It's an interesting question. Some people are able to accomplish a great deal during their time on this earth. Others seem to just get by. I'm not interested in getting by. I would argue that most people want more for themselves, but can't seem to break through and make it happen.
My hope is that after reading today's post, we will have uncovered 7 tools that help each one of us follow in their footsteps.
This guide is meant to be followed in order. We're dealing with your psychology here, so it's important to take the right path to get to the end goal. If you skip around, you could end up feeling overwhelmed and give up. That's not what I'm after. I want you to be completely successful in your passion.
First of all, let's make a very clear distinction. I believe this one tactic will account for 50% of your success in this post. It's important to understand that your brain is not a part of your anatomy. It's not something that just sits in your skull delivering instructions to your body and emotional center.
No. Your brain is a tool. You deliver instructions to it.
Henry David Thoreau once said that the mass of men lead lives of quite desperation. That's because the mass of men wait for their brains to tell them what to do, how to feel and what to think. Their brains are in charge of their day.
Successful entrepreneurs flip this coin every day and tell their brains what to do, how to feel and most importantly... What to think.
What does this mean exactly?
Well, when your business is caving in around you, the natural tendency is to go into hiding, get depressed and hope that it all goes away.
Wrong.
Your business will cave in all the time.
Welcome to being a business owner.
For them, they stand back and say "Where's the opportunity in all of this?" They control their focus. They don't let it go to the ditch. They guide it towards their end desire at all times. I don't care if your on the verge of bankruptcy. If you decide to control your brain in that situation, you'll surprise yourself and come out of it bigger, badder and more amazing. That's saying a lot too because you're pretty bad-a already.
Here's great a video to help you master your focus as an entrepreneur. It's from one of my mentors Tony Robbins. This guy is great. I meet with his top business coach 3 times a month, and these strategies really help me stay on top of my game.
Do you remember Kramer from Seinfeld? That guy knew how to enter a room. He got everyone focused and alert.
Let's watch Kramer's entrance first hand:
As a business owner, you should be entering your office with more energy than anyone in the company. You don't need to do it like Kramer, but step up your game. When I started focusing on this, it made a world of difference at Ignite Spot. We're accountants after all, so I was worried that getting these guys riled up was going to be tricky. You should hear us in the mornings around here. There are high fives, chest bumps and lots of hoots and shouts.
To be honest, I feel bad for the other companies in the building because we make so much noise.
When your company needs to get better at something, why on earth are you taking it upon yourself to figure it out? Even beyond that, why are you delegating it to someone else to figure it out?
In this wonderfully connected world that we live in, it's possible to get a mentor in anything. If you wanted to learn SEO, there's a mentor for that. Accounting? Mentor for that too. How about time management for your employees? Yep. Mentors abound.
There is no need to start from scratch and waste your time or your employees time.
When your company is ready to get great at something, spend the first 60 minutes doing the following:
Talk about cutting down the learning curve. Good grief. How would this kind of mentality change your organization? By the way, if you want to hang out with us on twitter, our handle is @ignitespot. We love connecting with people like yourself! Come and tell us your story.
I would suggest picking a mentor that educates more than sales. Let me show you what I mean. Lets say you want to learn online marketing. Great. Who do you go to in that instance?
Check out Hubspot. If you go to their website, they have a ton of free resources to help you figure everything out.
Successful entrepreneurs are always trying to offload their position to someone else. That's not because they're lazy. They understand the power of leveraging. Think about it. Most entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves. In effect, they become the company's biggest bottleneck to growth. The mantra of "Hire smarter people than yourself" is sage advice. It works.
Within my first year of starting Ignite Spot, I hired someone to do most of the accounting work for our clients. By the second year of being in business, I was out of the accounting role completely and I haven't touched a set of books since. My time is now leveraged... To a point. I'm the sole blogger here at Ignite Spot. Can you guess who one of our next hires will be? That's right... A blogger.
Take yourself out of the equation and you'll have a better business. I know you think you're irreplaceable to the organization, but the sooner you replace yourself as sole widget maker, the sooner you can start building a great business.
Ah yes. Money. When you think of people like Richard Branson, do you automatically wonder how big their bank accounts are?
This is where our expertise comes into play. Our mission at Ignite Spot is to help every business in America become profitable by 10% or more among other things. Going forward, I want you to make money. Period.
I've spoken to countless entrepreneurs who set up their budgets so that every dime is planned for. That's all wrong.
What we want you to do is this:
By doing this, you'll always have money for growth, rainy days and awesome company adventures.
I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about our email course on this topic. Sorry for the shameless plug. It's free of course. If you want to check it out, here's the link:
This next one is tricky for most people.
Here at the office, I'm know as the "Optimism Overload Guy". When things go bad, which they occasionally do, I make it a point to do the following:
In the end of it all, you're the company cheerleader if you're the business owner. When everyone feels burned out, stressed and ready to end it all... you come in with a "Boom Baby!" or a "I'm so pumped about where this company is headed!"
Do you see what we're doing here? We're essentially teaching all of your employees how to use their brains as a tool. We want your employees telling their brains what to do, think and feel. Not the other way around. It's psychological training at it's best and you're the coach.
Here's a video you have to watch. Check out Shawn Achor's great TED talk titled "The Happy Secret to Better Work".
Don't be an entrepreneur for the money. I know we talked about the whole 10% thing in step 5. That was a budgeting strategy and a way of thinking. What I'm talking about here is your drive. Your reason for getting out of bed before other business owners do. The greatest achievers have a glow about them. If you don't have a glow, go find it.
Don't be the entrepreneur that's trying to create a great company in order to make millions. Be the entrepreneur that is trying to create a great company in order to make a difference.
How do you control your brain as an entrepreneur? I would love to hear about your tips and tricks for controlling your own brain. I would also love to hear your thoughts on the 7 steps above. Did you find anything that was helpful? If so, how?
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