Ten Reasons I Succeeded in this Business…And You Will Too

I’m fortunate to know a lot of successful people. My friend Kyle runs a multi-million dollar promotional company. He built it from nothing a decade ago. He was working for someone else, when he saw an opportunity in the stock market and capitalized on it. My friend Will did something similar. He saw a lack of education on wealth preservation and turned it into a thriving business.

My friends may be in drastically different businesses, but they both share some of the same characteristics. Over the years I’ve come to realize all entrepreneurs share a lot of the same qualities. Is it coincidence? I don’t think so. Most likely it’s these traits that are the keys to their success.

So what makes someone more likely to succeed? Confidence?…Discipline?…Life experiences? Maybe. Here are ten things that I did that I’m sure led to my success and could lead to yours.

1.    Find a Mentor
Did you know LeBron James hired a private coach during the off season? Arguably the greatest basketball player in the league takes advice from someone else on how to improve his low post game.  In fact a lot of people who are considered to be at the top of their game have mentors and people that they take pointers from.

When I got into this business some years ago I had a mentor. He was someone who I looked up to in my industry. He had achieved a great amount of success doing exactly what I wanted to do. Early into my career I would meet with him and talk about my business. He gave me great advice about marketing and writing ads. His guidance is one of the things I attribute to finding my own success.

2.    Accept that You Can’t Do It All

One of my greatest skills is being a damn good marketer. I have always been able to sell. One thing I am not so good at is figuring out how much cash is coming in and going out. I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to the accounting side of my business. Thankfully I accepted this fact early on and hired a book keeper to keep track of my cash flow and bills.

Rarely is an entrepreneur good at every single aspect of his business. Most times he/she is good at one or two things, proficient at a bunch of other stuff and clueless about the rest. The smart move is to realize this from the start and don’t sweat it. Instead hire someone to help you out. It’s important to try to figure out a lot of things on your own in the beginning, but it’s also important to realize when you are completely out of your league on a task.

Always remember that there are freelancers available to help you with any aspect of your business you cannot do on your own. Check out elance.com or freelancer.com to get help when you need it.

3.    Designate a Work Zone

My wife is prone to insomnia. She’ll go through phases where she stays up all night. Everytime she’s inquired for help with a medical professional the first thing they ask her is if she has a TV in the bedroom. Every expert she has ever seen has told her to remove the TV from our bedroom. They want her to only go in the room when she is either tired or looking for romance. She needs to start associating the room with sleep so she can fall asleep and stay asleep.

So when it came time for me to flex my entrepreneurial spirit and set up my own home business I applied those same principles. I set up shop in the second bedroom of our apartment. I had a desk and a door, nothing else. I didn’t put a TV in there or attach a small, plastic basketball hoop to the back of the door. When I went into that room I worked. And when I was done working, I left that room alone. It helped me associate that room with hard work and success.

If you don’t have a spare room or even a desk in a corner of your living room where you plan to work from you may find achieving success is a bit hard. While working from your bed or the couch sounds nice, it may be difficult to get out of the relaxation mindset and work effectively.

Finding a dedicated work space in your apartment or home may give you the psychological boost to find success. I believe it was important to mine.

4.    Set Some Rules

When I first started my business I threw myself into the task. I worked very hard because I wanted to be successful. I worked so hard in the beginning that I often stayed in my office working late at night after my wife had gotten home from work. If she were the one telling the story she’d say I ignored her. I think I was just a bit distracted here and there. No matter which one of us tells the story though it ends the same, with her setting some ground rules. We agreed that I would stop working when she got home from work and we would interact for a few hours each night and that I was never allowed to go in the office on Saturday and for most of Sunday. Looking back those rules were not only good for my marriage, but also good for my business. It allowed me to take a breather and come back refreshed and rearing to go every day.

You may need to establish your own set of rules in the beginning. For some the freedom working from home provides is too easy to abuse. The TV is usually only steps away, and the knowledge that you don’t have a boss checking what time you clock in and out each day can be enough to pull you away from working. You have to set some rules, perhaps only in the beginning so you don’t slack off or in my case work too hard.

5.    Get Your Hands on a Calendar

An entrepreneur’s most valuable commodity is his time. There is a limited amount of it and I’ve found that entrepreneurs who know how to best utilize their time are the ones that achieve success.

I believe in part why I was able to make my business work is because I worked on the tasks that made me the most money first and all the other stuff last. I scheduled my day around those assignments that would be the most impactful to my business, like creating products, writing sales letters, building my list, etc. I did the other stuff, returning emails, filing, reconciling accounts, etc. but I did not spend the majority of my time on them. Do the things that will benefit your business the most first and you too will see your bank account grow.

6.    Involve Your Family

Starting a business will not only bring about changes, especially if you are in a relationship or have a family. Your home office may take away the guest bedroom, you may not have as much time to spend with your loved ones, and your family’s finances will certainly be impacted.

It’s so important to discuss with your family all of the changes that may come about from becoming an entrepreneur. They may not realize how this change could affect them and their lives. Discuss all potential scenarios beforehand and make sure everyone is on board. You’ll save yourself a lot of heart ache if you do.

Even if you don’t anticipate starting a business will change your finances or family time in a negative way it’s important to involve your family in a discussion about starting your own business. Let them know that you’ll need their emotional support now more than ever. In the beginning your confidence level will hit peaks and valleys and you’ll need your wife, parents or other loved ones to be there for you when the going gets tough. My wife’s unwavering confidence in me helped see me through the bumpy patches and I couldn’t have done it without her.

7.    Don’t Stop Learning

One of the perks of working for someone else is that you have a team around you to bounce ideas off of and a network of people to help achieve a common goal. Going into business for yourself means you don’t have to split the profits with anyone, but it also means you’re the only one there to make the money!

Going it alone is hard to do, I’ll be the first one to say that. That’s why it’s important to not do it! I’m not saying only go into business with partners. I’m saying you don’t have to do it all on your own. Continue to go to networking events and meet people in your industry. Keep going to conferences in your field and talk with other people who do what you do. In effect never stop learning, even when you reach success. I still do both of these things to keep abreast of what’s going on in my industry. I know I can’t rely solely on myself to come up with new techniques and learn new tricks. You should do the same!

8.    Embrace Nike

My wife’s friend Julie wanted to lose weight. She got to her heaviest point and said enough is enough. A year later she was 60 pounds lighter and in the best shape of her life. How did she do it? She embraced Nike’s slogan “Just Do It.” She knew she wasn’t disciplined enough to go to the gym every day or could stick to a strict diet. She’d done both of those things before and she’d still failed at keeping the weight off. Instead she signed herself up for a half marathon that was six months away. Basically Julie knew she would be too timid or uncommitted if she didn’t throw herself into the task. She decided to give herself a goal and to take the plunge.

Deciding to start your own business can be scary. The road to success is not a yellow brick road that is easy to follow or stay on. But if you really want to do it, then you have to embrace Nike’s slogan and “Just Do It.” You’ll come up with a hundred reasons why now’s just not the right time or how if you only had just a bit more money you could do it. There will always be excuses. If you want to do it, you’ve got to jump in with both feet and not look back. It worked for Julie, it worked for me and it will work for you. Just do it!

9.    Trust Your Gut

The science behind following your intuition is just starting to emerge, but most experts agree that this is a real form of knowledge. They also agree that it’s a skill you can develop and enhance. That’s good because when you’re the boss and you come to a fork in the road you’ll need to trust your gut to make the right decision.

My friend Kyle and Will both trusted their gut when they saw opportunities in the market and now they are both millionaires. It’s this instinct that separates those who want to be rich, from the ones who will actually achieve it.

10.    Work Hard, Play Hard

This one is tied to guideline number four. It’s actually a side effect of it. When my wife made me set some rules for when I could not go into the office and work I ended up being happier. I allowed myself to start enjoying the other side to my life. Without those rules I would have become a workaholic. Instead I achieved a good work/life balance. I still kept my Thursday afternoon golf game with my buddies, I still spent quality time with my wife and I enjoyed the fruits of my labor. Part of achieving success is realizing it and enjoying it. Without that realization you’ll never be happy. You work hard so you can enjoy life more. So do just that. You’ll be a better entrepreneur for it.

The best thing about being an entrepreneur is the knowledge that you can achieve anything. Any success that you find can be attributed to your skills, decision making, work ethic and creativity. It’s a powerful feeling to achieve success and realize it’s all your own doing. It’s the reason why they say success breads more success. Once you conquer one realm, you’ll want to conquer them all. I know I do.

Good luck!

Ethan Warrick


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