without you having to recall the colour of the walls or the type of wall oven you want.

You can create a vision board for just about anything

• for the family you desire
• the house you want
• the car you want
• the job you want
• the hobbies you hope to have soon
• trips you want to take
• awards you want to win
• vacation home
• certificates
• Anything else you can imagine

The vision board can consist of images, words, and symbols representing a particular goal.

Now I know what you are thinking, "this is a bunch of Woo Woo new age crap." I would remind you that people have been using pictures to represent things they care about and give them reasons for their work.

Jack Canfield used a picture of a $100,000 bill taped to his bedroom ceiling when he first started out. It was the first thing he saw every morning when he woke up. That year he made $97,000 from his books. This was before Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Why do people have pictures of their families on their desks and walls? Maybe it is to remember why they put in all the effort and long hours working.

You can create a physical vision board or, thanks to technology, a digital one. Here is a link to some reviews of vision Board Software.

You can also create a vision book using a binder.

You can make a vision board using craft materials to create something physical, or you can use software like Canva.com, MindMovies.com, or MS PowerPoint and keep it digital.

Advantages of a vision board

You can invest in vision board software or use the software you already have. It's up to you.

This post aims to encourage you to use vision boards to inspire you to achieve a particular goal.

By creating a tangible representation of the future as you wish, you give yourself a visual reminder of what you want. This visual reminder is a great way to motivate yourself and help you set up steps to achieve the vision.

The best vision board considers all eight areas of life that we talked about before in lifestyle design.

Eight Areas of Life to Design:

You can start with one section at a time, finding images, words, and items that help define and depict what it will look like if you have the most success in life.

Use words like "joyful," "abundant," "powerful," "fearless," "loved," "strong," "healthy," "loving," or "financially free."

These are supposed to be your big dream or your goal in life.

You'll want to think long-term, ten years or more, into the future as you design and create your vision board.

To get started using each of the eight areas, develop a list of goals you'd like to achieve in the next year, five years, or ten years into the future.

Using that list of goals, you can find images, words, and even tactical items if you're doing it with actual materials to help build the vision board.

Once you find pictures and visuals representing how you see the future and what best represents your goals met, you can start making each section of your vision board.

General elements of an effective and motivating vision

Here are the  general elements of an effective and motivating vision board. There are:

1. Visual

Your subconscious tends to work in terms of images and pictures, and so your vision board should be as visual as you can possibly make it. Supplement the images with phrases and words as needed.

2. Emotional

Every image on your goal map should evoke some type of positive emotional response out of you. Seeing it should fuel your motivation to achieve your dreams.

3. Strategic

Place your vision board strategically in a location where you receive maximum exposure to it. Seeing your vision board as often as possible will help you stay focused on your goals and dreams.

4. Personal

Your vision board needs to emit positive energy. If you think that you'll be criticized or forced to justify yourself for your vision board, then keep it in a private location so nobody else can bother it or you.

It's important to note whether the business you choose can lead to reaching the goals you set for other areas of your life. The practice of creating the board can help you figure out whether what you want is even possible or not.

For example, if you are to realize your goal of having and flying your own airplane, you will understand that the costs of this goal require a certain amount of money and resources.

Does your business have the ability to provide the income to achieve your dreams?

If not, you may find you want to adjust some of your assumptions or goals to match your resources, principles, morals, and values.

What happens when you achieve the item on your vision board?
Create a success board so you can see the successes you have had, which will give you confidence in the future to keep going.

I hope you have enjoyed the blog post, and if you know of anyone else that could use this information please send them the link

At the start, it might take a huge amount of time to get things off the ground, but that should not be the average. Grinding in your business for a few months is a lot different than ten years.

In some circles, this is called lifestyle design. Lifestyle design holds that you are in complete control of your own life and choices.

Most people don't start off thinking about actually constructing their life intentionally. Instead, they roll with the punches and let life happen to them.

That is not your fate.

You are part of the Choose Success community.

Choose Success people step out from the crowd and plan for their lives. Just like you.

You have a definite purpose. So you make plans for your purpose and activity pursue your dreams every day.

You want to enjoy all the things life has to offer you. Therefore, you have to design your business to support your lifestyle, not the other way around.

Understand the consequences of not designing your life.

If you do not design  your life you will not:

So if you genuinely want to create a lifestyle that matches your business plan precisely, you need to know the kind of lifestyle you want first.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the lifestyle of your dreams.

Why are you here?

This question is really about what your purpose in life is to you? It should align with your definite purpose and core values. It can help you to create a mission statement. Your purpose should spell out what matters to you in life.

Many people have found it helpful to write their obituary to answer this question. What do you hope you have accomplished if you die at the ripe old age of 120? Spell it out as if it happened.

What energizes and animates you?

Starting and growing a business will take a lot of energy. Therefore, it is best to know how you can recharge your batteries.

What do you love to do most?

Can you name one thing you love to do the most out of anything else. Don't think about money making things when you answer. Think about what makes you feel happy. When you exude joy, it's obvious you like what you're doing.

Where will you do it?

When you think about doing what makes you most happy, where do you want to be when you do it?

Who will you do it with?

Life can get very lonely if you don't build the structures to meet your social needs.

What impact do you hope to make?

Ultimately, what impact do you hope to have on your world doing this thing you want to do? What impact will it have on you, your family, your friends, your customers, and the world at large? This is vital information for you to figure out.

It would be best if you create your ideal lifestyle and life on paper just like your business plan.

Creating the ideal business is to provide service to your clients and develop the best lifestyle for you.

A lifestyle that the nine to five grind can never support for you.

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busyness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. Stephen R. Covey

Keeping your designed lifestyle in front of you can be a challenge.

One of the ways is to create a vision board with aspects of your ideal life.
The pictures remind you of what you're working toward.

Another way is to have pictures of your loved ones around to remind you of why you are building your business.

Knowing what success looks like to you will be a lot easier to experience some of it every day instead of some distant time in the future.

Remember to develop a business around you, not the other way around.

A successful business without a successful personal life is like settling for a participation trophy.

It looks good at a distance, but when people get close enough to examine it they see it is skin deep.

Don't settle for that.

Take the time to develop a lifestyle you want. Don't compromise.

If you have enjoyed this, here are a few more that might interest you.

Expand Your Current Knowledge to Position Yourself as a Leader

Daily under 20 Minutes Tasks to Prove Your a Leader

Transform yourself into the kind of leader other employees will want to follow. Your knowledge and skills are valuable resources that can help you to develop your talents and inspire others.

Encourage others to do their best work or to follow their dreams. Motivating others is a skill that anyone can develop. You can only be as successful as your team. Avoid the belief that you can do it all alone. You can't.

The task of a great leader is to inspire others to be overachievers. It's a challenging task, but if you're good at motivating others, you'll always be one of the most influential people around.

Great leaders share these qualities:

How many of these ten characteristics do you possess? Are you willing to develop those qualities that you lack? Great leaders have several qualities in common that you can learn and apply to enhance your leadership skills. Review these qualities and look for ways to develop your leadership abilities further.

Regardless of the leadership strategy followed in your company, these attributes will serve you well. Great leaders share many of the same qualities. Learning to demonstrate these attributes will enhance your leadership abilities and increase your power and influence at work.

Leadership skills can’t be learned and developed in a day. Bringing an idea into the marketplace requires a leader. Make yourself the obvious candidate.

If communications are a skill you need as a leader, I'd like to suggest joining Toastmasters. Toastmasters is an international group dedicated to creating better speakers. You get to have multiple chances to speak at each meeting, and it provides a safe environment to try out new skills and approaches. If you choose the right group, it will be close to the situation you need to speak on a daily bases.

You can learn to communicate more effectively by following these tips from top leaders. Practice these skills as often as possible. You'll have many opportunities each day. Every time you have a conversation with anyone is an opportunity to practice a little more. And as you know, practice makes improvement!