Whether you’re an experienced entrepreneur or just starting out, the journey of leading an organization is a challenging one. Doubts about knowledge and decisions will come from ourselves and others around us. But staying true to core values and finding a way to pivot when something doesn’t work out go a long way. Know that you’re not alone in your entrepreneurship journey and all of us here at Bloom Growth™ are dedicated to helping you succeed with our world-class business tools.
For an experienced entrepreneur, this will be a refresher. For entrepreneurs just starting out, this may help you avoid mistakes others have already made. Here are nine habits of successful entrepreneurs in their own words.
1. Never stop learning
Successful entrepreneurs take their education into their own hands by consuming new information every day. The skills you know now have gotten you this far, but reaching new heights will require growth.
“My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had—every day I’m learning something new.”
-Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group
2. Be decisive
If your core business purpose doesn’t align with your personal purpose, you might not feel satisfied or comfortable in your role. Entrepreneurship takes commitment; reflect on your personal core purpose and whether you can sustain your current long-term responsibilities.
Understanding what you want and following your intuition can take time to do effectively and quickly. With practice, you’ll form a pattern of recognizing your intuition and following it.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
–Steve Jobs, Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Apple Inc.
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3. Be unafraid of failure
Failing is progress towards success and will make you wiser the next time you try. If nothing else, you’re one step closer to success by process of elimination. 😉 Trying new things makes work and life more enjoyable. Why not try a crazy idea in the next quarter?
“I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.”
-Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon
4. Believe in yourself
You are responsible for whether or not you try. Sometimes you don’t know whether you can accomplish something until after you’re finished. Don’t get stuck in thoughts that tell you it’s impossible. You can form the habit of trying new things regardless of failure or success.
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t—you’re right.”
–Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company
5. Be stubborn
When most people think of entrepreneurs, they think of ideas. Anyone can have ideas but that doesn’t make them an entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur is someone who follows up on ideas and brings them to life. And not all ideas work out, but that’s ok. Dare to try something new and be stubborn with your execution.
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
–Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance
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6. Try new things
We’ve touched on it a few times but this quote nails it on the head. Entrepreneurship can be about trying new things, and creating opportunities for yourself and others that weren’t previously there.
Being unafraid of failure and trying new things go hand in hand. Your chances of success are much higher if you try to accomplish your idea. Break down your goal into smaller tasks and get them done one at a time.
“The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.”
–Seth Godin, founder of Squidoo
7. Work hard and consistently
The first step in accomplishing your goal is breaking it into smaller tasks. Then, slowly but surely, complete each task. Completing each small task takes time and effort, but will give you a finished product in the end.
“If hard work is the key to success, most people would rather pick the lock.”
–Claude McDonald
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8. Be a doer, not a dreamer
As mentioned earlier, an entrepreneur takes an idea all the way to the finish line. Once you have your big idea or goal broken down into smaller tasks, try to knock one task off your list per day. You’d be amazed at how quickly you’ll see results. Also, once you start seeing results, you might be tempted to dedicate more time to the project to see the completed product faster.
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
—Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck-E-Cheese’s
9. Don’y overanalyze; just try
And the perfect quote to end this blog… When starting new business ventures, especially ones involving risk, it can be easy to overthink yourself into paralysis until you’re frozen and the moment has passed. Just get started, take a few small steps and feel it out. Try to find ways to minimize the feeling of risk and venture out into new things.
We can’t say it enough, just. get. started.
“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give—with a few exceptions—generalize whatever they did. Don’t over-analyze everything. I myself have been guilty of overthinking problems. Just build things and find out if they work.”
–Ben Silbermann, founder of Pinterest
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