Posts Tagged ‘characteristics of an entrepreneur’

Throughout history we have progressed from the Agricultural Age through the Industrial Age, and through the Information Age. The common thread running uniting all of the economic changes has been the individual entrepreneur.

Small business managed and developed by the individual entrepreneur forms the basis of all economic progress. The individual entrepreneur who possesses a burning desire to create a business of their own stimulates economic advances.

The Pilgrims were farmers who traveled to America to be able to settle new land and develop their enterprises. They were so adamant that they put their lives on the line to be able to conduct their businesses in peace and freedom.

The gold rush was individual miners who struck out on their own at great peril to seek their fortune. Covered wagons rolled across the prairie in search of acreages to homestead. Herds of cattle were driven hundreds of miles to stake out new ranches.

Bill Gates started Microsoft in a garage. Thomas Edison had a small laboratory to conduct his experiments. Henry Ford started Ford Motor Company in a tiny space working on the development of his horseless carriage. Andrew Carnegie started out with an idea and developed it into a huge empire.

Throughout the entire world, it has been the entrepreneur with a dream, an idea and more motivation than money who changed the course of history.

Think it is too late for a new idea? Wrong. The telephone and telegraph started with a simple idea to communicate ideas more easily. Every step of the way from the first crank telephones to the modern I-phone were all spearheaded by an entrepreneur with a dream.

New and better ideas continue to flow. With each new idea, there is the springboard for another ever more progressive idea. You are only limited by your imagination. You may have made the excuse about having a lack of money. As the beloved business philosopher, Jim Rohn, said, “Lack of money is not the problem; it is the lack of an idea to create money that is the issue.” Ideas are free. Developing the idea will require some time, effort and dedication.

What is your future worth?

Education helps, money helps but the critical element is always passion. Nothing and no one can stop an entrepreneur with a burning desire. If you listen to your critics, you will never accomplish anything of merit. Critics frequently want to keep you down on their level rather than providing the jet fuel to boost you to the heights you are destined to achieve.

At the end of your life do you want to know that you gave your dream the chance to develop to its fullest potential or regret that you took the safe road and did nothing? The discipline to develop your dream weighs ounces but the pain of regret weighs tons. Jim Rohn spoke volumes with those few words. “We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are, ” Max DePree. Stretch your wings and discover your passion. Discover that burning desire resting dormant within your soul. Allow yourself to become the entrepreneur you are capable of being.

New ideas are being developed each day. Education, age, economic background, and physical location are minor factors. A heartfelt passion and a desire to develop yourself as an entrepreneur is the only critical element.

What excuse are you allowing to hold you back from taking charge of your future? Entrepreneurial mindset is an entrepreneur with a mindset backed by action just as believing in and realizing gold dust in the air is an attitude backed by action. Entrepreneurs believe in and experience the gold dust. With the gold dust comes an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment, happiness and success.

For specific tips, techniques and practical exercises to discover your passion join

me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

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I remember that feeling of failure. Property owners, employees and tourists were looking up to me as the leader they trusted and I failed. My self esteem drained away. It seemed like a good decision at the time. Have you ever had second thoughts about a decision? Some decisions are reversible and some are not. Selling a business, end of the year tax losses and having a baby are not reversible. Come to think of it, there are painful similarities.
Why had I sold Mt. Castles? My attitude and my self confidence plummeted and my business disappeared quicker than a snowflake in hot coffee. I could blame the economy, the president or the dog catcher. The problem was my attitude and my action.  My lack of Entrepreneurial Mindset.

I had allowed my attitude and my business to come crashing down. When my attitude and self confidence plummeted, my business profits followed suit. I allowed second thoughts and doubt to destroy a great business.

Money does not disappear, it simply changes hands. The words of Paul Zane Pilzer, economic adviser to 2 presidents rang in my ear. “There will be more millionaires created between 2006 and 2016 than at any prior point in the history of the world.” With all of this prosperity, how could my attitude be down?

What was the secret to all of my success in the past?

Everyone I talked to told me I couldn’t do it. I’d go broke. It could not be done with single family homes. Property management only works with condominiums. I had 3 things going for me; I love a challenge, I was naive and it’s the go go 80′s. You didn’t have to be good to make money.

No second thoughts. Back it with action and go for it. There are advantages to being naïve. Jump off the business cliff and look for a golden parachute on the way down. I had a clear plan of action.

Sometimes plans are disrupted. Owners of the first home I managed were 2 young venture capitalists. Great young guys. Easy to work with, generous and creative. They owned a car rental agency based out of Boca Raton, FL. One day I received a call from Federal Marshall Jim Tafoya of the DEA. The cars carried more than people across state lines. The guys may now be having second thoughts. They had been concentrating on powder but theirs was not Steamboat’s legendary snowflakes. They were working with another white powder. Poof. The federal marshals became the new owners of the property.

Federal Marshalls do not have second thoughts about white powder.

Mt. Castles kept growing. Even after I won the “Innovator of the Year” award for being the first property management company in Routt County to market ski lodging on the internet, I allowed my significant other, Matt, I changed the name to protect the guilty, to tell me how small and insignificant a company I was. My self confidence evaporated and so did my profits. Poof. Just like the powder, everything came crashing down. Attitude is not the only thing, but it is the main thing. I defeated myself.

I could blame Matt, the economy or George Bush, but it was my own second thoughts. My own self doubt had destroyed my business and made the decision to sell Mt. Castles.

Paul Zane Pilzer’s words rang in my ear, “more millionaires created than at any prior point in the history of the world. . .” Clear my head; restore my confidence. Dust off my attitude and back it with action. If I allowed second thoughts to destroy my attitude, then I have the power to bring it back. Stick to your goals. Don’t allow second thoughts to destroy your dreams.

For specific tips and techniques to overcome your second thoughts and hold on to your dreams, contact me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

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You are in the business of creating WOW. Be so good that they can not ignore you. Be so good that the only question of doubt is who is second.  These are characteristics of an Entrepreneur.

Create your WOW with a gold dust in the air attitude and back it with solid goal directed action. WOW comes from a positive attitude. Attracting the top people to you stems from being a person others like to be around. No one enjoys spending time with grumpy, complaining people. It does not mean you have to turn cartwheels, most of us do not do that on a regular basis, but it does mean that you display a pleasing personality, zest for life and spirit of giving value.

Look at the WOW as W O VV – wealth of value value. The key to creating WOW is doubling the value received by everyone you encounter. When you interact with others in a spirit of giving value to them far in excess of the monetary exchange, you create a win win situation. Double the value and you double the win.

Look at life and business in the spirit of looking in the mirror to see what you can give of yourself rather than looking through a window to see what the outside world can give to you. Rotary Clubs International has a motto of service before self. That gold dust in the air attitude epitomizes the positive outlook on life and the mission of giving value to others. A person who is more concerned about giving value and excellent customer service than they are about their individual income in each interaction, will in fact receive more. Greed is short term. Value is long term.

Look at a W as two Vs put together. Create a gold dust in the air attitude by expecting good things to appear, acting as if the good will appear and serving others by projecting the attitude of giving value to them.

Creating WOW is as simple as focusing on the value you give to others. The top companies who thrive for the long term are always the top customer service companies. It always costs less to retain a customer than to attract a new customer. Customers stay where they are appreciated and receiving value.

Project a gold dust in the air attitude and others will feel good about being around you, customers will choose to do business with you and you will feel better about yourself and your business. It really is as simple as having a gold dust in the air attitude and backing it with positive action. That positive action starts with giving value and follows through with giving excellent customer service.

1. Gold dust in the air attitude

2. Give value which exceeds expectation and price

3. Give excellent customer service

Develop a gold dust in the air attitude and back it with positive action.

For more tips and specific techniques on developing a gold dust in the air attitude and a list of the top customer service companies, join me at www.elaine4success.net

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In this world of few guarantees, rest assured that a successful entrepreneur is never ever lazy.  The entrepreneurial mindset seems to remain in motion.  One of the most difficult tasks for a successful entrepreneur is to turn off the flow of creative ideas.  There is always one more thing they want to do, one more advertising campaign to launch, and one more marketing strategy to explore.  If you were ever in their bedroom you would find a notepad on the night stand for those flashes of brilliance which awaken them in the middle of the night.

Another of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs is their constant quest to do just a little better or do just a little more.  They are always seeking perfection.  This tendency to constantly tweak a logo or a brochure or even an office procedure can drive those around them to reach for the chocolate or the tenth cup of coffee.  Entrepreneurs may not always be easy to live with because of this constant drive.  We have even been called such names as “workaholic.”  Imagine that.

Yes, we immerse ourselves so fully in the task at hand that we forget to bring home the milk; time just flies by and the focus is on the project of the moment.  Don’t be frustrated with the entrepreneurial mindset; it is simply one of the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.

Examine the entrepreneurial mindset and you will find a checkerboard.  Each task has its own individual square; however there is also the larger puzzle of making each square function to lead to the ultimate goal of becoming a king.  Strategic individual moves, awareness of the moves around them, and target focus on the ultimate goal are all working simultaneously.

The entrepreneurial mindset is complicated but invigorated at all times.  This moving, thriving energetic mind is one of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

Another characteristic will be the ready smile and the excitement for life.  It is not uncommon to find another characteristic of successful entrepreneurs to be rising early and retiring to bed late.  It is that “one more thing to do” thought pattern.

So if you call your successful entrepreneur and ask him to stop at the store on his way home from the office and he forgets to do so, just smile.  It is just one of the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.  Bring them a cool beverage, a warm smile and forgiveness for the oversight.

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Dreams must be backed by action.  Until you back them with action, your dreams are nothing more than idle wishes and daydreams.  If you truly desire to implement a blueprint for success, your dreams must be transformed into goal directed action.

What is holding you back from achieving your dreams?  Are you living the life you truly thought you could be or would be living?  Remember when you were a child and all things were possible?  What happened to that magic and wonder?  You say life got in the way?  Work and responsibility took over and dreams were stuffed back on the shelf never to see the light of day again.  How could this happen?

In a small child’s imagination, all things are possible.  Anyone who has ever been a teenager or raised a teenager knows the “fearless factor” of youth.  We rationalize our decrease in imagination and willingness to reach above and beyond our comfort zone as maturity.  Let’s be honest.  Is it really maturity or is it more a matter of staying in our comfort zone?  Is it simply easier to stay with the status quo rather than reach out and be daring?  We get stuck in the familiar even if we do not like that set of circumstances.

The first step in any blueprint for success is willingness to leave your comfort zone.  Step two in the blueprint for success is to take positive action toward the achievement of the dream. Where would America be right now if Christopher Columbus had not gone exploring?  What if the Pilgrims had stayed in England?  What if you stayed in a job you hated just because it was easier to stay and complain than reach for your dreams?

Having a blueprint for success provides a pathway; however, you must take the action.   Columbus could dream about the voyage to America but without taking action to acquire the ships, crew and supplies, he was land locked.

A teenager can dream of attending college; however, in order for it to become reality there are a few practical steps.  Even college entrance has a specific blueprint for success.

1.  Good grades and good test scores which meet college entrance requirements.

2.  A plan to finance the endeavor: scholarship, job, parents, or a rich uncle.

3.  Apply to the desired colleges and receive acceptance.

Starting your own business also requires a blueprint for success.

1.  Determine what area creates a passion for you.  A florist shop may be wonderful for the area; however, if you are allergic to flowers or have a black thumb, it would not be recommended for you.  Find your passion and create your business accordingly.

2.  Determine what type of business – franchise, brick and mortar, or home based.

3.  Determine the initial investment you have available or can acquire.

4.  Determine your income needs and desires.  Will that business produce the income in sufficient time and quantity to sustain you both short term and long term?

Every endeavor of any significance requires a blueprint for success.  Amazing that most people spend more time planning their vacations than they do planning their financial future.

Starting a business without a blueprint for success is financial suicide.  The blueprint carefully details each and every intersection on the road to success.  Unless you have specific mile markers, how do you know you are making progress?  How close are you on your time target as well as your financial and business growth targets?  Your blueprint for success is the difference between being busy and being productive.

Without a blueprint for success, you could very easily be wandering around or even worse, going in circles.  A rocking chair can be in constant motion but it does not go forward.  A puppy dog can run in circles until he collapses in exhaustion, but he did not make any forward progress.

A blueprint for success is a methodical plan detailing specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely benchmarks on your road to success.  An ideal blueprint for success is personalized for you.  Some call it a goal setting worksheet.  Textbooks give excellent general guidelines but not specific personalized plans.  Designing a personalized blueprint insures your success.

Not certain how to design such a perfect plan for you?  Join me at http://www.elaine4success.com/.

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