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- Nov 14, 2011
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After being on this forum for six years, building my own business, and helping many newer forum members get started in building their businesses; I started to see a lot of common patterns between what makes some of us successful while other ones say they want to build a business; but they never go on to actually do it.
And this area of entrepreneurship has nothing to do with business ideas, marketing advice, sales strategies, or anything like that. That's a necessary skill in itself - which can be learned by reading any of the GOLD threads on this forum - but it's the character traits which can be the make or break factor between if you're going to be successful next month, next year, or never.
For my publishing company, I write a number of books on topics from entrepreneurship, stress-management and mindfulness, relationships, health, and spirituality.
For promotion purposes, I now like to co-author with someone who has subject-matter expertise, and a passion for the topic we write about. My health book is being written with Alyssa - A healthy eating/nutritionalist/shares the same views on life and diet as I do. I will do the bulk of the writing and she will promote the book through the growth of her brand. Alyssa makes the perfect co-author for this book with her experience helping people eat healthy (she helped me personally first - that's why I am writing this book with her).
Be careful who you choose to learn from...even if they are an (actual) expert.
When all of these are out, I'm going to publish a book on Motivation.
I know just the right person to co-author this book with. She is the one who helped me unlock a type of motivation that I never knew existed within myself. The type where I would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and climb a mountain in the Colorado Rocky Mountains for 4 hours every morning for 3 months straight, even in the middle of hail and thunderstorms.
So I just thought about reaching out to her about teaming up and sharing both our experiences on being motivated through a book we could write together.
At first appearance, she is the most motivated person I know - She is studying to get a doctorate degree, working two jobs, and still takes the time very day to be in the best shape she can be - running half marathons at least once a month.
But then I started to realize something....
Is she really that motivated in the type of way that could help entrepreneurs and people on this journey to self-made success (aspiring singers, actors, athletes, you name it)? And the answer is no...
Her form of motivation (focusing on her schooling specifically) wouldn't do anything to teach people in our shoes to be more motivated. Yes, she studies harder and performs better in school - working harder than some of the '14 hour per day entrepreneurs' that I know.
But...this is where the problem comes in
With her schooling - she has a school system/teachers that outline the exact steps for her...if she doesn't keep on track, she'll feel the immediate pain of failing tests and within 3-4 months, failing a semester.
She is motivated by a motivation system that has been put in place to motivate the masses (read:slowlaners).
The one thing they don't instill in people through that motivation system is initiative. At least not the type of initiative that we need to be successful as entrepreneurs. She gets rewarded for just doing enough, and then back to waiting for the next assignment, the next orders to follow, waiting for someone else to tell her what to do.
The reason why there are so many people on this forum who procrastinated in the past is because they were accustomed to following that system for their motivation. You're don't get grades as entrepreneurs, and unless you have $2,000-$5,000 to fork over for an experienced business coach - or if you really stand out as someone who is dedicated, you're not going to have a mentor who will give you those directions and show you the way.
So taking that aside, you're going to have to learn how to take the initiative by yourself.
I'm helping one member of this forum build a business right now - He gets home from work right away, and immediately gets to work, accomplishing one task after another, facing some small setbacks; but quickly pushes through them. No procrastination at all.
He has the initiative to go out and do things that he aren't certain that will work or not. And he is building a great business that is already making sales because of it.
The reason for this is because he has his own internal motivation system in place.
Then I reflected back on the slow transformations I made when I was in his shoes...
I grew up in the same school system as the girl I was talking about before...I was conditioned to follow orders. If no orders were given...I wouldn't do anything. I would sit around thinking about what I would have to do next, for months on end...
I never realized how much time is a killer when you sit around and waste it; so I wasted two years of it browsing these forums and dreaming of wanting to be an entrepreneur. Two years down the drain by not learning how to take the initiative and not learning how to develop my own internal motivation system.
So I spent my night really thinking about what it takes to develop this initiative on our own. So we can go out there and take more action, instead of sitting around for months on end in haze...
For many people reading this, simply by reading this article - they will see something that never thought about before - and they will just do it.
For the first-time entrepreneurs on this forum, success in entrepreneurship isn't something that could be merely taught. It's very helpful to learn from the right training programs and hiring the right coaches...
But information alone isn't enough.
From my experience doing this for 6 years, I've really learned that it's developing these character traits and really acting with these qualities (instead of just learning about it in the mind), which could be the make or break difference between someone being successful or not.
In this first post in this thread, it is simply realizing that the motivation system that you've been conditioned to follow (blindly) in the past is not effective anymore....and it's time to learn how to develop your own internal motivation system.
TL;DR - Making the transition from employee to entrepreneur (for many of us), it is important to realize that the education system conditions us to follow orders and they have motivational systems of pain and pleasure built into them. When you take those systems and 'taking orders' away...it leaves many first time entrepreneurs waiting for someone telling them what to do, not making progress because the motivation systems (fail out of semester/get an A on the test) aren't here anymore...
And this area of entrepreneurship has nothing to do with business ideas, marketing advice, sales strategies, or anything like that. That's a necessary skill in itself - which can be learned by reading any of the GOLD threads on this forum - but it's the character traits which can be the make or break factor between if you're going to be successful next month, next year, or never.
Character Trait #1 - Initiative
For my publishing company, I write a number of books on topics from entrepreneurship, stress-management and mindfulness, relationships, health, and spirituality.
For promotion purposes, I now like to co-author with someone who has subject-matter expertise, and a passion for the topic we write about. My health book is being written with Alyssa - A healthy eating/nutritionalist/shares the same views on life and diet as I do. I will do the bulk of the writing and she will promote the book through the growth of her brand. Alyssa makes the perfect co-author for this book with her experience helping people eat healthy (she helped me personally first - that's why I am writing this book with her).
Be careful who you choose to learn from...even if they are an (actual) expert.
When all of these are out, I'm going to publish a book on Motivation.
I know just the right person to co-author this book with. She is the one who helped me unlock a type of motivation that I never knew existed within myself. The type where I would wake up at 6:30 a.m. and climb a mountain in the Colorado Rocky Mountains for 4 hours every morning for 3 months straight, even in the middle of hail and thunderstorms.
So I just thought about reaching out to her about teaming up and sharing both our experiences on being motivated through a book we could write together.
At first appearance, she is the most motivated person I know - She is studying to get a doctorate degree, working two jobs, and still takes the time very day to be in the best shape she can be - running half marathons at least once a month.
But then I started to realize something....
Is she really that motivated in the type of way that could help entrepreneurs and people on this journey to self-made success (aspiring singers, actors, athletes, you name it)? And the answer is no...
Her form of motivation (focusing on her schooling specifically) wouldn't do anything to teach people in our shoes to be more motivated. Yes, she studies harder and performs better in school - working harder than some of the '14 hour per day entrepreneurs' that I know.
But...this is where the problem comes in
With her schooling - she has a school system/teachers that outline the exact steps for her...if she doesn't keep on track, she'll feel the immediate pain of failing tests and within 3-4 months, failing a semester.
She is motivated by a motivation system that has been put in place to motivate the masses (read:slowlaners).
The one thing they don't instill in people through that motivation system is initiative. At least not the type of initiative that we need to be successful as entrepreneurs. She gets rewarded for just doing enough, and then back to waiting for the next assignment, the next orders to follow, waiting for someone else to tell her what to do.
The reason why there are so many people on this forum who procrastinated in the past is because they were accustomed to following that system for their motivation. You're don't get grades as entrepreneurs, and unless you have $2,000-$5,000 to fork over for an experienced business coach - or if you really stand out as someone who is dedicated, you're not going to have a mentor who will give you those directions and show you the way.
So taking that aside, you're going to have to learn how to take the initiative by yourself.
I'm helping one member of this forum build a business right now - He gets home from work right away, and immediately gets to work, accomplishing one task after another, facing some small setbacks; but quickly pushes through them. No procrastination at all.
He has the initiative to go out and do things that he aren't certain that will work or not. And he is building a great business that is already making sales because of it.
The reason for this is because he has his own internal motivation system in place.
Then I reflected back on the slow transformations I made when I was in his shoes...
I grew up in the same school system as the girl I was talking about before...I was conditioned to follow orders. If no orders were given...I wouldn't do anything. I would sit around thinking about what I would have to do next, for months on end...
I never realized how much time is a killer when you sit around and waste it; so I wasted two years of it browsing these forums and dreaming of wanting to be an entrepreneur. Two years down the drain by not learning how to take the initiative and not learning how to develop my own internal motivation system.
So I spent my night really thinking about what it takes to develop this initiative on our own. So we can go out there and take more action, instead of sitting around for months on end in haze...
For many people reading this, simply by reading this article - they will see something that never thought about before - and they will just do it.
For the first-time entrepreneurs on this forum, success in entrepreneurship isn't something that could be merely taught. It's very helpful to learn from the right training programs and hiring the right coaches...
But information alone isn't enough.
From my experience doing this for 6 years, I've really learned that it's developing these character traits and really acting with these qualities (instead of just learning about it in the mind), which could be the make or break difference between someone being successful or not.
In this first post in this thread, it is simply realizing that the motivation system that you've been conditioned to follow (blindly) in the past is not effective anymore....and it's time to learn how to develop your own internal motivation system.
TL;DR - Making the transition from employee to entrepreneur (for many of us), it is important to realize that the education system conditions us to follow orders and they have motivational systems of pain and pleasure built into them. When you take those systems and 'taking orders' away...it leaves many first time entrepreneurs waiting for someone telling them what to do, not making progress because the motivation systems (fail out of semester/get an A on the test) aren't here anymore...
- Are you the type of entrepreneur who has the INITIATIVE to try new things, unsure where they will lead?
- Do you have your own internal (or external) motivation system in place so you actually do the work?
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