Entrepreneurship, How To Get Started - At Level 0 ?

Having started my own businesses a year and half ago, I wanted to share with you some insights/steps that helped me, insights that did work for me in my ‘wobbling’ journey of Entrepreneurship.

For sure, one needs first to find his/her strong personal motives, the real reasons why he/she wants to do it. The “wants” and “don’t wants” in your life that will really push you forward. This is essential. If you don’t have your reasons, it will be difficult to go far. By reasons here, I don’t mean money, but your personal “wants” and “don’t wants”…

I hope in the future I will have the opportunities again to share more insights with you on my journey of entrepreneurship – I wish I can make a serie of levels: Level 0, Level 1, Level 2…

Here are the 14 steps that have worked for me along my journey on getting started. It's what I have experienced and followed.

#1 "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" - Theodore Roosevelt. Look around you, what you have, what you are able to offer, what you master the most that you can offer to people, to the people around you. The needs around you that you can fulfill, your abilities and willingness to fulfill those needs, not only in the short run but in the long run as well.

#2 All is about solving problems for people. Making people’s lives better. Be a problem solver - beyond every problem lies an opportunity that you can turn into a business. Look for problems, for needs, learn to solve problems and solve it for as many people as you can, with excellent service.

Solving problem is not only about what you can offer (you may be an expert in your industry, but it’s not only about you, what you can offer), it’s also about listening.

Because every need is unique, every need is a personal need before being a ‘society’ need. If you want to solve individual’s problem with a ‘one size fits all’ solution at the beginning, you may miss some important points and won’t offer good services. Listening first is the key on solving other's problem - and learning as well.

#3 Live your dream, not others’ dreams. Time ticking. The precious thing we all have in common, that anybody in this world has more than anyone - rich, poor, broke… - is Time. No matter what you do, no matter who you are, you only have 24 hours a day. It will be sad to use your precious time to please others.

Don't accommodate yourself in accomplishing other's or society’s missions. People will always have something good to tell you to do, but the last person you need to listen before taking any decision is yourself, your deeper self. Take advices from people, listen to people but listen to your deeper self – it’s the only thing that really matters in the long run. "You were born an original, don’t die a copy" - John Mason. "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken" - Oscar Wilde.

#4 Find your passion. Find out something you love doing, something that if you were rich and had all the time, you will be doing it. Do it to help others, don’t do it for money - because there will be times where the money will not be there to motivate you to keep on going. Something that is worth being done for a better world, for the best of people, that can change other people lives. Only passion will keep you do something in the long run - even if you feel like tired and want to quit sometimes. If there is no passion, there will be times when things will get really tough, really tough that the average person will quit - passion will keep you in the game.

#5 Learn to listen to yourself, your intuition, your guts… Don’t listen to others (not always but unless they deeply prove you wrong, don’t). They often say, “What makes you think you can do that?” “If it’s such a good idea, how come someone else hasn’t done it?" “That will never work. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” These words of doubts often get very loud that you can fail to act. It’s not their fault, they may be just protecting you from mistakes. But you need to learn to listen to that inner voice that will talk to you.

Some people will decrease your motivation in doing something because themselves aren’t able to do it, or because they have already tried and failed. Or simply because they didn’t/don’t have the courage to do it.

Other people will discourage you because they do not understand or see things the way you do. You may have a very good idea on starting a business, but not able to expose it well to others. They will probably decrease your motivation.

When cynics criticize, winners take the time to analyze. We all have our "chicken little" - always yelling to us that "the sky is falling, don’t do this, don’t do that" and so on. It’s up to us to take the time to analyze and to listen to ourselves or to just listen to the cynics critics. “Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.” - Eleanor Roosevelt.

#6 BELIEVE in yourself. This one, I will say is the most important one. Everyone is unique. You are unique. The way you see things is different to the way other millions of people see things. Our finger print is unique and different one to another. Someone can do something many times and fail, but you can do it only once and succeed. People failing in doing something doesn’t mean that you too will fail in doing the same thing. There are millions of ways to reach your goals - be open minded, find your own ways.

#7 Never compare yourself to others but only to yourself. We often talk about competition. Yes, there is competition. But your uniqueness makes you out of competition, find your uniqueness instead of competing.

Never compare yourself to other people who have succeeded, they have their own story you surely don’t know. The only person that you can compare yourself with, is only yourself. Be your greatest version.

#8 Learn to say No. if something is not a 100% Yes, then it should be No. You don't feel it, don't do it. Don’t let life and people push you around and around. Sometimes we are asked to do something but we are not very sure and our inner voice is like "hmmmm, no, don’t do it". If you don’t feel it, don't do it, let it be - until its time comes, if it is to be done one day. When the time comes, you will really feel it - and you will do it probably much better. Saying No also gives more credit to your Yes and your promises - it gives it more value.

#9 Accept life, accept things around you, accept your situation – that’s how you can change things. There is no change within without acceptance. To change something, you need to recognize it first, to accept it, and act for its change.

Be neutral with the people around you, accept the way they are and understand that each one of us has his/her own level of understanding and seeing things. You may be at level 10 in something specific, and at level 0 in something else. Talk with respect, no matter to whom, be respectful - you can always learn from others, even the foolish too have their stories. Be open minded in dealing with people - focus on your « wants » instead of your « don’t-wants ».

#10 Be Contradictory in your Dreams and Actions. Dream Big, but act small. Talk is cheap, just do it, but do it step by step. Big dreams start with small actions, one after another. Focus on the moment, on the action, on every action, one move at a time. You have the big picture first, the end result that you want to create and then you start moving backward to build it one piece at a time, one step at time, one count at a time. Each step, each move, each action, focus on it like it's your best, the best step, the best action, the best move you have ever taken.

Be a visionary but also a goal setter (if you can’t do both, surround yourself with the other types of people - be it visionaries or goal setters). We can be a visionary type of person but not a good goal setter and vice versa.

The thing is you need to combine both in order to bring your dreams into life. Being a goal setter only, will not keep you in the long run, you may end up asking yourself « what next? » after accomplishing your goals. As well only being a visionary will not help you bring into life your dreams – you need to organize and set up the different steps to make it happen.

#11 Learn every day. If you really knew you will know that you still don’t know. Focus on the « How » and do not limit yourself by assuming that you know or you don’t know – both assertions can limit you. Most people focus more on "I can’t afford it, I can’t do this."… which automatically shut down their brain. Focus more on "how can I do this?", "How can I have that?", "How can I get this ?."

Read, read and read. Read books, news, articles... in your industry, field, passion... « It’s what you know that makes you money and what you do not know loses you money. » - Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad).

#12 NEVER GIVE UP. As long as you are alive, anything is possible. SUCCESS is just a succession of FAILURES. Success or Failure is not the most important. The most important is to have the Courage to keep on going. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill.

There is no success without failure. Circumstances are temporary. Failure is temporary, just depends on if you stop there or if you learn the lesson and bring it back into the next experience - to stay in the game.

Take failure as an opportunity. We fail to achieve our goals only to find there is another way to do so - failure is part of the process. Embrace failures. Learn from it to grow. Learn from it to not repeat the same mistakes. Learn from it to also develop your guts.

If doors are closed, accept it, don’t blame others, it's useless, it's simply not your doors. If doors are closed, better doors will surely open one day. If doors are still closed, you will end up going so far on trying to open them, that you too will be able to create your Own doors. This will not happen if you quit somewhere.

“You are not measured by what you have achieved, your accomplishments, you are only measured by what you went through to achieve your goals, to get there” – Unknown author.

"Most people never win because they are more afraid of losing. This is why I found school silly. In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet if you look the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk… Unfortunately, the main reason most people are not rich is because they are terrified of losing. Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success" (Robert Kiyosaki - Rich Dad Poor Dad).

#13 Always be true to yourself. Say what you do and do what you say no matter what people think about you. Don’t try to please others, if you do, you are not true to yourself.

Accept rejection and be ok with it in your deeper self, not just on the surface. Do not try to fit something that is not you because you want to avoid critics or rejection and so on. You are the only one that knows how much you’re worth. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you are not. If you put a mask, in the long run, it will be so difficult to take it off. Authenticity will keep you long enough in the game. You are a brand. It’s your most valuable thing when you are dealing with others. The only way you can ever get respect from the people you are dealing with (be it clients, investors, partners…) is when you show them you respect yourself.

#14 Be Aggressive and Patient - Aggressive in planting seeds and Patient in waiting for it to grow - planting hundreds and hundreds of seeds (be it marketing, selling, networking…), but this needs to be your daily habits. It’s not by planting only 2 – 3 seeds per day that you will get an increase in your business.

99.99% of success took time. Keep on doing what you love, keep on letting people know what you do, the benefit they can get from it, as well what you have already done, but be patient in getting the results.

"You can’t make a baby in a month by getting 9 women pregnant." - Warren Buffet.

Thank you very much for reading. I hope these insights will be of benefits for most of you in your journey of entrepreneurship - as they are for me. What insights did/do work for you in your early journey of entrepreneurship? I will be pleased to read more insights from you.