Success is every entrepreneur’s dream. To get there, effort should be done on oneself and on one’s people. There is no magical key, but experience has shown that the entrepreneur should work both on the intellectual and organizational levels of the business. In fact, the two go together. Successful entrepreneurs are those who overcome both objective and subjective hurdles.
Being a successful entrepreneur doesn’t just happen to someone. People work hard, learn the ins-and-outs of their business, and apply the methods that work in order to become successful.
When you’re starting out as an entrepreneur, you want to make sure you know what makes successful entrepreneurs.
How to become an entrepreneur? What do successful entrepreneurs and business people like Bill Gates do to become so successful?
Below, are twelve tips on how to conquer and succeed in a world that is changing so rapidly.
• Success is in the mind
It is an attitude. A disposition. If you set your mind on earning a million dollars, you will most probably earn it. If once you earn it, you start being afraid of losing it, you will most certainly lose it. Adopt a success-driven attitude even when you reach your goals. Set up higher goals and challenge yourself.
• Work like you’re going to retire tomorrow
You know one thing about retirement? It makes us want to work harder to save more. As an entrepreneur, you need to work like you’re going to retire tomorrow. In the spirit of every successful entrepreneur is the desire to work hard.
Successful entrepreneurs find fun and joy in hard work. So they never get tired. And when success finally comes, they’re just well-prepared for it.
• Think big, act small.
Small droplets will end up filling the bucket. There are no too small battles or small gains for you to wage. All victories lead to your success. Win them with pride.
•Employ a mentor
One thing common with most successful entrepreneurs is they have mentors.
As an entrepreneur, you should have a successful role model whose experience will guide your career. This means you need someone who is successful and is willing to share their experiences with you.
If you find it difficult convincing your role model to mentor you, then work hard to impress them.
Besides, you could learn from someone by being an avid reader of their works. Most successful entrepreneurs are also prolific authors. Think Bill Gates or Richard Branson. They’ve all written books that teach their business principles and ideas.
• Lead instead of playing the boss
Be a mentor, a model. You are the person with the ideas, the vision. You know where you want to go. Your collaborators should trust you and do their best to follow your trace, your footprints. Leadership is the most effective power. Use it to motivate and achieve.
• Be humble and stay hungry
As an entrepreneur, you should learn to put your ego to check. You know what kills most businesses very fast? The big egos of their top executives.
Learn to espouse humility and always stay hungry as Steve Jobs always said. He was actually fired from the company he later came back to and saved!
By staying hungry, you’ll be willing to learn new things that could come in handy in the future. Not staying hungry breeds complacency and conceit in entrepreneurs.
The moment you become complacent, you allow others to overtake you and leave you behind.
• Making mistakes is no problem
Not learning from them is the real problem. As you make your wins, you will also improve on your past errors. The more you do, the more you fall but the more you learn to avoid hurdles on the way.
• Move with a pack
The people you move with as an entrepreneur can also determine how soon you’re going to become successful. That is why it’s advisable to move with a pack of reliable people.
• Copy the best challenger
Have you ever heard that copying others is a sin? Well, maybe in exam halls.
But get over it, this is not high school. In the business world, the best copycats tend to emerge the most successful.
Copy what works best from your best challenger and incorporate them into your business. This could include everything from their customer support approach or their marketing tactics.
•Build Trust
The world is full of crooks. But it’s not a reason for you not to trust anyone. You have to build trust; renew it; and reinforce mutual commitments.
• Dream big
Don’t be afraid to dream big. Successful entrepreneurs achieve because of their big dreams.
The co-founders of Google once said their marketing officer once asked them who they wanted to market to and they responded by saying the whole world.
Well, if dreaming big hurts, Google wouldn’t be the gigantic corporation it is today.
• Employ smarter people
The people that work with you are going to play a huge role in the success of your business. Smart people build better businesses. When the time is ripe for you to start hiring people, you need to seek out the smart ones. Seek for people that are smarter than you are.
• Risk is a part of life
Be bold in your actions if you want to reach out where the others don’t go. Uncharted territories are opportunities for you to be creative and succeed.
• Bring out the best in everyone.
There is good in all of those working for you. But each one has something special about them. Tap into that to make them grow, stay motivated and be creative.
• Look for the silver linings.
Problems don’t exist. What we call problems are only opportunities that are hidden behind obstacles and hurdles. Remove these to get to the goldmine.
Success does not happen overnight. It is the outcome of a lifetime of hard work. What is important is to think things through and adjust your attitudes and approaches in relation to the changes that take place in your environment.
To all entrepreneurs who want to become successful early in life, start dreaming big and give your time to others, but never forget to focus on yourself!
Success is the culmination of a long journey both internal and inside the business. To succeed is to change oneself, and when you change you also change those surrounding you. Good luck.