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.

Career Search Tips – Begin with the End in Mind (3 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.

Whether you are coming out of college looking for that best opportunity or if you are trying to make a career transition into a better opportunity, you must have a specific end goal in mind.  You may not know the exact company or position, but you should have a detailed description in mind of what you want from a professional standpoint.  This should be part of the vision of success you will write at the end of this book.  An example of a professional vision would be:

“I want to work for a small company in the media business that allows me to utilize my sales skills, to interact with a variety of businesses and that presents me with opportunities for career growth as I learn the industry.  I want to eventually be in a management role where I can use my leadership skills to help guide the efforts of others.”

You must have a specific end goal in mind to keep you focused during the search for your best opportunity.  The process can be long and frustrating, and the last thing you want to do is lose focus of what you really want.  You should also avoid becoming so annoyed with the process that you choose an opportunity that really isn’t what you are looking for, only because you’re sick of searching.

If the search process is dragging on longer than you would like, having a vision will be your light at the end of the tunnel and allow you to persevere through the difficult times.  Do not allow yourself to lose focus of what you really want.  Stay positive, believe in your end goal and you will eventually get exactly what you want, which is the best opportunity for you to succeed.

Career Search Tips – Find Something You Enjoy (2 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.

As a young professional, you spend more time working than you spend with your friends, family or a significant other.  Considering that your professional life will be such a huge part of who you are, it is important to make sure you are doing something that makes you happy.  As alluded to earlier, being unhappy with your professional life can have a negative impact on other areas of your life as well.  Make sure that as you are searching for and choosing your best opportunity for success that you focus on the things that you feel will make you the happiest.

One way to find happiness is to choose an industry that you are passionate about.  Regardless of what industry you choose, if you are ambitious and want to be successful you will need to become an industry expert over the years.  In any industry you must have a “360 degree view” of the industry and really understand how the entire business works.  You may eventually become an expert in one particular area or niche within that industry, but initially you need to know how the industry functions.  Having this knowledge and expertise at a young age will separate you from your peers and make your path to success much quicker.  For instance, if you really enjoy the movie industry, then find something in that area; it could be anything from acting, marketing, advertising, being a critic or producing films.  If you truly enjoy the industry, then you will likely work much harder and want to learn, which will make you stand out.

In order to find something that will make you happy, you may need to think outside the box.  Not every successful person works from 9-5 in the corporate world.  There are plenty of people who don’t throw on a suit and sit in traffic for 45 minutes each morning and evening.  You may need to get away from what you consider to be “normal” in order to find happiness.  Also, don’t be afraid to look for opportunities outside of your major or focus from college.  Be open minded and realize you can take advantage of any opportunity you want as long as you can convince the person hiring you that you are a potential asset to the company.  If you are a talented person, find something you enjoy and will work hard at, regardless of whether you are using your degree or not.  Don’t look at your diploma as a document that dictates what area you will work in; appreciate it as a representation of the experiences you had in school and the life knowledge you gained.

The bottom line is that happiness with your career will have a positive impact on both your personal life and professional life.  You will work harder, be more eager to learn and be someone that people enjoy being around because you have something that very few of them will ever have: a real possibility of achieving your goals and dreams.

Career Search Tips – Build a Network (Part 1 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.

The reality is that most people do not secure their dream opportunities by shooting off resumes to 500 different employers on the internet.  To truly get your foot in the proverbial door and meet with the right people, it is crucial that you build a network of professionals who can point you in the right direction or have the authority to help you directly.  In almost every case, a successful and responsible person will do whatever he can to assist a young, ambitious young professional.  Simply ask him for the opportunity to learn more about the area in which he works and see if he can be a resource by pointing you in the right direction.

So how are you supposed to find this “network” of people?  Put together a list of everyone that you know and everyone that they may know.  Ask your parents and other family members for their help in connecting you to successful professionals who they admire.  Seek out people in your desired field or industry that have been successful.  Send out emails to each of these individuals including your resume, a brief description of how they can help you and when you would like to get together.  Follow up in three business days with a phone call and schedule a time, either on the phone or in person, to meet.
Below is an example of what I sent to fellow Ohio University graduates across the country while I was in the process of building a network and figuring out where I wanted to relocate after graduation (this works regardless of whether you are a student or already in the work place – the sooner you begin building your network, the better off you will be!).  You will be amazed at the number of people who will respond, as well as how willing they will be to help you network and answer any questions that you may have.  Here is an example of what I sent out to professionals in Phoenix, Arizona:

“My name is Tom Healy and I will be graduating from Ohio University this upcoming June.  I came across your information on the “Arizona Bobcats” alumni website.   I am interested in relocating after graduation and have targeted Phoenix as one of the four cities I am interested in moving to.  Because of the economy, future growth, weather, proximity to other cities and many other factors, Phoenix is at the top of the list of cities most attractive to me.

I am emailing you because I would like to talk with you about the Phoenix area because I have never been there before.   Also, any recommendations on companies I should apply to or specific people I should get in contact with would be greatly appreciated.

I have attached a copy of my resume, which highlights my accomplishments as a hard-working and ambitious student leader at OU.  It also describes the specific field in which I would like to begin my career.

If you could email me back at your convenience or let me know when a good time to call is, it would be greatly appreciated.   I love OU, but I am also excited for the next step and look forward to talking with you about Phoenix.  Thanks for taking the time to read this email.”

This concept works in the exact same way if you are already out of school and looking for a new career opportunity; simply let the recipient know a little bit about you, the type of opportunity you are looking for and how they can be of assistance.  They will be thrilled to hear from you and help you out in any way that they can – all you need to do is ask!