The Killer Motivational Mistake That Could Ruin Your Chances of Success
August 28, 2007
Hi, Thanks for visiting. You might want to click here to sign up to my RSS feed, so you don't miss anything important.
Self motivation is crucial for business success. But, if you make the terrible mistake that I made - you’ll struggle to reach your goals.
However tempting it is - don’t use the things you don’t want to motivate yourself. For example, if you hate your job and want to be running your own business within a year - don’t make your goal leaving your job in one year. If you do this, you’ll wind up focusing on the thing you hate - your job. Instead, turn the goal round to - I will be running my own business full-time within one year.
I made the mistake of focusing on what I didn’t want for a long time. I suffered from really bad PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), and among my goals were - not suffering from insomnia or agrophobia anymore.
So, you’ve guessed it - instead of focusing on sleeping well, feeling healthy, and being able to go out of the house alone - I focused on not being able to sleep, and being afraid to go out of the house.
As soon as I switched my thinking to the things I did want, my life began to improve dramatically.
Are you worried that you might have been focusing on what you don’t want? Here’s a simple exercise you can do.
Make yourself a list of half a dozen things you don’t want. When you’re done - take each item on the list, and turn them into positives. Instead of writing “I don’t want” at the beginning of each sentence - begin them with “I want” or “I will”.
You’ll be surprised at how much your life will begin to improve once you begin focusing on what you do want.
What Seperates the Winners from the Losers?
August 27, 2007
Everyone is different. And whilst I don’t think there is a particular set of characteristics you need to have to become successful in business, there is one characteristic that all successful business people seem to share.
That characteristic is persistence. And persistence doesn’t necessarily mean never giving up on a project which isn’t going to work. It means not giving up on yourself.
Some projects just won’t work. And the successful entrepreneurs usually cut their losses when they realise they are flogging a dead horse, and move right onto the next thing.
For example, in 1890 Thomas Edison spent $2 million dollars on a “failed” project. That was an enormous amount of cash to lose in those days. But rather than let it beat him - he simply paid off his creditors, closed the project and moved onto the next thing.
Realise that not everything you do will be a huge success. Richard Branson has had more than his fair share of “failures”. Virgin Clothes and Virgin Cola are two that spring to mind immediately. But Branson will never give up, and the launch of Virgin Galactic is probably his most ambitious attempt yet.
So, if you’re struggling to make your first sale. Or you’ve realised that your chosen business just isn’t going to work out - don’t give up on yourself.
And remember, if you try something and it doesn’t work out - that doesn’t mean that you are a failure. Just ignore the doom mongers and move onto the next thing.
Ian Denny of Phoenix from the Ashes Blog is a great example of someone with a winning attitude to business. Whilst struggling to avoid bankruptcy, instead of just giving up, as many people would, he has already relaunched his business.
If you want some inspiration - do check out Ian’s blog here. And you can also check out his IT business website here.
Seven Deadly Small Business Myths
August 26, 2007
Small business myths are often started by people with little or no business experience. And these seven deadly small business myths can seriously damage your chances of business success.
Myth 1: Small Business Start Up Money Is Easy To Get If You Have a Great Idea
Reality: If you’ve never ran a business before, start-up cash is difficult to get, no matter how fabulous your idea is. Most business investors prefer to plough cash into start-ups which are being headed by experienced and successful business owners.
Myth 2: Small Business Owners Have More Freedom Than Employees.
Reality: In the early years, most new business owners have less freedom than employees. In the beginning you’re going to be doing a lot of the work yourself and you’re likely to find yourself putting in far more hours than you did when you had a job. Also, until you have people in place to run your small business whilst you’re not there, vacations may become a distant memory.
3) It’s a Great Idea to Turn a Hobby Into a Small Business.
People who make this suggestion are often ignorant as to what a business actually is. Your hobbies are normally something you enjoy. It’s often harder to give up something you enjoy. If you start up a business which was originally a hobby, more often than not, all you will end up with is a work at home job. Most business owners who turn a hobby into a business fail to grow the business because they’re doing it all themselves, and believe nobody can do it as well as they can.
4) If the Competition Are Bad, You Don’t Need To Watch Them.
You should always keep a close eye on your competitors, no matter how bad they are. If they were that bad, they wouldn’t be in business at all. And even if they are truly terrible, they won’t be in business for long and could be taken over by someone much better. Also, you can learn from their mistakes to make sure you don’t make the same ones and look at the things they’re doing well to see how you could improve.
5) The Best Advice is Free
This is an extremely dangerous fallacy. Sure you can get a lot of advice from other experienced business people on forums and blogs. You can also get really bad advice from them too.
Often people will make ridiculous posts just to sound knowledgeable and important, and sometimes, they’ll be trying to sell you something. Never take legal or financial advice from people with experience you can’t verify, and read as many good books on business, marketing, and leadership as you can.
6) You Don’t Need to Understand Accounts to Start a Business.
This is bad advice. If you’re starting a business, make sure you have at least a basic grasp of accounts before you begin. Learn how to read a balance sheet and make sure you understand cash flow as it is the lifeblood of your business. If you don’t understand accounting basics, you won’t even know that your business is in trouble until it is too late.
7) The Most Successful Businesses Grow Like Wildfire.
Successful businesses do grow quickly, but that growth should be well managed to ensure your start up can afford it. To grow rapidly, you will often need to outlay a lot of cash, and you may not see a return on it for a while, so keep a keen eye on cash flow whilst you are learning. Also, going after huge contracts is not always the best idea during your first few months in business. Often, a lot of work is required to be able to get huge contracts, and you may not see a pay off until many months down the line. Look for more smaller contracts initially — preferably ones that will pay straight away. You can always go after the big fish once your business has plenty of cash in the bank.
Anyone Can Do It - But They Probably Won’t
August 25, 2007
I’ve read hundreds of books and articles recently claiming that anyone can do it - become a millionaire that is. But research results by Merrill Lynch show that most people don’t. In fact, just a small fraction of a percent of the world’s population are millionaires. And only 5% of individuals in the world earn at least six figures a year.
So why are all these people claiming that anyone can do it? And how can you beat the odds?
Thinking differently will give you a huge head start. Think about the people around you. Make a random list of 100 people you know - if you have the time and the inclination. What percentage of that list would like to win the lottery?
It’s probably quite high, given that seventy percent of the adult population in the UK buy at least one lottery ticket a month. So that means that 70 percent of the adult population want something for nothing. No wonder there’s so many snakes pushing get rich quick pyramid schemes, and people making a fortune from casinos and the like.
I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing the lottery- that is up to you. But given that you have more chance of being struck by lightening than actually winning, could you really be bothered to queue up for tickets each week? I know I couldn’t. Even if I did, I’d either lose them, or forget I’d bought them.
That brings us to millionaire rule 1. Just because most of the people you know think it’s a great idea - it doesn’t mean that it is. And contrary to popular belief - the majority don’t rule. Think about stock market and housing market crashes. They almost always happen when the average man on the street has entered the market, and there’s usually lots of them all piling in at once. This is because the average person usually does what everyone else is doing. And most of them won’t do it until a huge percentage of the population already have.
Back to that list again. How many people on that list want to be a millionaire and are actually doing something constructive about it? Depending on the people you know - you’ll probably end up with 2% on your list at the very most.
Millionaire rule number 2: It’s no good wanting something for nothing. You’ve more chance of becoming a millionaire if you want to actually work to achieve that status, as opposed to winning it. It’s simple maths. If you want to win it - you’re competing against 70% of the population, but if you want to work for it, you’re only competing with around 2%.
If these statistics haven’t put you off - and I hope they haven’t, you probably realise by now that what you really have to do if you want to become a millionaire is think and act differently to the majority of people you know.
-
Sponsors
-
-
-
