Written by: Alex Pirouz
In dealing with many business owners over the years I have come to realise there are certain things that limit a business owner’s ability to succeed. From this list, there is one in particular that stands out: mindset.
Successful people will often tell you that to be successful in business, 80 per cent of it comes down to psychology and 20 percent skill/strategy. You can’t reach success if you have one but not the other.
It is common to pick up a magazine or newspaper and see a success story of someone who experienced a lot of obstacles and challenges before becoming successful as a business owner, musician, athlete or celebrity.
In fact, if you study some of the most successful people in the world you will realise that most had to endure hardship and hurdles before reaching success. I myself failed in my first four businesses and lost half a million dollars before achieving success in my fifth business four years later.
The point is you can have all the skills, knowledge and expertise in your field but if you don’t have the right mindset to pull it all together, chances are you will not be successful in business.
Over the years, I have had the privilege of spending time with some of the most successful athletes, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and celebrities. While they all reached success in many different ways, they have the following four attitude traits in common:
1. Passion
If you look at the word passion and break it down, it means: Pass. I. On. Don’t go into business just for the sake of making money; be passionate about the industry. Too many times I see business owners enter a market simply because of social proof.
They see or read stories of others who have been successful and think: well if they can do it so can I; there must be huge potential in that sector. But when the going gets tough and they start to incur more and more challenges within the business, suddenly they start focusing on other ideas or projects.
This leads me into the next point…
2. Focus
Follow One Course Until Successful. Successful people focus on one thing until that job, business or project is completed. They are not dabblers! As they become more successful and earn more money, they start to hire and delegate certain roles to team members to enable them to grow their portfolio.
Building a successful business takes time, it is not something you can start today and expect huge returns within the next day, week or even months. With competition fiercer then ever before, the effects of globalisation, the internet and information age, we need to realise that in order to be successful we must have a long-term view and vision when looking to build a business.
3. Values
Values are traits or qualities that are considered important and desirable. They represent your highest priorities and deeply held driving forces that influence your actions and reactions on a daily basis.
Because your values represent what is most important to you, they are not something you want or wished you could have. They are traits you need everyday to make decisions and move forward. Values are your convictions, ethics and beliefs in one.
All successful people ensure their vision and mission meet their highest values in life to ensure they are not in conflict. People who don’t know their values tend to wander around, hopping from one thing to another trying to find themselves.
What you value may be totally different to someone else, there is no right or wrong. For example: my top two values in business are passion and education. I love education on topics that I am passionate about.
4. Strengths and weaknesses
I see so many entrepreneurs in business wearing too many different hats. They are wearing the marketing hat along with the sales hat, customer service hat, social media hat and just about any other hat you can think of.
This may be fine for a start-up business with very little funding or working capital. But for those entrepreneurs who have passed start-up stage and are looking to build a scalable company, the only real way you can to that is to identify key individual strengths and weaknesses and build a team that is complimentary to those traits.
Doing this will ensure you are able to focus on the things you’re good at and outsource/delegate weaknesses to those who excel in that area and have a natural love for it.