entrepreneurs motivation

These 10 steps will help any entrepreneur get their game right

You’ll think you’re doing it wrong most of the time, while secretly hoping you’re getting some of it right.

You followed your heart. You turned your passion into your mission. Your fear of regret superseded your fear of going for it. You’ve worked hard, but the success you desire didn’t arrive on schedule. You’ve had achievements, followed gurus, and kept your dream alive through sheer tenacity and a determination not to return to the hamster wheel from which you jumped.

You’re exhilarated at the thought of being your own boss, working alongside your dog, and not punching a time clock. What you may not have known about entrepreneurship is that, like raising kids, there are ups and downs, overwhelm and excitement, pain and joy. You’ll think you’re doing it wrong most of the time, while secretly hoping you’re getting some of it right. You’ll want to quit. To all those statements, I can say, me too.

Here’s 10 ways to change your game and get it right:

1. Refine and release your product offering

Your business isn’t just about what you’re selling and what problem it’s solving. Focus on what gives your life meaning and how what your offering represents that. You’re selling your story, not your product or service. And, if you’re stuck in the pondering, refining, revising, rewriting, or redesigning stage, move forward. Get a good, not perfect, product out there. Rinse and repeat. Done is better than perfect unless you’re engineering heart valves or knee replacements.

2. Build your brand from your heart, not your head

If no one knows who you are, where to find you or what you do, they can’t buy from you. A legitimate problem but easily solvable. The step that matters most to your bottom line, however, is incorporating bits of your journey and soul, not just your expertise. Focus on being resonant. A great brand builds relationships and relationships are why buyers choose you over and over.

3. Determine if you have a fear of failure, a fear of success or both

You are probably clear on fear of failure- the hesitancy that comes with the fact that what you’re doing might not work out and could be painful to you and your bank account. What you may be less familiar with is a fear of success, that can be equally paralyzing because you have deep-seated worries about how your life will change if your business really takes off.

You might be disappointed that you haven’t reached your goals, but you are comfortable with the familiarity of how your life is now. Fear of success is released the same way as fear of failure. Ask yourself three questions. What’s the worst that can happen if I’m successful? Can I handle it? And, what’s the best that can happen? Then choose comfortable and familiar or success.

“Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.” -Karl Augustus Menninger

4. Hustle

When you link your service to your story, you can easily talk to everyone all the time about what you do without sounding coercive or salesy. If you want to be successful, you have to be the mayor. Fake being outgoing until you’re outgoing. You may have held back because hustling sounds icky. You may also have mistakenly thought you were hustling when you weren’t!

If you work all the time but aren’t getting where you want to go, you may be doing more of what’s comfortable rather than what works. Give your inner badass entrepreneur a hustler nickname and embrace that part of you that knows you’re in business to make money as well as making the planet a better place.

5. Focus on what you don’t do well but desperately need

If you’re spending all your time becoming more of an expert at what you do, chasing more credentials and living in the comfort zone, but you’re neglecting marketing, strategic planning, competitive analysis or some other part of your business, success will continue to elude you. Instead of listening to Ted talks and reading journal articles in your field, focus on the major players in a business like Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, and Gary Vaynerchuk and everyone they interview.

6. Focus on the small goals on the way to the big dream

I love dreaming big, like focusing on becoming a NY Times best-selling author. That goal is definitely on my vision board but so is to finish writing the book and get it published. That’s a simple example but overlooking consistent, focused small steps while affirming the big goal will not get you where you want to go. Don’t focus on a net income of $2 million when, immediately, you need to focus on making enough money to keep you out of a day job.

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” -Jim Rohn

7. Make “I can” your new motto. Banish “I can’t” from your vocabulary

It’s rarely true anyway. You can say: I don’t know how, I’m working on it, and I need to figure it out, which all imply that there is a solution to be had. I can’t is final and permits you to quit. I can, not only psychologically primes your brain to find a solution, it switches your thoughts from a fixed to a growth mindset.

8. Ask for help

It’s easy to slip into excuses, like “everyone’s busy”, “you have to pay people to help you” and “why would so and so want to help me”. It’s a risk to ask for assistance. However, wishing, wanting and hoping what you need magically appears succeeds far less often than asking for it. The answer will either be a yes or a no, and either is ok. Don’t take it personally. As Jack Canfield says, every no brings you closer to a yes. Be sure to show or tell them why they want to help you and offer to assist them in return.

9. Know your role models

Don’t reinvent the wheel because wheels exist. Find who’s doing what you want to do, be and have. Study them, contact them, and do what they did. For work, life and relationships- know your role models. And keep it in perspective. Your big goal may be that your mentors become your friends but you need them to be your mentors first.

10. Enlist a support team

You need your cheerleaders and tough lovers. These are people who will provide unbiased support- celebrating the victories, cheering you through the difficulties and asking the tough questions that help you win big. They brainstorm solutions and provide a much-needed connection for the SOULpreneur.

Most of the success is mental, not mechanics, but these steps cover both, require no financial investment, and you can start on them today. As mega fitness superstar, Shaun T says, “Let’s goooo!”

What gets you excited? Comment below!

How V. G. Siddhartha Started – Founder and Owner of Cafe Coffee Day

V. G. Siddhartha – a man less famous by his name but whose work screams volumes, is the proud Founder & Owner of Cafe Coffee Day.

V. G. Siddhartha – a man less famous by his name but whose work screams volumes, is the proud Founder & Owner of Cafe Coffee Day. He was born into a family of coffee plantation owners from the Chikmangaluru district of Karnataka, who today, have been in the industry for more than 140 years.

He is a Master’s in economics from the Mangalore University of Karnataka and has two children from his wife Malavika Krishna – the daughter of S. M. Krishna, former Chief Minister of Karnataka, Indian Minister for External Affairs and Governor of Maharashtra.

Siddhartha always had the quality similar to that of a naturally born entrepreneur and to top that, he also had a mysterious ability to sniff out a good deal from every situation, too! Professionally, a restless and an extremely quick decision maker that he is, is a diehard workaholic and prefers to stay put for nothing less than 12-14 hours a day and 7 days a week.

And a collective combination of all of that; is a sum up of his business empire that bestrides retail (Café Coffee Day), financial services (Way2Wealth Securities), venture capital, hospitality, furniture, logistics (SICAL), and land development. Additionally, today Siddhartha holds a net worth of $1.09 Billion.

How it all began?

Siddhartha’s career started soon after he completed his studies!

Now, he could have easily survived off the 350 acres of coffee estate his family owned, but instead – the ambitious him, decided to start something that appealed to him, something created by him, something on his own! Agreeing to that; his father gave him Rs.5 lakhs and also told him that in case if he failed, he is always welcome to come back to the family business.

So with that money, he first bought a piece of land for about Rs. 3 lakhs and kept the rest in a bank.

Later, he landed in Bombay – the city where dreams came true, in and firstly, walked into a Dhaba Hotel and rented a room with a shared toilet for Rs. 120/day at fort. And he was doing all this when he was just 21!

The next day; Siddhartha – who had never seen elevators in his life, climbed up the six floors, just randomly walked into Mahendra Kampani of JM Financial’s office and that too without any appointment.

After a short wait and a healthy discussion, he got the lifetime opportunity to join Mr. Naveen Bhai Kampani J M Financial Services (now J M Morgan Stanley) in Mumbai as a management trainee/intern for trading in the Indian Stock Market.

During this whole phase, he learnt all about the world of investing and also gained the trust of Kampani. And in no time, Siddhartha was handling the accounts of some really big business houses.

Kampani personally trained him to understand the importance of those tiny pieces of gold on the surface and to grab them first, before diving head first in the stream. It was because of these wise words of Kampani, Siddhartha began buying his own coffee estates, by trading out the little pieces of gold he grabbed from the then upward trending stock market (if you know what we mean).

Now even though the job didn’t require him to do much, but being directly under the mind of the company, gained him the knowledge that was simply priceless and in fact, even today he considers himself lucky to get such kind of opportunity and for the valuable advices that he received.

After working with JM for almost two years, Siddhartha felt that he was ready to come back to start something of his own. He expressed his gratitude to Kampani and that he owes a lot to him and soon came back to achieve what he desired the most – business!

After two years Siddhartha moved back to Bangalore and with the remaining Rs. 2 lakhs decided to start his own financial firm. During that time, the stock market had crashed & he was looking around for a new investment opportunity that would gain him good returns and thus began Sivan Securities. At first, he bought a stock market card for Rs. 30,000, and then along with that, he also took over a company called Sivan Securities which later went on to be known as Way2wealth Securities Ltd in 2000.

And Siddhartha successfully transformed the venture into a highly successful investment banking and stock broking company.

The how’s & what’s of Cafe Coffee Day!

Later, after a period of 10 years; Siddhartha happened come across a German business owner, who was interested in buying coffee beans from him for his “leading coffee brand in Germany – Tchibo”.

During that brief discussion with the owner of Tchibo, he happened to spell out his story of how his brand had actually started in a small 10 ft. shop in Hamburg, Germany with a bare minimal investment, and how within a span of nearly 40 years, it had turned into a globally renowned Multi-Million Dollar business & the second largest coffee roaster in Europe.

This inspiring tale of the Tchibo, gave Siddhartha an outlook of a different world altogether & opened his eyes. It also gave him a wonderful idea, with the help of which, cup by cup he built his Billion-Dollar empire.

At first; cutting the middleman trend, he quickly started with exporting coffee in 1993, and named it “Amalgamated Bean Coffee” trading company and at the same time also bought a near-to-dying coffee curing unit in Hassan and turned it around.

Gradually, his company grew and within a span of just two years ‘ABC’ was India’s largest Coffee exporter.

Challenges

Having done that; this success also began to scare him, simply because if he could do it then any international player would also be able to do it very easily, and the barrier to entry was absolutely nothing.

The visionary that he was; for a fact knew that, whenever the investment climate in India would improve, these big-fat European and US trade houses that he dealt with, would come running and would quickly put up big factories next to theirs, giving a big threat to him.

This forced him to look for a long-term survival and dominance in the industry! He thought that building up a brand which had Ground outlets would actually create an undisolvable business model and would make his idea less prone to external threats.

Now at the same time back in the 20th century, South Indians were more driven towards filtered coffee than the rest, and coffee was mainly popular amongst the classes than the masses of Bangalore.

To add to that; the Government policies & the soaring high import and export duties made it even more difficult for Indian Coffee Planters, to keep low prices or to venture out into the International coffee cartel.

Hence, he picked up the task with an aim to change the present scenario!
Siddhartha headed to New Delhi, to convince the union government to end their monopoly over coffee, and returned with nothing but success. And in a snap, the highly-inflated taxes on coffee trade were drastically cut down.

Soon after that; he asked a girl who worked at his office to do some deep market research on the possibilities and opportunities were available to set up stores to sell branded coffee powder.

She studied the market and came back with results after a week. And clearly her result indicated that, she didn’t want him to waste his time and money, because the idea had no potential!

Having an internal target of 500 tonnes, this feedback was indeed scary for him, and also because everything of his was at stake, but nevertheless he decided to take the leap and go ahead with it!

In 1994, they setup 20-25 stores across Bangalore and 20 stores across Chennai which only sold coffee powder.
But soon after the start itself, he realised that margins were very limited in this business and that he would need a better option to survive. That is when luck played its part and in 1995, the café culture globally, picked up and he decided to transform!

It was just the perfect opportunity for him! It was a lifestyle business and a great way to build a brand.

He called in his management team and told them that he wanted to put up cafés across India. Within a budget of Rs.1.5 Cr; he told them to build a nice concept store and to attract audiences to his cafe and pay Rs.25 for a cup (at a time when people paid Rs.5), he decided to make it a Cyber Cafe with Coffee and Internet together.

This idea was even more bankable because, those days the Internet was still a luxury product limited only to the riches, posh places and cafes.

And with that, in 1996 he set up Cafe Coffee Day!

Business Expansion

The word about an Internet cum Coffee Cafe went viral and soon his place was the first choice for a hangout, amongst the youth. Witnessing this short success, Siddhartha also went on to open several outlets all over the globe.

And today, “Amalgamated Bean Coffee” trading company (ABC) grows its own coffee in its own estates of 12,000 acres. It is also the largest producer of Arabica beans in Asia and also exports the same to various countries like USA, Europe and Japan.

As of 2015; CCD makes revenues worth $450 Million approx., employees 5000+ people, and has 1530 outlets across India, Austria, Czech Republic, Dubai & Karachi.

Additionally, Cafe Coffee Day also holds multiple divisions which include:

• Coffee Day Fresh ‘n’ Ground
• Coffee Day Square
• Coffee Day Xpress
• Coffee Day Beverages
• Coffee Day Exports
• Coffee Day Perfect
• Coffee Day B2C Plant

Once a man who feared of achieving a target of 500 tonnes, today sells 6,500-7,000 tonnes of branded coffee, exports about 28,000 tonnes of coffee and sells another 2,000 tonnes locally each year, and has a curing capacity of 75,000 tonnes (largest in the country). Additionally; his cafes attract at least 40,000 to 50,000 visitors per week.

Other ventures that he is a part of

Global Technology Ventures Ltd. – GTV is the venture capital division of Siddhartha’s Sivan & owns 80% of the stake of it. It is a firm that targets, invests and mentors Indian companies which are engaged in cutting edge technologies.

Dark Forest Furniture Company (Daffco) – It is a furniture company which aims to venture into furniture market by building a 600,000 sq. ft. factory in his hometown. The company is also in the process of setting up one of India’s largest “Integrated Wood Processing” technologically advanced Plant.

SICAL Logistics – The firm is a specialist in transportation and logistics, which includes cargo management, warehousing, ship agency services, and clearing. Recently, they also acquired coal mines in New Jersey.

Other than that; he has also planted banana trees spread across 3,000 acres and plans to export bananas and make almost INR 200 crores out of it.

Lastly, he also part of the board in GTV, Mindtree, Liqwid Krystal, Way2Wealth and Ittiam.

Achievements

• Ranked as India’s 2nd most trusted brand in the Food Services segment
• Awarded as the ‘NextGen Entrepreneur’ by Forbes (2011)
• Won the Brand Equity survey by The Economic Times (2008)
• Awarded as the “Best Coffee Bar” by Times Food Guide (2007 – Delhi)
• Awarded as the “Best Coffee Shop” by Times Food Guide (2007 – Mumbai)
• Received the “Awaaz Consumer Awards” (2006)
• Awarded as the “Entrepreneur of the year” by The Economic Times (2003)

7 Ways entrepreneurs stay motivated

Motivation comes in countless different forms, and in the entrepreneurial world, staying motivated is required to succeed.

Motivation comes in countless different forms, and in the entrepreneurial world, staying motivated is required to succeed. Below are seven tips for staying motivated in the entrepreneurial world.

1. Realize The Progress

That Has Been Made Entrepreneurs never look back with regret; instead, they see every mistake as a lesson. That doesn’t mean they don’t reflect upon their progress, though. If lacking motivation, take some time to realize how much progress has been made. It’s a great way to appreciate the personal progress that has been made and it can be pleasantly surprising, too.

“You can become exhausted by decision making and the day-to-day activities,” says Mary Ferguson, President of Concenter Services. “You need to always take breaks to stop and look back at the progress you have made on a continual basis to stay motivated.”

2. Meditate Each Day

Find some time every morning or evening (or both) to meditate. It doesn’t really matter what it takes to clear the mind, but finding a calming process to wipe the mental slate clean is a great tool for staying motivated. It invigorates and refreshes, allowing entrepreneurs to see each day as a new opportunity.

“It is important to stay laser focused on your strategy. Do not get caught up in the small details,” explains Stephen Hall, a Glendale EA and tax planning strategist. “I have seen small business owners get caught up in the small stuff and forget the top line revenue and the vision to motivate its employees and vendors for the overall big picture. It is imperative for small business owners to write their overall goals down on paper and look at the goals daily and ask themselves- is this activity achieving the goals written down?”

3. Exercise

For being so physically demanding, exercise is an incredible way to release stress and find motivation. By nature, exercise is similar to entrepreneurship – both involve hard work, excuses are not welcome in either, and they’re all about personal development. The dedication and motivation that comes from exercise carries over to entrepreneurship so don’t skip that workout.

4. Limit Decision Making In Other Aspects of Life

Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of tough choices each day and it can take a toll. Throughout the rest of the day, though, they tend to limit decision-making to keep things simple. It’s a great tool for motivating entrepreneurs because it keeps them sharp when their abilities are needed elsewhere.

5. Visualize The Future

Every great entrepreneur had a vision of what they wanted to achieve, and for good reason – it’s unbelievably motivating. Entrepreneurs owe it to themselves to know exactly what they strive to achieve because without a clear goal in mind, the drive to achieve greatness is limited.

“I personally prefer to turn those entrepreneurship pressures around and use them to push me and my business harder, faster, farther.” Aaron Schmitz, CEO and President of Equity Technology Partners explains that, “I’ve seen how a lack of motivation in entrepreneurs especially during the hard times can affect their mental and physical health and the health of their relationships both personal and professional and while it’s an easy trap to fall into it’s also avoidable.”

6. Take Time For Yourself And Your Loved Ones

Sometimes, a break is all that’s required to motivate an entrepreneur. They are human, after all, and they get tired. Spending some time with friends or family, or perhaps embracing a hobby, provides the refreshing mental break that allows for a proper return to form the next day.

7. Experience The World

Motivation comes from many places, and not just mental ones. With the unbelievable range of cultures, values, and regions across the world, inspiration and new ideas are virtually limitless. Entrepreneurs should explore the world and take advantage of all it has to offer. There are endless ways to find motivation in the world, so don’t hesitate to expand those horizons.

This article was originally published in Inc.com

Image credit: aloha.com

10 Motivation strategies for entrepreneurs

We asked around 75 entrepreneurs how they get their motivation back. Here are some of the most popular techniques.

Motivation is elusive. Some days we’re pounding the keyboard, brainstorming ideas, and jabbering on the phone well past dinner; others, we look at the clock only to discover that lunch is still two hours and four minutes away. Especially during the holiday season, it’s hard to stay motivated.

We asked around 75 entrepreneurs how they get their motivation back. Here are some of the most popular techniques.

1. Take a Break

Taking a break is an obvious fix, but effective. It clears your mind and can even increase your creativity: exposing yourself to new ideas can help you be more creative in your own field. And, of course, some people claim to have their best ideas in the shower, or when they’re not actively thinking about work.

In fact, the Pomodoro technique for productivity and time management revolves around breaks, which punctuate 25-minute intervals of focused work. The idea is that your thinking is elevated by short rests. Working nonstop, however, can bog down the brain:

“When I’m not feeling motivated I just stop working. Personally I can’t get anything done well if I’m feeling ‘out of it,’ says Well.io founder and CEO Arin Sarkissian. “I’ll go hang out with friends, play a game, meet up with other founders, etc. Anything but work – sometimes you just need a break.”

One common way to spend that break is exercising. “I go for a run, but everybody has their own tricks. I have a friend that used to do underground fight clubs. He is one of the most talented designers I know, and a complete wacko,” says BJ Fleming, a content specialist at Grubwithus.

You can also take a walk, watch a movie, or plan a mini-vacation. BestBuzz founder and CEO Carrie Layne rents a pontoon boat and reads a book in the middle of a lake, or heads to the casino for some poker. “You most likely work seven days a week, so don’t feel guilty about running off on a Tuesday afternoon,” she says.

And Fundable founder Wil Schroter turns to good old video games:

“I come home, tell my wife how I’m feeling, sit down at my computer, and play video games for three to four days straight without a break. My wife just puts food next to my left hand and leaves me alone until I reset. Is that weird? Yes. But boy it works every time.”

2. Think about Your Customers

One big difference between online businesses and brick-and-mortar stores is the customer interaction, and it affects motivation. While small business owners might see smiles and happy faces all day, entrepreneurs are (more often than not) staring at their computer screens.

But customers and users are so critical to a startup – they are the ones who benefit from what you create, and they keep you in business. So, many entrepreneurs turn their thoughts to their customers to get back their motivation. “When I lack motivation, I go straight to my store locator on my website! I remind myself of how many great companies believe in us and it fuels me to move forward and continue to grow the business!” says Christy Cook, the founder of TeachMy.

If you want something more tangible, take a look at customer reviews and feedback – or create a short survey to gather some. Anita Malik, CEO of BrideRush, even keeps a “kudos board” on the wall that includes reviews from brides and vendors. “It energizes our small team on slow or frustrating days,” she says.

3. Think about Your Team

If you forget why you’re doing this, your co-founders and employees might help remind you. Like your customers, they’re also benefitting from your work: they get exciting jobs and the chance to create something new.

As Julia Hartz, president and cofounder of Eventbrite, says, seeing the enthusiasm of your team can give you a boost. “It’s hard to lose motivation when I go into the office every day and see 200 Britelings. I spend a lot of time focused on supporting our Eventbrite culture, and that serves as a constant source of motivation for me.”

Remember, these are people who have chosen to follow you and your dreams – and if you don’t stay motivated and give it your all, you will be letting them down.

Also read: 65 of the best Time-Management tips that will work for you

“As a leader, motivation is essential because having it or lacking it is infectious,” says Christian Gurney, the CEO of Torsion Mobile. “I think of the team and how I am responsible to them to make each day worthwhile and rewarding.”

4. Get Social

Talking to other entrepreneurs can be reassuring when you’re feeling down. In particular, it helps you realize that the ups and downs of startup life are perfectly normal. “I typically grab a meal or cup of coffee with other entrepreneurs,” says Jacqueline Jensen, cofounder and COO of Ticket Cake. “It’s refreshing to hear I’m not alone in the mountain-and-valley terrain entrepreneurs tackle each day. After some time with the community, I usually discover I’m ready to dive back in.”

For Brent Coker of Webreep, this is one good reason to mentor young entrepreneurs – their bright attitude is infectious and untempered by the harsh realities of failure. “Intense passion is contagious – unfortunately it gets diminished as you get older,” he says.

5. Get organized

If motivation is the drive to accomplish something, obviously we can’t feel motivated to do things we think are impossible. So when work starts to feel impossible, you can lose your motivation. To get it back, get organized and convince yourself that you can do it.

“I make a list. Sounds simplistic, but it works every time,” says Malik of BrideRush. “I usually get unmotivated when I feel overwhelmed, which is nearly daily when running a startup! The simple ritual of making a list in order of priority gets my brain moving again. I feel like I’m on top of it all rather than drowning in the details.”

6. Do something new

A lack of motivation can also come from a feeling of boredom, and shaking up your routine may be just the ticket.

“Entrepreneurism is a drug,” says Craig Negoescu, CEO of NAKA Media. “When things get routine, or safe, or tedious, you begin to slip. So you need to challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone, and do something new with your business. To paraphrase a most interesting man, ‘Stay risky, my friends.’ The adrenaline of a new challenge will wake you up, energize you, give you a victory or a failure to learn from. And it’s cheaper than coffee!”

Also read: 20 Must watch movies for all Aspiring Entrepreneurs

7. Take responsibility

Many people are drawn to entrepreneurship because of the independence. When motivation wanes, remembering that everything is on your shoulders – your actions will determine the success or failure of your startup – can be a motivator. Deadlines and penalities can motivate, after all, even though they are negative incentives.

“The greatest thing that keeps me motivated and focused as an entrepreneur is that no one is paying the bills for me. Being the one in my company that is responsible for sales, it’s up to me to keep the company growing,” says Brian Bosscher of Condo Control Central.

To light the fire even quicker, take a look at a few of your metrics. “The typical motivation is looking at your fixed cost compared to revenue coming in. That’s the quickest slap in the face for motivation,” says Joel Gross, founder and CEO of Coalition Technologies.

Adds Rohan Hall, founder and CEO of Cool Mojito, “I look at my bank account.”

8. Count your blessings

“On my desk, I keep a picture of the old, drab cubicle I used to report to every day at my corporate job. Whenever I’m feeling unmotivated, I look at that picture and then look around me and see the vibrant and fun workspace I’ve created. It brings a smile to my face every time!” says Dale Burgham, owner of Revo Exotic Wood Guitar Straps.

According to Gallup, only 30 percent of Americans were engaged by their work during the first half of 2012. That means 70 percent of people spent their days bored, unchallenged, uninspired, watching the clock until 5 pm strikes. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably not in that category – so consider yourself lucky.

“When I start to feel unmotivated I think back to my last ‘normal’ job and how much I hated it,” says Tech Cocktail contributor Danny Boice, cofounder and CTO of Speek. “It was a 9-5 corporate hell working for a large bureaucracy where posturing and politics mattered more than actual results. It was absolutely brutal and I really don’t think I could ever go back to a role like that. That’s not living.

“I make it a point to feel gratitude about the fact that I can do what I absolutely love with my life and there are very few people that can say that. It sounds trite but I really do force myself to stop and smell the roses. I know when I look back on this very point in my life it will be right up there with the birth of my kids in terms of happiness.”

9. Rediscover your inspiration

This is really the root. To get motivated, you need to remember why you were ever motivated in the first place: why you’re doing what you’re doing. Maybe you want to change the world, maybe add a little fun, maybe make people happy for 5 minutes per day – whatever.

“I try to go back to the beginning of my project. There was a reason why I started: passion, motivation, determination. I go back to the starting days of my business and rekindle my motivation in my company,” says 19-year-old Jeet Banerjee.

But inspiration can come from other places, too: quotes, the life stories of Steve Jobs or Thomas Jefferson, the Eminem song “Lose Yourself” (as one entrepreneur said), or a movie like Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Or, of course, your family:

“When I feel unmotivated, I close my eyes and think about (a) how hard my immigrant family worked to enable me to pursue my dreams,” says Sparkology founder Alex Furmansky.

10. Suck it up

If all else fails, a few entrepreneurs said, just suck it up. That basically means: tell yourself that being unmotivated isn’t an option. You chose this career, you choose this startup, and you’re the only one who can keep it going.

“Get tough. It’s important to remember that every minute of every day counts and you own your attitude and effort. There is always a solution to the problem. Staying motivated requires tremendous perseverance and creativity, but that’s what separates those who make it and those who don’t,” says David Rush, co-founder and CEO of Evzdrop.

You may also like: Why Following Your Own Dreams Is Not Selfishness

This article was originally published in Tech Co

Image credit: www.youtube.com

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