There are literally a billion books out there that share success tips. If you read all of them, you would never actually have time to start your business and become a success.
My list of success tips for entrepreneurs is much quicker and simpler.
Easy to read and even easier to implement, my success tips are all about what not to do.
Here are the top 13 things that your successful friends have given up, and that it may be really helpful for you to think about giving up to.
Fortunately, this list does not include coffee, wine or chocolate. You can absolutely keep those – I promise!
This list is more about a shift in your mindset than me proposing you do anything really difficult.
All of this is possible; you just need to believe.
Let’s have a look at what your successful friends have given up… and some easy ways you can give them up too!
The opinion of people who don’t matter
Successful people have managed to stop worrying about the opinions of people who don’t directly matter to them. They have learned to exclude toxic and negative people from their lives, and stop caring about impressing strangers, random trolls on the internet, or other mums at the school pick up gate.
Thinking that one person can’t make a difference
One person can make a massive difference – one person can, in fact, change the world. But you don’t even have to set your sights on changing the world for everybody, how about you just change your world, and the future you are able to offer your children?
Avoidance
Successful people have given up avoidance. This also includes procrastination, and anything that numbs the pain of the past mistakes.
Procrastination is the world’s number one form of avoidance. You may think you are just being lazy, or treading water, or hanging out on Facebook instead of starting your business plan because it’s more fun. But procrastination is you actively avoiding something that you are worried about or afraid of.
The best thing you can do is figure out what you are avoiding, and then build yourself up to facing it. Don’t kid yourself that procrastination is innocent fun.
Avoidance of what you are afraid of also comes in the form of numbing yourself from pain. If you have had failures or mistakes in your past, it is reasonable to take time to lick your wounds.
But then you need to learn from any mistakes and get back up again. Don’t waste your time saving yourself from feeling that kind of pain again.
Fear of failure
Don’t think what if it doesn’t work?…. think, what if it does?
If you are worried that something won’t work, tell yourself, ‘Let’s imagine that the worst happens. Now how I am going to overcome that obstacle?’
Successful people live in the now in the sense that the past and the future are positive influences on them. They don’t regret the past or wallow it in, and they don’t let fear of the future stop them from leaping into it.
Luck
As Billy Zane said in Titanic, ‘A real man makes his own luck,’ Ok, that’s a bad quote, because who says it’s just men, and Billy Zane was a total jerk in Titanic – but he was onto the right idea.
Successful people don’t believe in luck, and they sure as sh*t don’t sit around waiting to get lucky.
That is why this list is a Top 13 – because there is no such thing as good luck, or bad luck!
Self-doubts
People who have taken the steps to achieve their own success have done so because they didn’t let self-doubt get in the way.
Self-doubt is either founded or unfounded. Successful people ignore unfounded self-doubt because it’s all made up, and they take self-doubt which has any reasoning behind it and just change it around to face whatever is stopping them.
That they don’t deserve success
Being able to face the chances that you might fail is one thing, and a good start. One of the best success tips for entrepreneurs is to face your fear of failure.
But the next step is to believe that you deserve success. Don’t accept that your life has to be like this, or the same way that it has always been. Believe you deserve more and then create that life.
Get rich quick schemes
‘It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen’ as NZ supermodel Rachel Hunter used to say in the old Pantene ads.
If the promises are too good to be true, then they usually are. There are plenty of promises online for business ideas that will apparently give you a weekly income in the thousands, but these sorts of things don’t happen easily or instantly.
Just doing their research
There is, of course, a great need for research when you are forming your business plan, but at some time you have to stop just researching and start taking action.
You could essentially do more reading and training and checking out competitors or making inspiration boards until the cows come home (I don’t know what that saying means – what time do the cows come home, anyway?), but you wouldn’t get anywhere.
But successful people at some point or another have all decided to stop just researching and take affirmative action.
Bear in mind, they did still continue to research and review their progress after the action started, however – ongoing learning is essential, just don’t make passive learning be the only thing you are doing.
They have given up their doubts about other people
And they’ve given up not asking for help as well. The most successful people don’t do it alone, they just make sure the people around them are the positive ones. And they ask for help and support when they need it.
Believing that selfishness is bad
Successful people know that it is ok to put themselves first. They also have the sense to pay themselves first, or ask for what they are worth and stop working for crap money.
They are great at self-care and give themselves rewards when they have earned it. They look after themselves because they want their success to be long-term and they don’t want to burn out. Successful people aren’t all about the work.
Hiding behind any masks
Success means putting yourself out there, warts and all. It means being honest and genuine. It means being vulnerable and exposing yourself to the possibility of pain and rejection.
They have given up giving up
One of the very best success tips for entrepreneurs is to not give up.
There will be ups and downs, (Don’t I know it?!) and there will be lots of just in between as well. Success isn’t non-stop excitement or being showered in diamonds and champagne.
It is different things to different people, such as balance and freedom and comfort.
Work out what it means for you, and then don’t give up until you get there!
