Why isn’t your business venture working? Are you ready for some hard truth? Ninety percent of businesses that are started fail in the first year. Ninety percent of the ten percent of businesses that survived the first year will fail within the next five years. The Elephant in the room no one wants to address is…
YOU, and your poor self-management are most likely the reason that things are failing.
We can make excuses for poor business plans or ideas; X-factor stuff like the country is suffering from the global COVID-19 pandemic, or you were in an accident and you were paralyzed, your business partners robbed you for millions, your wife left you, or your ex won’t let you see your kids and your depressed (all things that I have survived). The truth is, excuses are for losers, and that isn’t you. Not if you want to be in business for yourself.
Starting a business is easy if you follow this template, succeeding in business is the challenge. Man do I love a challenge. Let me be the first to suggest that you will have to fall in love with challenges too, or you just will not make it.
Every business, and just about everything in life can be broken down into three simple things:
- Skill Set. Do you have the training ability and talent to complete the task at hand?
- Process. Do you know the steps, and the order everything needs to be done in order to complete the task at hand and accomplish the objective?
- Self-Management. Do YOU have the ability to manage, control and at times compromise every aspect of you and your life to the best of your ability while minimizing time wasting behavior and becoming more self-aware?
I’ve been in the pre-foreclosure home buying business and creative real estate game since 2004.. In that time, I’ve been able to cross off literally every item on my bucket list while I’ve watched my business peer group achieve nothing more than financial success, if even that? Why is that? Why should I be able to climb mountains, fish around the world, maintain my personal health and fitness to a level where I’ve become one of the nation’s largest drug free bodybuilders and first runner up heavyweight Mr. America, while starting a family and raising a special needs child, becoming a national public speaker and growing several other business ventures? Yet my peer group struggles to become profitable and those who have struggled to break the seven-figure mark?
The shocking answer is self-management. The only person you are stuck with for the rest of your life is you. Others come and go. You, and you alone, are the only constant in your life. So why not learn as much about every aspect of yourself as possible in order to receive what you’re demanding of life? Self-Management is not a simple skill that can be taught. Rather it’s acquired and continuously improved upon over a lifetime, through every aspect of one’s existence.
I was fortunate enough to have the misfortune of being born with a learning disability. As a dyslexic I had to acquire many compensatory strategies and life hacks in order to not just survive throughout school but actually thrive and enjoy the process. I’m proud to say that in 2004 I set up a scholarship fund (1:00:17) with my final, and favorite, high school special ed teacher who helped me to understand and work with the one thing I struggled with the most… Myself.
Creating A Strong Skill Set
The basic gist of creating a strong skill set revolves around your ability to jump on the opportunities presented to you. Are you a good networker? Can you put yourself into a position in which you are consistently growing and changing? You have to learn to take charge of the opportunities that are placed in your way.
As much as it has been said, communication is key. You have to develop the ability to talk to people. Not only to properly communicate what you want and need and want, but you also need to gain the ability to listen. I have been paid to speak in many different places and, I can say that I get paid more to listen to people than for my voice to be heard. Communication is a two-way street, and without it, many things that you are hoping and longing for will quite literally never fall through. Not only will lack of communication cause you to lose, it will also cause a spiral of things that could have been avoided from the start.
Communication is a big part, but you simultaneously have to not be afraid to pull the trigger. What I mean by that is, it’s one thing to see an opportunity and jump on it, but it is another to create the opportunity for yourself. To place yourself in a position where you are propelled forward and able to gain access to doors you never thought would be open. You need to build your work ethic. A strong work ethic is a must in the self-management game, but everyone works differently. Without a strong drive and a burning desire to be something more and accomplish your goals in life, you might not want to even want to begin to tackle the things you have set.
All in all when it comes to your skill set, you need to define and refine what you can offer. Figure out ways to make whoever is viewing your resume, your work, and you as a person, say this is definitely someone I want to work with going forward. Take classes, get certified in things that interest you and you can build and expound upon. Never stop learning.
Understanding The Process
After you have acquired the skills you need to accomplish your goals, you need to pinpoint and locate exactly what you are going after. What is that you truly want? Why do you want it ? Once those questions are answered you can then begin to figure out the ‘how’. How exactly are you going to get there? What steps are you going to take to make your dreams a reality?
While goal setting and creating a step by step plan to achieve something may seem fool proof, there is a lot that goes into truly understanding the process in which you are taking to get to the end goal. After you have solidified what you are looking for, you then have to create a strategy. Never go into something blindly. Continuously stay on top of things, thinking of all outcomes both positive and negative. You have to be ready to face both the expected and the unexpected at all times.
A big portion of getting to understand the process it takes to get where you want, is coming to terms with the fact that you first have to understand how you interact with other people. How are you marketing yourself and your skills? Going into any situation where you have to present yourself, you need to determine what you want the reaction to be. Marketing is not just to get people to like you, although that’s what we hope to gain, it is ultimately to get people to react and respond to you. Doing something as simple as setting up a virtual assistant to answer your calls and take your messages, will demonstrate your aptitude for thinking ahead and provide a baseline for your interactions.
After all is said and done, the process you go through is ultimately up to you. Your willingness to show up. Your resourcefulness as you navigate through obstacles. How you collect and retain information. Once you establish your objective, the ball is in your court. As Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you never take.”.
The Keys to Self Management
Being able to manage yourself is a door that not a lot of people have unlocked. The beauty about being able to fully take control of yourself, your actions, and eventually the outcome is that, on the other side of the door are hallways full of endless possibilities. Simply because you stepped up to the plate and took control.
The first step to properly self managing is to clarify what is important to you. It’s one thing to have a full schedule, but if you are only giving a portion of your attention to all of them then nothing will ever come to full fruition. Learn to prioritize. When I went to college, I knew that in order for me to come out on top, I had to attend every class, every tutoring session, study groups and more. I prioritize my education, therefore it had my undivided attention. I knew that because I couldn’t learn from books, I had to take the reigns of my success and steer in the direction in which I came out on top in every outcome.
Not only should you prioritize but you need to become strong enough to minimize distractions, and cut out things that are not beneficial to your end goal. Focusing is one the hardest things for anyone to do, but with time and practice, it will become a habit. Turn off your notifications, block out a time in which you will be completing a task, find someone to hold you accountable. When it comes down to being your own boss, putting in work doesn’t just stop, if anything it increases, because if something goes wrong the only one to blame is yourself.
The most important key to self management, is in fact yourself. Are you physically, mentally, and emotionally ready to take charge of your situation. You have to understand that without you, nothing else matters. Create a regiment to take care of yourself, begin to understand your own needs and emotions. Make sure you take days off to recoup, and get back in touch with you. Learn to step outside of yourself and control your emotions. In business you may sometimes feel bitter, offended, and irritated but with proper self management, your persona will be seen as cool, calm, and collected.
You can sometimes be your own worst enemy, by giving up before things really get going. Once you’ve curated an idea for your business venture or anything in life really, don’t forget to hone in on and utilize your skills for your success. Think out the steps and the process for which you will execute your idea. Begin to get in tune with yourself and understand how you work in order for you to properly begin to tackle your goals, and you will see your hard work pay off.
Learn more about me, my business ventures, and much more on my website.
