Becoming an entrepreneur brings with it a great responsibility.
You may have given up a 6 or 7-figure salary, health benefits, 401k matching, and a whole lot more when you took your entrepreneurial leap, which is incredibly hard to do.
But now comes the real hard part: just starting.
Your goals for your business are BIG, as they should be, but looking at the list of things you want to accomplish, you start to feel overwhelmed.
Paralyzed by not knowing what your next step is, you start to have doubts:
Am I ever going to be able to make this work?
Breaking down complex problems and projects
In January of 2015 I had a pretty massive ah-ha moment – one that has reshaped my role and my focus in our business.
In January 2015 realized that my biggest strength is systems.
Since, I’ve become obsessed with leveraging what it is I’m best at: taking complex problems and projects and breaking them down in smaller, manageable steps so that our team can work together to accomplish the goals we’ve set.
Through this experience – discovering what it is I’m best at – I’ve realized that being a successful entrepreneur isn’t about knowing exactly what is going to happen at every step, it’s about taking the next step regardless.
As Mark Twain said,
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Identifying the points along the way
When I decide to start my own podcast, Kate’s Take, I hadn’t yet discovered what I was best at.
Now, this doesn’t mean that it wasn’t what I was best at then, too – it just means that I hadn’t realized it yet.
Once I had made the decision to start my own podcast, I spent a good couple of weeks hemming and hawing over how I was going to accomplish this goal.
I had all the resources, all the equipment, all the support I needed, but I didn’t know where to start – what to do first.
I’m sure you can relate – that at some point on your entrepreneurial journey you’ve known exactly what it is you want to accomplish, you’re just not sure how to get there.
Going from Point A (where you are now) to Point Z (accomplishing your goal) is a HUGE leap – one that’s never going to realistically happen.
So, knowing there is something like 24 points in between where you are now and where you want to be, wouldn’t it seem logical that your next step is to identify what those points are?
Grant Cardone writes in his book The 10X Rule:
There are no shortcuts. The more action you take, the better your chances are of getting a break. Disciplined, consistent, and persistent actions are more of a determining factor in the creation of success than any other combination of things.
Choosing your scenario
Which scenario seems more like the scenario you want to be a part of:
Scenario A: You have your goal, but you’re not sure where to start, so you don’t start at all. Instead, you shuffle a few papers around, jump on social media, and settle for the idea that you’ll “figure it out later”.
Scenario B: You have your goal, but you’re not sure where to start, so you sit down, brainstorm for about five minutes, and then start writing out the steps you know you need to take to get there.
Each scenario is equally possible.
It’s up to you to decide which one you’re going to choose.
What if you woke up every single day and approached that day as though your life depended on the actions you take?
I know this might sound a little over the top… but is it?
Why you chose to become an entrepreneur
You’ve made the conscious choice to become an entrepreneur.
The reasons why you’ve made this choice are hopefully ones you’ve sat down and thought long and hard about, because the reasons why you’ve made this choice are what will help you move past and through some tough times.
The reasons why you’ve made this choice probably include ones like:
- More time with family
- Freedom to make your own decisions
- Not taking orders from someone else
- The ability to take vacations when you want
- Dictating your own schedule
- Pursuing your true passions
- Being able to exercise your true strengths
If you recognize some of these reasons, then is it really over the top to suggest that every single day when you wake up, you approach it as though your life depended on the actions you take?
I don’t think it is, because it’s way too easy to say I’ll crush it tomorrow.
It’s way too easy to say I can just work on that later.
Would you say these same things about anything on your list of reasons why you became an entrepreneur?
…That you’re okay with spending more time with family tomorrow; that’s you’re okay with waiting for tomorrow to dictate your own schedule?
I know those who haven’t made the conscious choice to become an entrepreneur say these things every single day – they think it’s okay to wait until tomorrow to pursue their true passions and to exercise their true strengths.
But NOT YOU.
You’ve already taken the biggest action of all: you’ve chosen entrepreneurship.
You’ve chosen freedom.
THAT is your goal: freedom.
Making the commitment
Now, it’s time to go get it, and what many of us don’t stop to realize is it’s truly as easy to do something as it is to not do something.
Delaying your start will only push all the things you want to see in your life further into the future.
The question isn’t whether you’ll start and then fail, or start and then win – it’s whether or not you’ll start at all.
As Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
No one can prepare you for what lay ahead on your entrepreneurial journey, because everyone’s path is different.
If you’re ready to start creating your future, then start today.
Taken from Chinese proverbs: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Be proud of the work that you.
Take conscious actions every single day to live the life you say you want and COMMIT.
Wise words on taking action and committing
Michael Gerber writes in The E-Myth: “The work we do is a reflection of who we are.
If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we are bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work. The work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves.
How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.
In the process, the work you do becomes you. And you become the force that breathes life into the idea behind the work. You become the creator of the work you do.”
Jeff Goins says, “The risk of not committing is greater than the cost of making the wrong choice.”
Walt Disney said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
From Grant Cardone:
“Don’t be confused by what looks like luck to you. Lucky people don’t make successful people; people who completely commit themselves to success seem to get lucky in life.”
He also writes,
“Taking massive action means making somewhat unreasonable choices and then following these up with even more action. This level of action will be considered by some to be borderline insane, well beyond the agreed-upon social norm – and will always create new problems. But remember: if you don’t create new problems, then you’re not taking enough action.”
In order to create the freedom you became an entrepreneur to achieve, you must take action.
With action sometimes comes failure, missteps, mistakes and disappointments. But with action also comes progress, momentum, growth, accomplishment and success.
That’s a wrap!
Season 4 has come to an end, but the journey continues on Kate’s Take.
Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you don’t miss a single episode, including details on Season 5, coming Q1 2017!
And of course, you can visit our home base right here to find all the posts and episodes in Season 4.
