Lessons I Have Learned as a Young Entrepreneur – You Have To Persevere

I hate to say it but I believe its best to always be honest – if you plan on starting a business, it is extremely likely that more people will doubt you than will believe in you.  It is also very likely that you are going to face critiscm, a lack of capital, major setbacks, poor decisions and a whole host of other negative occurences with your business.  How you handle these will be a huge factor in the ultimate fate of your business – this is why perseverance is critical for entrepreneurs.  Here are just a few examples of the obstactles I personally have faced and how I persevered through it:

A professional editor and family friend reviewed my book manuscript and told me to take it and put it in my top desk drawrer for at least 3 years so that I could “gain perspective” and then maybe take another shot at the book idea.

How I Persevered – After about 15 minutes of being angry/sad/depressed/furious/doubtful and every other negative emotion you can image, I re-read the letter and came across one sentence that made this letter mean absolutely nothing – the person that wrote this letter to me had a book idea but never had the courage to have it published.  I thought to myself “Why in the world would I ever take advice from an editor that didn’t have the courage to get their own book published?!?!”.  I put the letter, not the manuscript, in my desk drawrer and got back to work publishing my frist book within 3 months of receiving that letter.

A mentor tells me that I’m making a huge mistake by starting my business

How I Persevered – I told him that I respected his opinion and appreciated him looking out for me but that I believed in my heart that I had a message and a business that would ultimately reach millions of people and I wasn’t willing to keep it bottled up inside of me because of the “risks” involved with it.

I have many others as well, some of which were much harder to deal with, that I will share at some point in the future.  Who knows, maybe I’ll write an entire book about some of the world’s most successful people and who they proved wrong on thier road to success.  Do you think anyone ever told Michael Jordan that he should quit basketball?  You betcha someone did!

I used the above examples to show you how I personally persevered through these difficult situations.  I want to use them as an example of the difficulties you could potentially face on your road to becoming a successful entrepreneur.  By no means were these easy situations and I’d by lying if I said they were simply to handle, but I ultimately found it within myself to persevere through the because I knew in my heart that what I had to offer needed to be shared with the world.  I expect you to do the same and believe in yourself no matter what obstacles are in your way of your vision of success.

Young Professional Success Tip – Treat Your First Opportunity Like an Internship

I always find it amazing how hard people are willing to work at an internship but somehow this work ethic mysteriously disappears when the opportunity is a career and not an internship.  In my first book, The Course They Forgot to Offer, I talk about the importance of treating your first career opportunity in the exact same way that you would a prestigious internship.  A great intern will always do the following:

•  Asks a ton of questions so he can learn as much as possible
•  Emulates the behavior of their successful co-workers
•  Learns about the industry
•  Takes on as much responsibility as possible
•  Shows up early and stays late

If you didn’t have this attitude during your internship, start displaying it immediately as a young professional.  You need to be willing to go above and beyond the average person’s work ethic if you want to become successful quickly.  I am assuming that you are an ambitious young professional, otherwise you wouldn’t be taking the time to read this book.  Because you don’t want to wait around for things to happen, you must go out and create your own opportunities for yourself; a great way of doing this is by simply bringing the attitude of an intern to your career.  Show up early, take on as much responsibility as possible, build relationships with the most successful people in the company, understand all aspects of your industry and ask a million questions!

College Success Tip – Get to Know Your Professors

Make the effort to get to know each of your professors during the first week of class each semester.  By staying after class to introduce yourself or stopping by their offices to exchange a handshake, you will instantly separate yourself from everyone else in your class. This will take you a few minutes, which are well worth it.  A couple of reasons why this is important:

• Professors are the ones who grade you, so keep them happy
• Many of them are well connected in the industries that they teach, which could help you during your career search
• They might be able to write a recommendation for you to get into an organization or graduate school, or serve as a reference when you are applying for internships/careers

Having professors on your side will never hurt you and will more than likely help you at some point.  You cannot walk into their offices when you need a favor and expect them to drop everything to do it – get to know them first, build a relationship and then use them as a resource if they can help you.

The Bottom Line:  Your professors are human and will favor the people who they like.  If you build a relationship with them, your chances at being able to re-submit a project, get a recommendation or be excused to miss class become much better.  Little things like this will make your life much easier.

Lessons I Have Learned as a Young Entrepreneur – You Must Have A Vision

If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to have a vision.  I call it a “vision of success” in my book – you have to know what your successful future looks like and feels like.  You have to be able to visualize the people around you, the family that you have built, the house you live in, the car your drive, the city you reside, the community service you provide, the timeline for growth of your business and every other detail that it will take for you to feel successful.  Most people have NO CLUE what their vision of success is – walk about to 100 people at the mall and ask them what they want to accomplish in life and what they need to do in order to feel successful.  I bet you at least 95 of them look at your with a blank stare and are speechless; if the number was 99 I wouldn’t be shocked.

So why do you need to have this vision?  Because it is going to guide you to where you want to be in life.  You are inevitably going to face challenges, doubters, obstacles and significant roadblocks that could potentially derail you.  People will tell you that you are insane for starting a business, you might run out of startup money or nobody may be interested in your product/service initially.  Your vision and being well aware of what your future success is going to look like and feel like is what will guide you through these difficult times.  What do I think about when I’m having a tough day?  I just close my eyes and picture myself as a NY Times bestselling author with a powerful message that is able to affect millions of people throughout the world.  I also see myelf surrounded by an incredible family and amazing friends who support me and add an incredible amount of satisfaction to my life.  Once I picture that and everthing else that is in my vision of success I instantly feel motivated and recharged, ready to continue to journey towards my vision.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you must have a clear vision of success.  Business plans, financial forecasts, market analysis and all of that other stuff is wonderful and necessary, but at the end of the day you have to be able to close your eyes and clearly see what your successful future looks like and how it feels to have reached it.

Young Professional Success Tip – Identify the Positives in Everyone

When I was in elementary school, I wasn’t exactly the best-behaved, most mild-mannered kid in the classroom.  I liked to talk when the teacher was talking, mess with the people sitting around me and occasionally crack a joke out loud.  How do you think most teachers would classify me?  Maybe as the class clown, obnoxious, rude, poorly behaved or annoying?  Back to this in a minute.

As a young professional, you must be willing to see the positives in every one.  You need to see the positives in your friends, family, co-workers and those who are smarter than you, dumber than you, younger than you, older than you and absolutely everyone else who you come in contact with.  Being able to see the positives in everyone around you will make you a better person, manager, leader and teammate.  Very few people in this world are able to look at the people around them and see positive characteristics in everyone – I challenge you to be the person who can instantly identify the positives in EVERY person you interact with.

Alright, back to my story…  So I wasn’t the best behaved student in class and let’s be honest; most people wouldn’t want someone like me in their class.  In second grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. Natali who took a different approach, which made ALL the difference in my life.  She saw me as an enthusiastic student with a great deal of passion.  She also showed me how to love writing and how to have the desire to become better at it.  Her approach, which was different than any other teacher’s I have ever had, was to see the positives in every student and have each of them focus those strengths to become great people and students.

The point of the story is simple: see the positives in every one.  It may just make all of the difference in their lives.

Career Search Tips – Make it Just Like College (7 of 7)

Finding a “job” isn’t all that difficult, regardless of the economy.  Finding the perfect “opportunity” for yourself, however, can be challenging.  If you follow the 7 rules in this series, you will significantly increase your chances at quickly finding the perfect career opportunity.  My goal is to make your life easier and keep you focused on doing things the right way, not the easy way.  By doing things the right way, you will be more efficient and your search will be more focused and effective.

Many similarities exist between your search for the right college and your search for the right career opportunity.  Picking a college or career based purely on statistics or rankings is a mistake.  What makes people successful in college?  The key is to be in an environment where you’re happy, can learn and grow as a person.  Your career is no different – find the city and professional opportunity where you can learn, grow and become a better and smarter person.  Find an organization that feels right and has the type of culture and environment in which you will feel comfortable and excel.

Career Search Tips – Know Yourself and Be Yourself (6 of 7)

Finding a “job” isn’t all that difficult, regardless of the economy.  Finding the perfect “opportunity” for yourself, however, can be challenging.  If you follow the 7 rules in this series, you will significantly increase your chances at quickly finding the perfect career opportunity.  My goal is to make your life easier and keep you focused on doing things the right way, not the easy way.  By doing things the right way, you will be more efficient and your search will be more focused and effective.

Remember who you are as you shape your vision.  My goal was to work in sales for a small company that would offer a lot of opportunities to learn and grow.  I wanted to travel all the time, learn every aspect of an industry, and be a huge part of a company.  In order for me to be happy, I knew that I needed to be with a small company, have a lot of responsibility, be challenged constantly and have the freedom to do my work without having a boss micromanaging my efforts.  Hands off supervision was crucial.  I knew my strengths, weaknesses and what type of environment suited me best.  Throughout my search process I never lost focus of this vision and ultimately found an opportunity that matched this description perfectly.  Finding this opportunity took months of hard work, but it was worth all of the time and effort.

The lesson to be learned here is that you must be well aware of your skills, strengths and weaknesses when searching for the right opportunity.  Find something that will allow you to perform at your best and capitalize on your strengths.  If you don’t like to be managed constantly or to have someone looking over your shoulder and evaluating you daily, find an opportunity where you have freedom and flexibility.  If the thought of speaking in front of people makes you nervous, you may not want to start out in sales.  If you hate being indoors all day, an office position probably isn’t the best one for you.  Find the opportunity that allows your strengths to shine.  Keep in mind that over time you will learn to turn your weaknesses into strengths.  This comes from experience and a desire to improve yourself.

Knowing yourself means that you need to be your own person and not allow others to tell you who you are or what you should be.  A perfect example is all of the young professionals who are in law school or medical school because they were told by their parents that lawyers and doctors make a lot of money.  If you want to be in either of those fields and enjoy that type of work, then by all means go for it!  However, if your main motivation is that your parents are both attorneys and they told you to follow the same path, then you might need to find a better reason.  Know yourself and what you truly want out of your own professional life.  Do what you feel will make you happy.  If you aren’t sure what that is, then follow your heart and see where it leads you.  You’ll be surprised how often it takes you to exactly where you are meant to be in life.

Career Search Tips – Demand Excellence (5 of 7)

Finding a “job” isn’t all that difficult, regardless of the economy.  Finding the perfect “opportunity” for yourself, however, can be challenging.  If you follow the 7 rules in this series, you will significantly increase your chances at quickly finding the perfect career opportunity.  My goal is to make your life easier and keep you focused on doing things the right way, not the easy way.  By doing things the right way, you will be more efficient and your search will be more focused and effective.

You have created a vision of success that you’ll reach by finding the perfect opportunity for you.  Do not accept anything short of an opportunity that will eventually lead you to that vision.  There are millions of opportunities in the world, so there is no reason to settle for anything less than what you want.  Make sure that you find an opportunity you absolutely love, that challenges you and makes you want to jump out of bed every morning.  Most people are miserable with their current career choices because they were too lazy to put in the time and effort that is necessary to achieve excellence.  If you demand excellence, look hard, build relationships with successful professionals and stay committed to this process, your chances of achieving success will increase exponentially.

Why it is Easier to Start a Business Sooner Than Later

As some of you know, I have begun working on a book about why every young professional should start a business.  I am a VERY strong advocate of being an entrepreneur.  Their are so many misconceptions that exist – you need to be “born” an entrepreneur, you need lots of money to start a business, you have to be great at something and many other myths that are 100% FALSE.  The truth is, anyone can start their own business.  It isn’t easy, but it also isn’t impossible for anyone.

I had the pleasure of sitting with a friend and her son yesterday – he is 18 years old and has indicated an interest in being an entrepreneur at some point in his life.  As we were talking, I made a very important point that I would like to share here – it is much easier to start a business when you are younger.  I’m sure many of you are thinking the complete opposite; that it would be easier later in life to start a business when you have experience, knowledge, money and the guts to take a chance on a new business.  That isn’t the case and I will explain why.

Let’s say that you are 22 years old and a recent college graduate.  Chances are that even if you are living on your own and responsible for all of your own bills, your total monthly expenses are under $2,000 per month.  Obviously if you live in New York City and L.A. this wouldn’t be true, but for the vast majority of 22 year olds, $2,000 per month will get the job done.  If you are living at home, you might be able to survive on $1,000 per month.  The point is that you have very low monthly expenses as a 22 year old.

Fast forward to when you are 30 years old and you will likely have some or all of the following – home mortgage, car payment(s), a spouse, children and an overall higher standard of living than you did at 22.  You might have monthly expenses of $4,000 per month or $8,000 per month; chances are they are significantly higher than they were for you at 22 years old.  For the sake of this conversation, lets say your expenses are $6,000 per month.

So if you were going to start a business, do you think it would be easier to start something that would produce a $2,000 profit per month from the start or one that would produce $6,000 per month from the start?  You can have 10 years of experience, money saved up and a great work ethic, but at the end of the day you will need to make 3 times more money to even survive.  Also, it will most likely take more start-up money (from your savings or an investor) to build a business that produces a profit of $72,000 per year rather than one at 22 years old that produces $24,000 per year.  Other reasons to start the business at a younger age include:

• More time to work on your business (life only gets more complicated as you get older)
• If you fail you will still be young and have plenty of time to rebound and move on
• You have time on your side – you can slowly build your business and won’t need it to quickly grow
• If you start a business at 25, you will have 5 years of experience owning a business by age 30
• Chances are you have less responsibility (no spouse and/or wife) if you start a business early on, so if you fail you are only letting down yourself, not an entire family

I could go on and on, but I just want everyone to be aware of the massive advantages of starting a business when you are young.  Every person has a different situation and circumstances, but in general, there is no better time than now if you have an interest in being an entrepreneur.  Even if it is only something on the side, get started on creating your own revenue stream and see what happens!

Career Search Tips – Fight through Adversity (4 of 7)

Finding a “job” isn’t all that difficult, regardless of the economy.  Finding the perfect “opportunity” for yourself, however, can be challenging.  If you follow the 7 rules in this series, you will significantly increase your chances at quickly finding the perfect career opportunity.  My goal is to make your life easier and keep you focused on doing things the right way, not the easy way.  By doing things the right way, you will be more efficient and your search will be more focused and effective.

You will most likely be faced with adversity throughout your search; people won’t get back to you, they’ll want to interview you five different times, they’ll decide to go in a different direction or they won’t be hiring at the moment.  By staying focused on your vision and being mentally tough, you can fight through any adversity that you face.  Don’t lose sight of what you truly want: be willing to fight each and every day until you find the best opportunity for success.