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The entrepreneurial spirit lights a
flame of hope in the hearts and minds of people near and far. For most, it's a
symbolic journey, one that delves deep into the far-reaches of their minds,
revealing their deepest hopes and dreams, illuminating the pathway to
self-discovery and eventual financial freedom.
Yet, as enticing as it
sounds to launch a new business, it's also fraught with challenges that
run to the core of who we are inside. It's a journey with long and windy roads,
twisting and turning their way through a sea of despair and struggle, battling
against our darkest and most salient fears, forcing us to furiously fight our
way towards the shores of hope and prosperity.
Clearly, it's not easy running a
business. But don't tell that to the wild-eyed innovators who have their sights
set on achieving monumental success. Don't tell that to the entrepreneurs
who've endured doubt and questions as to their abilities, their entire
lives. That won't dismay or dissuade them at the outset. No, it most certainly
won't.
However, as exciting as the start of
any entrepreneurial journey is, we also know how mentally, emotionally,
spiritually, physically, and of course, financially taxing it can be to run and
manage a business in the long term.
The question that beckons most has
very much to do with just how a business can succeed in the long term. While it's easy enough to start a business, it's obvious
that longevity is what eludes us most.
There's a reason why investors
invest in the people behind the business rather than the business or the idea
itself. You can have a groundbreaking idea for an innovation or a revolutionary
new product and launch a business with it, but that doesn't mean you'll
succeed.
If the person running the business
lacks the fundamental building-blocks of a successful entrepreneur, no matter
how much money is pumped into that business, nor what strategy is employed, it
will eventually fail. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But eventually. And
10 years from now, that business will be all but a distant memory.
So what is this magic recipe for
long-term success in business? What's the formula that some of the world's most
successful entrepreneurs employ to see things through? Clearly, you need
to be agile, innovative, productive and an effective with your actions to
succeed, but you also need to instill a set of good daily habits so that you
can automate your success.
Habits hold the gateway to success
in any endeavor. Not only do the habits we hold dictate the quality of our
lives, but they also reflect our potential for success. Bad habits will always
hold us back, especially when it comes to running a business with any staying
power. Yet, it's not just about eliminating the bad habits, you need to instill
the right habits for entrepreneurial success.
The world's most successful
entrepreneurs have endured some of the most trying times. They've endured
countless failures along the way to business success, with endless headaches
and restless nights. But they didn't give up. If you look at some of the most
famous people who've failed in the world, there are, in fact, five core habits
that stand out.
1.
Waking up early.
The reason why the world's most
successful individuals wake up that early, is because, It's in the
early-morning hours, when the world is still and silent, that we can focus and
concentrate best on our efforts, to see things through and push towards our
long-term goals.
Even for those people that don't
consider themselves as morning persons, simply wake up 15 minutes earlier the
first week, then another 15 minutes earlier the following week, and so on. Do
it until you reach your wake-up-hour goal.
2.
Effective time management.
Time is life's greatest equalizer.
We all have the same amount of time in the day. It doesn't matter who we are,
where we're from, the color of our skin, religion, and so on, we all still just
get 24 hours in a day. That's 86,400 seconds. That's it. Not more and not
less.
What does make a difference,
however, is just how we use the precious time we do have. Do we squander it? Or
do we use it effectively, masterfully managing our time to achieve our goals?
The world's most successful people are also some of the world's best managers
of their time. If you're serious about long-term success, then you need to
instill this daily habit into your life.
The main difference between the few
who get ahead and the many treading water is how well they spend their time.
3.
Daily goal setting.
Not only do successful entrepreneurs
set long-term goals, but they also engage in daily goal setting. They set goals
every single day based on what they want to achieve in the long term. The daily
goals help to provide clarity at a smaller scale, rather than being
overwhelmed by the enormity of those monumental goals we want to achieve
years down the line.
4.
Meticulous planning.
It's great to set goals, but harder
to achieve them when we fail to plan. The world's most successful
entrepreneurs are meticulous planners. You need to determine how you're
going to get from Point A to Point B to give yourself direction and to better
understand how you'll approach the finish line in the future.
Think about a plane for a moment.
Every airplane has a goal. Its goal is to fly from one city to the next, leave
at a certain date and time, and arrive at another date and time. Yet, there is
tremendous amounts of planning that go into that goal. The plane has to plan
its projected direction of travel, air speed, elevation and so on.
Similar to the plane, you need to
plan your route to your goals. Creating a massive action plan, and tracking
your progress on a daily basis, will also allow you to overcome any
difficulties or change your approach if you see that something isn't
working. When a plane hits turbulence or air-traffic congestion, it changes
direction, elevation or speed so that it can eventually reach its intended
target.
5.
Persistent action.
The cliché of taking action has
been hammered home in the self-help genre for ages. Everyone speaks about
taking action, but not everyone can follow through and do it. We get
sidetracked and veer off track. Things come up and we lose our focus or we end
up procrastinating towards our goals.
However, this is by far one of the
most important daily habits you can have to reach eventual success. Still, the
problem is overcoming the silent killer known as procrastination. However,
there is a so-called hack for this. It's called the 15-minute rule. Take the
one thing that you've been putting off for the longest, set a timer on your
phone, and do it for just 15 minutes.
All it takes is 15 minutes. Don't
promise yourself more than that. Just 15 minutes. What you'll come to find is
that after those 15 minutes are up, you'll have built some momentum and you
might keep going. And even if you don't continue, you'll have broken the
stifling pattern of procrastination.
Original article written by: Robert
Adams
Culled from: entrepreneur.com
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