“Driving Home-business Blues Away”
November 4th, 2008
Entrepreneurship is not easy.
While doing the rounds of prospects when I was in the insurance business, practically all of the young professionals I’ve interviewed professed to retire early and engage in some business. The same percentage, however, don’t know what business they want to go into.
A lot of people out there have this innate desire to be their our own boss, to strike it big, to make something out of themselves, free from the supervision or dominance by others. That’s what entrepreneurship is about. Or at least, a lot of would-be entrepreneurs take it to be.
The sad fact however, is that no one but no one who ventured into the world of entrepreneurship was spared the baptism of fire. A great majority got burned and faded away, leaving only an insignificant few who can claim success. The difference between those who made it and those who didn’t lies in but two words – mind set.
The following, for whatever they are worth, can help any entrepreneur weather the storms that lie ahead. These are:
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“The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.” – Dale Carnegie.
Entrepreneurship is going where but a few dare to tread. It is not “winning-the-lottery” affair where the prize comes but once and when least expected. It is a process of tweaking here and there until the right mix between the entrepreneur, the product and the customers he is trying to sell his product to reach a critical mass allowing things to take a life of its own with results beyond an entrepreneur’s wildest expectations.
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“The successful always has a number of projects planned, to which he looks forward. Anyone of them could change the course of his life overnight.” – Mark Caine
Hard core entrepreneurs never put all their eggs in one basket but have an uncanny “third” eye to discern what are viable and what are not and they psyche themselves to give each a go, either simultaneously or sequentially. The Internet has made this possible and easier; it has offered countless ways to establish one’s entrepreneurial bent. Some guys I met in the Internet have 50 websites to do business in. How they manage that is another point of discussion.
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“Success doesn’t come to you….you go to it.” – Marva Collins.
Success at entrepreneurship occurs when people buy what you are offering them. But unless you make the first move of offering something people need or want, no sale is made – as simple as that. The hard part is to know “what” to sell and “who” to sell it to. Leaving these questions unanswered is a veritable rope which an entrepreneur can hang himself from.
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“Success is a journey, not a destination.” – Ben Sweetland
Entrepreneurship is not a “get-rich-quick” scheme but a lengthy process of deliberate acts from start to finish, which, by natural ascendancy of things, becomes the start of yet another entrepreneurial endeavor. So if you have the “get-the-money-and-run” mindset, rob a bank, not go into entrepreneurship.
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“Success is not permanent. The same is also true of failure.” – Dell Crossword.
If two guys are given a million dollars each, the person with a taste for success will double his fortune at probably the same rate as the other guy, with a mind set of a loser, to become a pauper.
We all make mistakes. Some big, some small. But the only mistake that really counts is to continue on making the same mistake that has robbed us the chance of become better than what we are today.
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“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up” – Woody Allen
Nobody has probably missed the saying, “the early bird catches the worm.” Figuratively, merely showing up is not the whole story but it is almost there. Just like being a member of so many organizations yet not doing much one’s membership other than being a “name” in the members’ roster.
Showing up and doing most likely describe this trait of a successful entrepreneur. To strike while the iron is hot.
Adapted from the Forest Marie series of educational articles at:
