I hope you had a very enjoyable weekend.
We know that Business Owners and Leaders are special people and see opportunity in every flaw …
- Slow service
- Poor product, and
- Unmet need.
But here’s the secret of the most successful business owners and leaders …
Great business owners and leaders are made, not born. Those that make headlines put in years of work before their businesses become “overnight successes.”
You had to learn how to be great at what you do; entrepreneurship and leadership are just another skill set to add to your repertoire.
If you are considering setting up a new business — or have already taken the plunge — these personality traits will give you an edge. If the stars didn’t grant them to you, you can cultivate these characteristics and set yourself up for success.
And this is what the A to Z’s of Successful Business Owners and Leaders I am sending through each week is all about.
This week is all about “R for Risk-Taking and Resilience ” and all of the A to Z’s so far are about the qualities that business owners and leaders need to have to succeed.
As you know, I write my blog and email it to you as well. You can find my Blog, along with past posts HERE.
In last week’s post about “Q is for Qualities”, we touched on Risk-Taking …
| Traits | Challenges | Action points for maximisation | |
| 10. Risk-taker | |||
| Optimistic, rational decisions, charismatic, confident, will to win, can deal with complexity | Over-confidence, judgement errors, haste | Take incremental risks, cool off, map knowledge and scenarios, experiment systematically | |
How comfortable are you with risk?
Being your own boss rates high on the reward spectrum, but the flip side of that coin is risk, and you have to be comfortable with it.
That risk-embracing, venturesome attitude is a quintessential aspect of the entrepreneurial mindset that both business owners and leaders must have.
Whether you’re launching a massive enterprise, dipping a toe in the water as a solopreneur or leading an organisation, you’ll have setbacks. You know this all too well by now!
We know that we have to be prepared for cash flow issues, supplier glitches, employee meltdowns, economic turndowns, and yes, even global pandemics!
And be prepared to fail.
If your business doesn’t stay afloat, that doesn’t mean your entrepreneurial dreams are dashed …
Maybe the idea wasn’t quite right, or the wrong approach, or merely the wrong time.
So, if this happens, rather than just closing the door on it, we have to be resilient, do a thorough analysis on what went wrong and learn how to fail better next time!
Resilience is our ability to bounce back from the stresses of life. It’s not about avoiding the stress, but learning to thrive within the stress.
Our productivity over the past 20 years has soared, and with this increase in productivity has come an increase in our stress levels. We may sacrifice accuracy and thoughtfulness for immediacy.
Our work–life balance has plummeted and burnout is being felt by many individuals.
Learning to live a more resilient life has numerous benefits including:
- Decreased depressive symptoms & increased emotional well-being
- Improved working memory
- Improved sleep
- Improved immune system function
- Improved relationships
- Improved coping when we experience emotional disruptions
There is no shame in not succeeding …
“Success is just stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
I didn’t succeed first time round with my business. I was trying to be all things to all people and it was only when I got really, really clear on who I help that things took off.
And we need Courage …
In order to harness the power of creativity, we must have the courage to act on our great ideas and plans.
“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one’s better abilities of ideas but the courage that one has to bet on their idea, to take a calculated risk and to act.”
-Maxwell Maltz-
While you need to research your ideas thoroughly, you must also have the courage to take an unknown step and try things that are unfamiliar to you.
It goes without saying that finding a successful path in life is rarely a straight and narrow process.
Many entrepreneurs and leaders must take numerous steps to develop the right combination of skills, traits and knowledge to be successful with their efforts. If you focus your attention on nurturing these traits in your own life, you are highly likely to be able to enjoy better overall success with your efforts.
And often one big thing that holds up back, is needing things to be “perfect” before we go out there and do it!
“We would no nothing if we wait until we could don it so well that no one would find fault with what we have done”
-Cardinal Newman-
One last thing …
I also believe that “R is also for Relationship-Building” and we can’t underestimate how important this is.
You will have seen some business owners and/or leaders, offer an amazing product or service and believed that alone would lead to their success.
An example: The brilliant plan you have for creating a new app that will revolutionise how people can fill their prescriptions, and have them delivered to their home before they’ve even made it back from the doctor’s office is a literal gold mine.
As a result, you throw all your time and resources into creating your perfect app, building an amazing webpage and have even started blogging — something you thought you’d never do — in an effort to get the word out about your product.
In the meantime, you’ve ignored emails from your angel investor for the last three weeks and have five voicemails that need to be returned. The potential client meeting you had last week — the one with the big group of local doctors that could have resulted in a marketing opportunity — you cancelled it because you were focused on the app interface and have yet to reschedule.
In this case, these connections and that person’s reputation are quickly being squandered because they haven’t paid attention to one of the most fundamental building blocks of any successful business — relationships.
So, whether you’re a new small business owner or a seasoned pro, you can never put enough time towards building and sustaining a network of engaged contacts.
I hope you have enjoyed this “Thought for the Week” and it has sparked some creativity new thinking! I would love to know what you think about all of this!
I will leave you with one last quote this week …
“I am always doing that which I cannot do
in order that I may learn how to do it”
-Pablo Picasso-
And if you haven’t already, remember that I would love to help you to explore you own hopes, dreams and challenges and create a roadmap to success with you. You can book your Free Clarity Session
There is absolutely no obligation and we can meet via Zoom or Skype.
Have a great week!
Very best wishes for your success.
Korinne
Find out more about “The A to Z’s of Success”