Before embarking on the exciting journey of becoming an entrepreneur, here are a few questions you should ask yourself. They aren’t meant to rain down on your parade, but rather to take a more realistic look at your mind to make sure you’re heading in the right direction and doing what you’re supposed to do.
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Are you passionate about what you do?
There are a million people with a million great ideas, and they are all trying to become entrepreneurs. They all want a piece of this delicious pie, trying to create an impromptu company. With so much competition and a struggling economy, most of them are doomed to failure. So what makes the winners different? Passion. The word is used so much, and lately I often hear people like Gary Vaynerchuk talk a lot about the importance of passion and doing what you love. So, I’ll ask you again, are you passionate about what you do?
You have to be passionate about what you do to be successful in this world, that’s a must. You can’t just love, you have to love it! Because if you don’t, someone who really loves it will come along and do the same thing as you. And they will do it better. So seriously think about it and think: what am I really passionate about? And if what you are doing comes to mind, then move on to the next question.
Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur?
It may seem silly to ask yourself the question, because if you are in business, you must see yourself as one. Right? Wrong.
Many people believe it will be related to something in their life simply because they think it’s a good idea or they really don’t know what else they should be doing. Does it look like you? If you’re not sure what you should be doing, you may need to re-evaluate your priorities. Look in the mirror, do you see the entrepreneur looking at you? Or are you sure it’s not just a man’s idea? Some people are very good at coming up with ideas, but not very good at implementing them. Just being an idea person doesn’t make you an entrepreneur, instead you should be able to bring that idea to life.
So if I’m talking to an entrepreneur, ask yourself this question:
Are you ready for failure?
Part of being an entrepreneur is not so much asking myself if there will be failures, because OH, there will be failures, but asking myself if I have the determination and drive to overcome these failures. So many times I’ve heard of entrepreneurs who went through all that work to build their company and gave up after a few setbacks. If they had just moved forward another time, they might have succeeded. You never know if the next time you try something you will succeed, so you should never stop until you succeed. If you fail along the way, you will learn from your mistakes and try again to do something else.
Our President Barack Obama commented on failures: “Making your mark on the world is difficult. If it was easy, everyone would do it. But it is not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and there are often setbacks along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid that failure because you don’t. the point is whether you allow it to harden or shame you into doing nothing, or whether you learn from it; whether or not you decide to persevere.” Even such great people as the President of the United States understand how important this is. As you begin your journey as an entrepreneur, just make sure you’re prepared to face some of these challenges and remind yourself that it’s your duty to keep moving forward.
If you’ve read this far, skip to the last question:
Do you understand that you can’t make everyone happy?
If you think you can make everyone happy, you are wrong. You won’t make everyone happy, and you won’t be able to. There will always be critics, there will always be SOMEONE who is upset about what you do or what you believe. The sooner you realize this, the better, because it can actually lead to your failure if you don’t. Take this Herbert Swope quote: “I can’t give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: try to please everyone.” If you try to please everyone, you will drain yourself and waste time instead of using it to expand your business.
Instead, you should focus on making yourself happy by doing what you love and making the important people in your life and business happy, such as your employees and customers. If you do this and people see that you are happy, you will make them happy and eventually succeed.
If some of these questions have made you rethink if you are on the right path, I wish you the best of luck in finding your true calling. If you have considered these questions and have no doubts about your opinion about entrepreneurship, I personally welcome you to our world. Good luck.
Article written by Richie Frost “World Class Executive”.
