Last summer, I met with a young aspiring entrepreneur. She wanted to know how I started my business, how I quit my 9-5, and how I got to where I am today. I have no idea if meeting with this bright young woman was at all helpful to her, but I do know that it was a learning experience for me. Reflecting upon the last 10 years of my life, the following points occurred to me:
1) Search Your Soul: What Do You Want? – When I finished college, I applied for graduate school because I wasn’t sure what else to do. I got into two programs, but one was in a city where I did not want to live. If the program was really more important, I would have gone there and probably have a PhD by now, but it wasn’t. I realized it was more important for me to move to New York City, so I chose that instead. My NYU Master’s program was the vehicle that brought me to New York, and eventually to my destiny as an entrepreneur. Bottom Line: You can respond to pressure and do the “practical” thing, or pause for a moment of clarity: think about what you really want. You can go with the flow or make the tough decisions that will take you where you really want to be.
2) Just Do It – Fear of failure can be one of the most paralyzing fears out there. It can play a significant role in whether you follow your entrepreneurial dream or not. Of course, fear can be a signal that something isn’t right, but fear can also be a way that self-sabotage keeps us from taking chances. Bottom Line: You can take small steps and find ways to minimize the risks inherent to business ownership, but you also need to just do it- no one else will make it happen for you, so take a deep breath and make the leap.
3) Keep Doing It – We’ve all heard stories of humble beginnings: people who start blogging and get book deals, people who sell goods online and grow successful retail businesses from there (that’s us!) We’ve been putting ourselves out there for 10 years, and are just now really blossoming and getting noticed. That means for the last 10 years, or certainly for the first seven, we were putting a lot of time and effort in and were just about scraping by. Against mountains of adversity, we kept trying and worked hard to learn from our mistakes. And we’re successful now because we kept playing the game. Bottom Line: View every event you do and every contact you meet as a means toward your desired end. When faced with a roadblock, do you need to change something in your model that doesn’t work, or does it just need more time to take off? Get feedback from other professionals. Make needed adjustments, and keep going.
4) Take Small Steps to Reach Big Goals – I didn’t just wake up today as a successful business owner. I’m where I am because of every day I’ve worked until now. Every decision I’ve made and every small step I’ve taken has made a big difference toward achieving my long-term goals. I told my husband one day, “Let’s quit our jobs and move to France.” We accomplished this goal because we saved our money (making many financial sacrifices along the way), enrolled in French classes, obtained Student Visas, made housing arrangements, sublet our apartment, bought plane tickets, and moved ourselves to Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. This sounds overly obvious, but it really was those little steps that brought us to our goal. A friend of mine has a dream to go back to school and finish her degree. It remains unrealized because she never took the entrance exam she needed, never called her old school to get her transcripts, never attended that open house she said she wanted to. Bottom Line: Write down your long-term goals (one-year, three-year, ten-year, whatever is important to you.) Then make a checklist of all the concrete tasks you need to complete to achieve them. Now just do it (#2 above!)
5) Prioritize – Remember that list you just made for Lesson #4? Look at what your number one goal is– whatever tops your list and is most important to you– and discard the rest. I know: life is complicated. We all have a myriad of work goals, family goals, and life goals that at times can seem at odds with each other. I’m not saying you can’t do it all, it’s just that you can usually be more successful with a major goal when it has your full attention. Bottom Line: Doing one thing really well can get you further ahead, and is ultimately better for your work/life balance, than doing many things not so well. When I lived in France, learning French and just being abroad was the priority. When we returned to the US, we went full force with our business, motivated to not have to return to our day jobs. Now our priority is growing our business by setting up a retail location. Kids? Maybe someday, just not right now. In the long run, I believe I will have accomplished everything I set out to do, by having focused on one thing at a time.
6) Be Hungry – If I had moved back in with my parents after college, I would have never had the financial pressure to pay for my expensive Manhattan apartment. I would not have been pushed to make money on the side in unusual ways. I would have never started selling books online, which eventually became my full-time business and livelihood. I had financial pressure all around me, and it got me thinking and moving. Bottom Line: Hunger will get you out of your comfort zone, and put pressure on you to move toward your goals. Sometimes living at home or taking a job you’re not thrilled with is necessary, but don’t let yourself get too comfortable. Remind yourself of what you want, and continue to work toward it.
7) Allow Life to Change You – If you go into life with a set plan, you’re not leaving much room for something serendipitous to intervene. Perhaps you’re just a planner and want to have every detail in place, but remind yourself to be open-minded. I moved to New York City to get my Master’s degree, but I was also interested in everything else the Big City had to offer. Out of my usual surroundings (and way outside of my comfort zone) I was rewarded with a great entrepreneurial idea. Bottom Line: Have a plan, but be aware of the untapped resources and new ideas swirling all around you. They’re out there, you just have to recognize them.
I never knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. What I wanted after college was the freedom to follow my dreams, no matter where they would end up taking me. By intense introspection, careful decision making, and allowing chance and opportunity to sometimes step in, I’ve spent the last 10 years on a path that led to me owning my own business. If your goal is to work from home, invest in a start-up, or own your own business, you’re already one step ahead of where I was 10 years ago. Got similar dreams? Go after them, and make your own unique path to get there.
Sunday Steinkirchner, Contributor
http://www.forbes.com/
1) Search Your Soul: What Do You Want? – When I finished college, I applied for graduate school because I wasn’t sure what else to do. I got into two programs, but one was in a city where I did not want to live. If the program was really more important, I would have gone there and probably have a PhD by now, but it wasn’t. I realized it was more important for me to move to New York City, so I chose that instead. My NYU Master’s program was the vehicle that brought me to New York, and eventually to my destiny as an entrepreneur. Bottom Line: You can respond to pressure and do the “practical” thing, or pause for a moment of clarity: think about what you really want. You can go with the flow or make the tough decisions that will take you where you really want to be.
2) Just Do It – Fear of failure can be one of the most paralyzing fears out there. It can play a significant role in whether you follow your entrepreneurial dream or not. Of course, fear can be a signal that something isn’t right, but fear can also be a way that self-sabotage keeps us from taking chances. Bottom Line: You can take small steps and find ways to minimize the risks inherent to business ownership, but you also need to just do it- no one else will make it happen for you, so take a deep breath and make the leap.
3) Keep Doing It – We’ve all heard stories of humble beginnings: people who start blogging and get book deals, people who sell goods online and grow successful retail businesses from there (that’s us!) We’ve been putting ourselves out there for 10 years, and are just now really blossoming and getting noticed. That means for the last 10 years, or certainly for the first seven, we were putting a lot of time and effort in and were just about scraping by. Against mountains of adversity, we kept trying and worked hard to learn from our mistakes. And we’re successful now because we kept playing the game. Bottom Line: View every event you do and every contact you meet as a means toward your desired end. When faced with a roadblock, do you need to change something in your model that doesn’t work, or does it just need more time to take off? Get feedback from other professionals. Make needed adjustments, and keep going.
4) Take Small Steps to Reach Big Goals – I didn’t just wake up today as a successful business owner. I’m where I am because of every day I’ve worked until now. Every decision I’ve made and every small step I’ve taken has made a big difference toward achieving my long-term goals. I told my husband one day, “Let’s quit our jobs and move to France.” We accomplished this goal because we saved our money (making many financial sacrifices along the way), enrolled in French classes, obtained Student Visas, made housing arrangements, sublet our apartment, bought plane tickets, and moved ourselves to Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. This sounds overly obvious, but it really was those little steps that brought us to our goal. A friend of mine has a dream to go back to school and finish her degree. It remains unrealized because she never took the entrance exam she needed, never called her old school to get her transcripts, never attended that open house she said she wanted to. Bottom Line: Write down your long-term goals (one-year, three-year, ten-year, whatever is important to you.) Then make a checklist of all the concrete tasks you need to complete to achieve them. Now just do it (#2 above!)
5) Prioritize – Remember that list you just made for Lesson #4? Look at what your number one goal is– whatever tops your list and is most important to you– and discard the rest. I know: life is complicated. We all have a myriad of work goals, family goals, and life goals that at times can seem at odds with each other. I’m not saying you can’t do it all, it’s just that you can usually be more successful with a major goal when it has your full attention. Bottom Line: Doing one thing really well can get you further ahead, and is ultimately better for your work/life balance, than doing many things not so well. When I lived in France, learning French and just being abroad was the priority. When we returned to the US, we went full force with our business, motivated to not have to return to our day jobs. Now our priority is growing our business by setting up a retail location. Kids? Maybe someday, just not right now. In the long run, I believe I will have accomplished everything I set out to do, by having focused on one thing at a time.
6) Be Hungry – If I had moved back in with my parents after college, I would have never had the financial pressure to pay for my expensive Manhattan apartment. I would not have been pushed to make money on the side in unusual ways. I would have never started selling books online, which eventually became my full-time business and livelihood. I had financial pressure all around me, and it got me thinking and moving. Bottom Line: Hunger will get you out of your comfort zone, and put pressure on you to move toward your goals. Sometimes living at home or taking a job you’re not thrilled with is necessary, but don’t let yourself get too comfortable. Remind yourself of what you want, and continue to work toward it.
7) Allow Life to Change You – If you go into life with a set plan, you’re not leaving much room for something serendipitous to intervene. Perhaps you’re just a planner and want to have every detail in place, but remind yourself to be open-minded. I moved to New York City to get my Master’s degree, but I was also interested in everything else the Big City had to offer. Out of my usual surroundings (and way outside of my comfort zone) I was rewarded with a great entrepreneurial idea. Bottom Line: Have a plan, but be aware of the untapped resources and new ideas swirling all around you. They’re out there, you just have to recognize them.
I never knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. What I wanted after college was the freedom to follow my dreams, no matter where they would end up taking me. By intense introspection, careful decision making, and allowing chance and opportunity to sometimes step in, I’ve spent the last 10 years on a path that led to me owning my own business. If your goal is to work from home, invest in a start-up, or own your own business, you’re already one step ahead of where I was 10 years ago. Got similar dreams? Go after them, and make your own unique path to get there.
Sunday Steinkirchner, Contributor
http://www.forbes.com/
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