1. Set a goal that is exciting for you and aligns with your personal values.
2. Take action.
3. Find people who have already achieved what you are trying to do. Do what they do.
4. Talk to others about what you are doing. Ask for help. Help them with what they are doing.
5. Get a mentor for a periodic reality check.
6. Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t work.
7. Repeat step 1
The magic of being an entrepreneur is creating something out of nothing. Let’s say you have a brainwave while reading, talking to someone or just plain people watching outside the Vancouver Art Gallery (which is my favorite way to unwind between meetings). Then you do your homework – market research, target customer profile, competition and collaborator data, and if you need to partner with someone with skill set different than yours to make this a reality.
Now you are excited. You think that you’ve got something where money can be made and fun can be had. The next step is to test and refine, and turn it into a revenue stream. If you are new to this, you’ll believe the myth of upfront capital investment Read the rest of this entry »
I had a rather enlightening experience yesterday. While putting together a Facebook page for a new business venture, we needed 25 ‘likes’ to get the direct Facebook link for our ads and website banners. So naturally, I turned to my friends on Facebook and posted a request for 25 ‘likes’.
This should have been easy. Well … actually it wasn’t that simple. I got 16 people that clicked to ‘like’ my post on my profile page, a few comments on the post explaining why they ‘liked’ the post, and 10 personal messages telling me that they ‘liked’ me and that I am a great friend. After 24 hours, we had only 6 actual ‘likes’ on the business page.
Huh. What went wrong? Read the rest of this entry »
As a typical entrepreneur – impatient, shoot now ask questions later, let’s get it done type – I hate planning. Why waste time on theory when you can actually be doing something?
Starting a new business is pure magic. You come up with something where the possibilities excite you to a state of sleeplessness, and then you try a bunch of things around your idea, and once in a while something sticks.
Well … something happened recently that shed a slightly different light on things. I attended a business course and spent the last few weeks writing a business plan. It was not my favourite thing to do. Read the rest of this entry »
Making cold calls for my business research made me realize something incredible – the response that I got from the other side was decided not by them but by me. I got better response when I was dressed professionally than not. The response after a successful call was better than that after an unsuccessful one.
How did they know that I looked professional on the other end of the line? How did they know that I just achieved success or not?
You see, it was me who told them – not in so many words, but by the tone of my voice. The difference was confidence.
The year was 1954, the place was Oxford, and the man’s name was Roger. It was believed that no one can run a mile in under four minutes. Doctors and scientists of the day believed that it was beyond the capacity of the human body and whoever attempts to do so is likely to face death as our bone structure was not built for such a speed, our lungs were too weak and human heart just could not take the strain.
Obviously, a young athlete called Roger Bannister was not reading the papers because on May 6, 1954 he achieved the impossible and finished a mile in 3.59.4 minutes. After this incident, the record was broken over and over again – and by the same athletes who couldn’t do it earlier. You see, it was no longer the “impossible”.
What’s the “impossible” in your life? And who decided that it was “impossible” for you?
Writing one’s first blog post. Now I know why public speaking is the number one fear in the world. Well … I am going to go what any savvy person would do in such circumstances – hide behind something.
What I would like to hide behind is a diagram that a rather smart person scribbled on a cocktail napkin for me. It changed the way I approach decisions. It also made decisions both easier and quicker.
I write mainly for my own understanding. If you find it useful, please share, tweet or buzz. Thanks for leaving a comment.
