If you want to be successful as you are beginning your real estate career, here are some tips you should take to heart and implement right away.
Now that you have worked hard to become a real estate agent, you don’t want to find yourself doing like many other new agents and languishing for months and months before you make your first sale. Instead, you want to become an all-star agent from the very beginning. While you may think this is impossible, it’s actually much easier than you would expect. If you want to be successful as you are beginning your real estate career, here are some tips you should take to heart and implement right away.
Find a Mentor
While you certainly know plenty about real estate, nothing can take the place of experience. Therefore, always work hard to find a mentor as soon as you start out on your real estate career path. By doing so, you can have an experienced agent or broker who will pass on their knowledge of the industry to you each and every day. By listening carefully to what they tell you, your real estate career can skyrocket in no time.
Establish a Social Media Presence
In today’s real estate industry, having a strong social media presence is a must. However, this does not mean you should limit yourself only to one or two sites, or to strictly the facts about your real estate listings. If you are comfortable doing so, don’t be afraid to inject some humor into your social media presence, and also work hard to engage with those who reply to your posts. By showcasing your personality, you can work with real estate website developers to create not only a social media presence but also your very own website.
Become Part of a Team
While you may not like the idea of splitting commissions with other agents, becoming part of a real estate team can ultimately lead to a much higher income. A hot trend in the industry, this will let you pool your resources, work with multiple clients simultaneously, and establish a reputation for excellence.
Get to Know Your Market
Finally, do all you can to learn everything about your local real estate market. As you do this and work with more and more clients, you will become known as the real estate agent who can help buyers and sellers get their deals done quickly and for the best price.
As you try each of these tips and are not shy about telling everyone you meet about your new career, you can go from being a face in the large real estate crowd to the most well-known agent in your town or city.
The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.
“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” –Robert Greene, Mastery
Super Mario. The crazy little Italian-American plumber that shaped my childhood.
I used to spend hours and hours sitting in front of my TV, helping that little guy save his pixelated princess from the bad guys.
In case you played it, you might have noticed that it’s challenging to advance from one level to another if you don’t collect mushrooms that make you bigger and give you the ability to throw fireballs.
Life is like a game. Like a Super Mario game.
But in life, you are the character, and you need to find your own “mushrooms” that help you grow and excel. The trick is that they aren’t identically shaped and available in the same familiar places every time.
Your mushroom could be anything that helps you evolve as a person.
Your starting point doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have 24 hours in front of you and you need to use them in the best possible way.
But you have to keep one thing in mind:
The world is shifting and evolving rapidly. And if you are not changing or evolving with the times, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re stagnating, or merely going backward.
The good news is, for those who attempt to reach their maximum, the rewards are enormous.
The only problem is that ever since we were young, more attention was placed on knowing that mitochondria is a powerhouse of the cell, which didn’t help much in our adult life.
It’s never too late, so here’s a list of 25 essential how-to’s that will help you be more successful and grow exponentially.
1. How to Develop Self-Awareness
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”– C.G. Jung
To be “awakened,” you have to understand your life story and which events shaped you into the person you are today?
Gaining clarity on these crucial moments will help you learn more about yourself and why you behave in a certain way.
This will also help you find out when your core strengths came to life and how you can use them to grow as a person.
Not only that, but it will help you gain clarity on what direction in life you want to take.
2. How to Create a Personal Philosophy
“Your Personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out.”-Jim Rohn
We, humans, have some rules and norms that we grew up with. But as you gain self-awareness, you need to start relying more on your internal compass.
In the backstage of merely “feeling” that something is right or not, there is a conscious evaluation of your situation according to your values and previous experiences.
That’s why it’s essential to determine your values and beliefs toward the world, not only to understand how you make decisions but also use them to guide your life.
3. How to Create Your Vocation
I don’t think we are all placed on Earth with a purpose.
But, I do believe that throughout the life, we discover what we are good at and what we love to do.
If you are willing to put some effort into it, you can combine these two and find an opportunity out there, that will allow you to both enjoy something, and accomplish success.
So, vocation consists out of:
Your Talents — what are you good at? Your Passions — what do you love to do? World Opportunities — what opportunities are out there for you to take or create?
Play around, experiment, and you will be able to find yours. But understand that this is a never-ending process.
4. How to Set Goals
Goals work like a lens of a camera.
If you set the focus correctly, you will be able to take a clear picture.
If it is out of focus, your picture will be blurry.
That’s why:
“I want to lose 4 pounds (2 kg) of fat by June 15th.”
is far better goal than: “I want to lose weight.”
Even though it is positive, it’s not specific and focused.
All you need to do is set the goals that will indeed make the difference in your life and go one day at the time.
5. How to Visualize Your Path
“I keep having vivid dreams of success. Then it’s time to sleep.”-Connor McGregor
Goal-setting is something your “conscious brain” can do.
The conscious brain is great at imagining things and thinking them through, but it’s next to useless when it comes to getting things done because it is easily distracted.
The subconscious mind sees a complete picture of everything happening all at once and is aware of the input coming from all of your senses at every moment.
These two work hand in hand to help you out.
By adding details, a clear path, and emotion of how it would feel if you already achieved it, you trick your mind into believing that it is already capable of achieving it.
But, remember, visualization is one side of the coin.
Hard work and dedication is the other side.
6. How to Form and Break Habits
“I will form good habits and become their slave.” -Og Mandino
Just like math, we tend to have a negative connotation towards habits.
Because of that, it’s better to think of them as rituals or routines.
Define what your most essential habits are, something that will affect each area of your life (i.e., healthy diet & exercise).
Then start implementing one by one, as if they are part of who you are, and not something you have to do.
There is a big difference between wanting a summer body and exercising because that’s who you are.
It’s not easy; it will take some practice until you change your perception and start thinking this way.
But start small and start with one habit at a time.
7. How to Create a Healthy Regimen
If you want to achieve anything in life, everything starts here.
First you have to take care of your health, and there are only two things you need to keep in mind:
Healthy Diet
Physical Activity
Your job is to find the right diet to get you to your ideal weight, and then learn how to maintain it.
While at the same time you should find the right physical activity to supplement your diet, and then fall in love with it.
Remember, the goal is to do this for life, because remaining healthy is something you are, not something you do.
8. How to Accelerate Your Learning
Everything we are and everything we’ve achieved thus far is because of our ability to learn.
People that operate on a high level, they are nothing more than extremely efficient at acquiring new skills and implementing them in their areas of focus.
The best way to accelerate your learning is to make it supplementary.
Learning is just a HOW-TO for accomplishing your goals.
Why?
Well, your goals are nothing more than activities you need to do. If you want to know how to perform those activities, you need skills.
All you need to do is define what goals you want to achieve, and what skills you need to acquire to make it easier.
9. How to Intentionally Consume Information
As I mentioned earlier, we are often over-cluttered with information, especially on what Kardashians have been up to recently.
Btw, did you know that Kylie is pregnant?!!
You get what I am saying?
Everywhere you go, you have information that is distracting you from the things you need to do, and things that you want to do.
So make sure to control how you search and use information.
Otherwise, you will wake up 3 hours later on Youtube watching a random cat video that has no use for your life.
10. How to Read Better
Everyone is focused on the idea of becoming a faster reader, while there are so many tips you should focus on, to become a better reader.
When I say that I mean being able to apply what you have read, not just forget it or store it in the back of your head.
To become a better reader, you need to approach reading anything with a specific intent.
By defining your goals (personal or professional gain), establishing one thing that you are trying to get out of a book (or an article), and skimming through the table of contents and taking notes, you will be able to retain much more information than you ever thought possible.
11. How to Focus
Every person has something that can get them in the ZONE.
Oh man, when you’re there. Nothing exists.
Just you and your goal.
What majority of people seem to miss, is that this state is something you can learn to trigger on command. But first, you need to look back.
To determine how you’ve entered a state of flow before, just ask yourself a question:
When is the last time I was so deeply focused on what was in front of me?
Once you find specific activity. Ask yourself the following question:
Why was I so deeply focused? What helped me be that immersed?
For me, it takes playing good music on headphones and a goal I deeply care about to be fully immersed.
12. How to Be Productive
Maybe I have a professional deformation, but I profoundly believe that this skill is the most crucial of all.
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”-Bill Gates
Since the time you have is your most valuable resource, you need to learn how to use it in the best possible way.
To do that, you need to answer two questions:
1. What do I want to achieve in life?
2. How do I need to use my time to accomplish that?
You need to pay attention and figure out how you can get more time in your life, and use it in a better way.
One of the easiest ways to become better at this is to go one day at the time.
13. How to Be a Better Decision Maker
“The more decisions you make, the better you’ll become at making them. Muscles get stronger with use, and so it is with your decision-making muscles.” -Tony Robbins
The reality is not every decision you make will be a good one, but that should never stop you from taking action.
That’s why you should use your critical thinking skills to evaluate and analyze the situation you are in. Now you can be sure that every decision is heading on the right path.
Even if you make a mistake, draw a learning point out of it and use it for the next step.
You will become wiser on every step.
14. How to Manage Stress
To manage stress, you need to discover the sources of it.
Ask yourself a question:
“What are the most common and repetitive sources of my frustrations?”
Once you discover them, the next thing to do is to create strategies to deal with them.
Long-term strategy: this strategy should be done upfront, in a way that allows you to organize yourself so you can minimize or eliminate previously mentioned sources (i.e. if you constantly get stressed about traffic on your way to work, find a way to fix it).
Short-term strategy: it often happens that something unexpected arises that is out of your control, that’s why you need to have a list of possible activities you can do, to relax and reduce the overwhelm on the spot (i.e. your colleague pisses you off > immediately you stop talking, breathe and take a walk, or play your favorite music)
This approach will not only make you better at managing stress, but it will also help you be more problem solving oriented, because you will be able to pinpoint causes faster and relax much easier to focus on solutions.
15. How to Meditate
You are always on the move.
So much so that it feels weird if you stop and do nothing.
“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” -Zen proverb
Because of this, it’s important to teach yourself how to make a pause in your day and life so that you could ground and calibrate yourself.
Meditation is one of the simple ways you can achieve this. And even though everyone seems to suggest another way of meditating, I suggest you follow one rule.
Do whatever suits you.
If you want to sit down for 2 minutes and breathe, do that. If you want to lie down for 15 minutes and think, do that. Just find something that suits you and try it.
16. How to Be Alone
“The person that you will spend the most time within your life is yourself, so better try to make yourself as interesting as possible.” -Unknown
Ever since you were born, you’ve been surrounded by people.
Because of that, we are not accustomed to moments when we are alone for a couple of hours, without human interaction.
In these rare moments, just try to be present and reflect on your inner thoughts.
You will be amazed, how much you will learn about yourself and how much it will help you crystallize certain things.
17. How to Be Creative
“Don’t die with your music still in you.” -Wayne Dyer
The majority of people don’t consider themselves traditionally creative.
However, I’ve come to realize that some people are different in non-traditional ways, and that if you experiment enough, you can learn to unleash your specific way of creativity.
The first step is to look back and see if you can find some pattern when your creativity was useful and when you did something and amazed not only yourself, but everyone else present.
18. How to Write for Pleasure
There’s a lot of incredible ideas just waiting to be materialized through the ink, or a keyboard. All you have to do is start.
You don’t have to become an author.
But just create a ritual out of putting your thoughts on a piece of paper. This will help you in more ways than one, and it will contribute a lot to understanding yourself better.
19. How to Tell a Story
This is probably one of the most useful skills you can ever develop.
You don’t have to be a professional storyteller, but you do need to learn how to get your ideas out there, and to do so in an interesting way.
There are some tips for this, but the golden rule is:
“People never know what you will say when you start speaking.”
So go on, tell a story or share an idea.
You never know how it can change someone’s life.
20. How to Communicate with Other People
I hate chit-chat.
Nothing drains my energy like talking about the weather. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way.
So I decided to do something about it and created a sort of “How-To Guide for Creating Unforgettable Conversations.”
There are two parts to this:
What YOU are saying and what THEY are saying.
First, we will focus on what you are trying to say.
There are three important things here:
Message — What is the one specific message you are trying to transfer
Sequence — How do you want to present your message?
Emotion — What emotion do you want to leave your conversation partner with?
Even though I’ve covered what you will say first, I am sorry to disappoint you–it’s not the most important part.
The quality of your conversations depends on how well you can listen to your conversation partner and respond accordingly.
So let’s cover the second part: what are they trying to tell you.
Again, three important things here:
Story — What significant events happened in that person’s life that shaped them or lead them to engage in their career?
Next Chapter — What is the next step in their life? What is something they aspire to do?
Message — What message are they trying to transfer to you?
This might be a bit overwhelming. But just start simple, and it will become natural over time.
21. How to Be Persuasive (aka Sell)
Whether you like it or not, your success in your personal and professional life highly depends on your ability to sell yourself, your ideas, products or services.
The primary purpose of persuasiveness is to place the other person in agreement with your point of view. Without being a jerk in the process.
You will go a long way if you abide by the following: remain calm, strive for a win-win, and be sure to express the needs and benefits of the other party.
Remember that 90% of the quarrels erupt due to a wrong tone of voice.
Only 10% of the quarrels are due to differences in opinion.
22. How to Say NO
“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” -James Allen
How many times you’ve said yes to something (an event or gathering), even though you’ve seen no value in it?
Exactly.
That’s why you need to reframe the act of saying NO like this:
“You are not saying NO to others; you are saying YES to yourself and things that are important to you.”
The point is not to ever feel guilt-tripped into doing something you don’t want to do. Especially if it goes against your values, or if it doesn’t support your goals.
Always choose to focus on doing something you love.
23. How to Develop a Personal Brand
You are always telling a story of your life, through the things you choose to focus on a daily basis.
That’s why you need to think of yourself as a market niche.
There will be a lot of people who like that niche, and there will be individuals who don’t. And no matter what you do, you won’t be able to make the entire market like you.
This is entirely natural, and there’s no need to justify yourself.
The only thing you can do is to remain authentic, improve and provide value every day — while continuing to tell your story.
24. How to Create (and maintain) a Right Network of People
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” -Jim Rohn
Building a network is trying to find inspiring people that share the same values, beliefs, and interests as you do.
Where you can provide value to them and they can return the favor (value can be even food for thought).
The majority of success and happiness comes from interacting and working with amazing people that drive you to achieve more personally and professionally, and vice-versa.
25. How to Make Money Work for You
Earning money only to save it is like acquiring a skill, only to leave it in the back of your head for the next 20 years.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t save, but it means that you shouldn’t only save.
Always be on a lookout for another source of income (ideally passive income), and investment opportunities — something that has a high chance to give a good return on investment.
Some of these can be learned within several hours, while some require more than that.
But, you have to know that learning even one of these skills can help you grow exponentially and give you incredible results in every area of your life.
Author: Zdravko Cvijetic
Content Creator | 40M+ Views | #1 Viral Medium Article | Founder of Zero to Skill | Get your copy of The Ultimate Productivity Cheat Sheet
The journey of a thousand miles definitely begins with one step.
Let’s face it, most of us love over-complicating things and often shun simple information because it’s basic. We really don’t know how to KISS (Keep It Simple, Silly!). We are drawn to things that boggle our minds and consider straight forward information boring or too simplistic for our liking. Don’t believe me? How many times have you written off someone’s advice or their solution to a problem because you considered it’s simplistic nature suspect?
Have you ever felt cheated out of money you spent on a self-help book because you felt there had to be ‘more to the story’ after reading it? Our need to over-complicate things is often what keeps us stuck in life, delays some of our progress in life and hinders us from pursuing our goals and dreams. We often imagine that everything has to be perfect or make absolute sense to us in order for us to even consider investing ourselves into whatever it is we desire to do.
People who make things happen don’t believe in perfection when it comes to pursuing their goals and dreams, because they are aware that our life’s circumstances will never be entirely perfect or favorable for us to pursue some of our endeavors. Therefore, they don’t allow external factors to dissuade them from pursuing their goals and dreams because they know that reasons will always present themselves to excuse our inability to make things happen at some juncture in our lives.
If you want to accomplish anything in your life, you have to be willing to start where you are and with what you have. The journey of a thousand miles definitely begins with one step. Allow yourself to take the first step and build upon it.
Utilize whatever resources you currently have available to jump-start and move your life and pursuits in the direction you want them to go with the belief that everything you need will materialize in one way or another as long as you keep taking action and remain committed to your endeavors and the process.
Below are tips, advice and insights you can follow and ponder that will help you get started where you are and with what you have on your journey towards success:
1. Don’t wait anymore
Don’t wait to have money to make money, to fully master what you want to do before doing it, or for circumstances and external factors in your life to perfectly align in order for you to act on your pursuits because in some instances, they never do.
Step out in faith and be willing to take a risk on your dreams. You will discover that the universe will open up doors for you and present you with opportunities you otherwise would have never received had you allowed your perceived limitations to immobilize you.
2. Focus on the things you can control
Don’t become consumed by things and circumstances you can’t control or have absolutely no control over. Instead, use to your advantage those that you can, to move you in the direction of your dreams.
Most successful people would tell you a story or two of the great things they were able to achieve in life in spite of some of their humble beginning. Don’t be averse to starting where you are, using whatever you have, and doing whatever you can; the secret to getting ahead is getting started – you don’t have to have great beginnings to start, you have to start in order to eventually become great.
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
3. Be willing to take the first step
Determine what action you can take today that will move you one step closer to your goal or dream and make its possibility appear that much more real to you. If your dream is to start your own business, simple acts such as choosing a business name, registering your business name, having someone design a business logo for you and so on, will be enough to inspire and motivate you to take further action which will help you achieve your desired outcome.
4. Find the resources that are available to you
Determine what free resources are currently available to you that you could use to jumpstart your goal or dream as you work on making circumstances more favorable for it.
If your dream is to purchase a home in the near future for instance; you might consider attending free homeownership workshops in your area to learn about the home buying process, meeting with a mortgage broker to determine what type of loan you could qualify for or possibly be attending open houses of homes comparable to that which you would like to purchase, etc.
5. Let go of your need for perfection
Don’t let the need for perfection hinder you from stepping out into your destiny or doing the things that you need to do. Start where you are and with what you have and allow whatever little progress you make to create momentum and motivate you to keep going.
For instance, if your goal is to own a bakery someday; don’t limit yourself by believing that you have to wait until you own a brick & mortar store to get your product out there — consider selling your goods online, at a farmer’s market or to friends and loved ones, determine if you can supply to local bakeries, participate in events that allow you to showcase your products and so on.
“I understand that I’m not perfect. I made mistakes and I had a hand in everything that’s happened to me, good and bad.” – Dwyane Wade
6. Don’t overwhelm yourself with information overload
Don’t expect to know or learn everything all at once; stay open to learning as you go. As you step out in faith and take a chance on yourself and your pursuits, the information you need will become available to you through the people and situations you attract into your life. Trust in the process and find contentment with learning how to crawl first before you walk.
7. Don’t wait for the ‘right’ time; make the time right today
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you know you can do today or fool yourself into believing that a later time will be more favorable and opportune for your pursuits. If you start today, you will be one year into whatever it is you want to do by this time next year and closer to fulfilling or having fully achieved your goals. Don’t procrastinate; start today!
If you choose to employ the above simplistic approaches in your endeavors, you will soon discover that accomplishing whatever you want in life isn’t complicated or rocket-science in any sense.
In no way we are trying to minimize the fact that some pursuits will present more challenges than others or require more of and from us than some; what we are trying to relay across is the fact that where there’s a will, there’s a way. Whatever myriad of excuses or reasons we adamantly offer to support our inability to do one thing or another, are really just delay tactics to avoid doing what we know we need to do.
How will you set yourself up for success starting today? Let us know in the comments below.
If you want to know if you’re still acting like a child and that is the reason you cannot achieve the maximum levels of success then read this.
Quite often in my profession, I encounter a grown child. It’s typically a person who thinks and behaves like they never matured past junior high. It’s a sad reality, because as I process through strategies for them to achieve personal success, the recurring theme is simple: if they can’t shake off the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of childhood, they cannot succeed.
If you want to know if you’re still acting like a child and that is the reason you cannot achieve the maximum levels of success then read below:
1. You believe popularity is more important than integrity
Popularity is child’s play, but so many adults treat social status as a key to personal validity. In the process, they often sacrifice honesty, loyalty, and basic manners. The moment you place a value on popularity, you’ve distanced yourself from success. Popularity can get you more likes on social media, but it won’t bring you success. If you want to be validated, be known for having integrity. Like it or not, people will respect you and you will attract success.
2. You act like you know everything
The older I become, the more I realize I have so much more to learn. That’s the way it should be, but if you find yourself feeling like you already know enough, you’re stagnant or dying, because at this point, growth becomes impossible meaning success becomes impossible.
The average CEO reads over 50 books per year, and that’s only one piece of knowledge ingestion. If you want to be successful, recognize you don’t know enough, and never stop learning.
There’s a Proverb that says, “if a man doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat.” Hard work brings about success, but avoiding the work will hamper your ability to achieve. If you want to continue an upward track, embrace everything it takes to get there. Work now, rest later.
4. You don’t respect authority
We’re not talking about respecting abusive authority, but when it comes to achieving your goals, you need to understand that how you treat those in authority over you has a significant impact on your future. Children may be insolent, but winners show respect.
Mistakes and failures are an inevitable part of your journey towards success. While excusing your mistakes might have seemed like a good idea when you were 12, doing so as an adult prevents you from learning and growing.
“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee
6. You are arrogant
Most successful people in life will tell you that humility is a requisite attitude. Arrogance, after all, usually precedes some form of stupidity. Arrogance may have scored the prom king his throne, but it won’t give you the upper hand in real life. If you want to succeed, lose the attitude.
As a kid, I remember my mom telling me not to ride my bike without a helmet, and my first boss telling me not to mix chemicals when I was cleaning the equipment. I ignored both of them, and suffered the consequences. As an adult, if you don’t listen, people notice. Ignoring others may not put you in the hospital, but it will send a message that you don’t value them, and value is a two-way street.
8. You blame
Blaming your siblings or classmates may have helped you avoid discipline as a child, but when it comes to being an adult, personal responsibility is a key to growth. Don’t pass the blame, but instead look for ways you can take responsibility for your own actions. Personal responsibility is a hallmark of leadership.
If you’re not a little afraid each day, you’re not pushing yourself far enough. Success requires that you step outside of the humdrum of routine and push yourself to the edge. The drop off, however, is scary, so don’t hesitate to admit your fear. When you identify it, you can master it.
10. You think you can do it on your own
Very few well-known leaders believe they have achieved success alone. Even fewer people actually achieve success going solo. If you want to reach the furthest limits of success, learn the value of teams – mentors, supporters, and everyone in between. They say it takes a village to raise a child, but when it comes to opportunity, a “village” can get you further than you can do yourself.
The arrogance and autonomy of immaturity often impedes our ability to effectively participate in teams. Yet, aside from helping push us further, teamwork highlights our strengths and weaknesses. If you can’t work well with others, it shows the world you’re insecure, and when you’re insecure, success avoids you like the plague.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”– Michael Jordan
12. You alienate those not like you
I was an athlete and a skater in high school. The two groups would not mix, but I was content to spend time with both groups without feeling ousted by either. Group dynamics for jocks, nerds, headbangers, and goths may work well when you’re a kid because they help establish identity and social norms.
As an adult, they can undermine your ability to succeed. More importantly, when you alienate those who are not like you, you send a clear message that you have no value for them. Successful people show value for others; losers alienate them.
You have a shot to be all that you were meant to be, but you can’t get to new places using old tools. Let go of the childhood antics and step into success today.
What is the hardest thing about being an adult for you? Please comment below and let us know!
Brock Shinen has been guiding entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, and creators for more than 13 years as an attorney, trainer, and strategic advisor. His passion is to see people and businesses transform by implementing smart, adaptable thinking leading towards economic and personal success. He is also the author of the Amazon #1 Bestseller, “Crush The Stops: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Finishing Things.” You can also visit his website.
Mark Zuckerberg is the man who revolutionised social media.
Mark Zuckerberg is the man who revolutionised social media.
He is the founder of Facebook which he started out of a dorm room in Harvard and went on to expand his venture in size. Today, Facebook is definitely the most popular and widely used social networking site in the world.
What contributed to the growth of Facebook are Mark Zuckerberg’s extraordinary leadership skills and entrepreneurial capabilities.
Here are six lessons every entrepreneur could learn from Mark Zuckerberg:
1. Believe in your idea
If you don’t have faith in your idea, no one else will. In the early stages of Facebook, Zuckerberg was running it from his own dorm room with his friends. Initially, Estavez, a partner, wanted facebook to garner more money from ads but Zuckerberg outright denied because he wanted it to first gain popularity and then allow publicity stunts on the website.
This contributed greatly to Facebook’s initial success.
2. Own your venture
A lot of companies like Yahoo wanted to buy Facebook and offered great sums of money to Zuckerberg. But he believed that he could make his big idea work by himself and refused to sell it. Soon, as the site gained popularity and Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal invested $500,000, and the amount was sufficient for immediate Facebook purposes. For further development of Facebook, Zuckerberg needed more investments. Accel Partners invested in Facebook $12.7 million and then Greylock Partners added to this amount $27.5 million.
So, with major investments he managed to own and run his business.
He might be one of the most successful entrepreneurs everybody wants to emulate but he has definitely put in a lot of hard work no outsider could fathom. He had his vision set from the beginning and after Facebook started gaining popularity, he decided to drop out of Harvard to devote all his time to the venture as he was aware that he couldn’t make it bigger with limited time in his hands.
4. Aim big
Facebook started as a connection site for only Harvard students. Soon, it expanded to other colleges as well.
The next idea that he developed on would be the one that changed how people networked socially through the internet. In less than a year after it was founded more than 1 million people joined the social network.
Later, Zuckerberg also bought giants like WhatsApp and Instagram to expand his share the social networking world.
In Harvard, Divya Narendra, and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss asked him to help them to work on an idea for a social networking site they called Harvard Connection. This site was designed to use information from Harvard’s student networks in order to create a dating site for the Harvard elite.
Zuckerberg soon dropped out and started his own venture. He created a site that allowed users to create their own profiles, upload photos, and communicate with other users. Zuckerberg was soon accused of cheating the Winklevoss twins and Narendra’s idea and ConnectU’s secure code. This law suit was settled as the three received a hefty sum of $65 million and Zuckerberg continued with Facebook.
The lesson learnt from this is no matter how hard you might have to fight, never give up on your dreams or venture.
6. Stay focused at the end goal
Even after a million accusations and lawsuits, Zuckerberg was always focused at his end goal- to make a social networking site so huge that the whole world would use it. To accomplish this, he believed he along with his team would be the best persons. So, instead of walking away with the billion dollars offered by Yahoo, Zuckerberg worked relentlessly to make his idea work even though there was always a risk factor involved. Hence, all entrepreneurs could learn to be focused on their targets like Zuckerberg.
Here’s some inspiring advice for when your motivation takes a hit.
It isn’t easy being an aspiring entrepreneur and keeping your motivation up all the time. Here’s some inspiring advice for when your motivation takes a hit.
“The only way to be satisfied in your life is to do work that you truly believe in.”
–Steve Jobs
“Think outside the box!
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.”
–Henry Ford
“It helps to know that you wouldn’t regret failure, but you would regret not trying.”
–Jeff Bezos
“An entrepreneur is someone who has a vision for something and a desire to create it. Keep your vision clear at all times.”
“It’s almost always harder to raise capital than you thought it would be, and it always takes longer. So plan for that.”
–Richard Haroch
“Having the end in mind every day ensures you’re working toward it. Set goals and remind yourself of them each day.”
–Ryan Allis, co-founder of iContact
“Knowing your customer is one of the three keys to success. Know those you serve better than anyone else, and you’ll be able to deliver the solutions they need.”
–Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Let unhappy customers teach you where the holes in your service are.”
“Don’t play games you don’t understand, even if you see lots of other people making money from them. Truly understanding your industry is key to having success.”
–Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos
“Deliver more than expected.It’s a great way to get noticed in your industry and build a loyal following of advocates.”
–Larry Page
“If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”
–Mark Zuckerberg
“If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.”
“People tend to think that in order to start a new business they have to come up with something new and dazzling, but that’s a myth – and it’s often propagated by venture capitalists.”
–Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne
“If Google teaches you anything, it’s that small ideas can be big.”
–Ben Silbermann
Success never comes easy. You have to work for it. But if you follow the right advice, truly believe in what you are doing, and put in your all, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t succeed.
Sometimes we find ourselves running in place, struggling to get ahead simply because we forget to address some of the basic success principles that govern our potential to make progress.
Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions. Sometimes we find ourselves running in place, struggling to get ahead simply because we forget to address some of the basic success principles that govern our potential to make progress. So here’s a quick reminder:
1. You are the only person responsible for your success
The best part of your life will start on the day you decide your life is your own – no one to lean on, rely on, or blame. You are in full control of your future. Believe with all your heart that you will do what you were made to do. It may be tough at times, but refuse to follow some preordained path. Make your own rules and have your own game plan. There is no happiness and success to be found by playing it safe and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
2. You don’t have to invent the wheel
Actually, to be successful you don’t have to invent anything at all. Coming up with a new invention or idea is one way to achieve massive success, but it isn’t necessary. And it can be the most challenging roads to success there is. You see many people have found lots of success just by taking something that already existed and simply putting their own twist on it (their unique selling proposition).
3. There is no progress without action
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. Some of the greatest ideas never made it. Why? Because the genius behind the idea failed to take action. Just remember, no action always results in a 100% failure rate. So get into action now, and begin to move in the right direction. Once you get started every step afterwards gets easier and easier. Until eventually, what had once been invisible, starts to become visible, and what once felt unattainable, starts to become a reality.
4. Persistence always wins
As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” It may take more than one swing to compose an efficient hit, so make sure not to give up on strike #1. And remember, a river cuts through rocks not because of its power at a given moment, but because of its persistence over time.
5. Focus is everything
When you are too busy looking behind and around you, people are passing you. If you never focus clearly on something, you will never be 100% efficient at anything. Multi-tasking might seem to make you efficient at getting multiple tasks done at once, but it usually reduces your efficiency in dealing with each individual task.
6. Failure is necessary
Don’t wake up at seventy-five years of age sighing over what you should have tried, but didn’t because you were afraid to fail. Just do it, and be willing to fail and learn along the way. Very few people get it right the first time. In fact, most people fail to get it right the first 5 times. If what you did today didn’t turn out as you hoped, tomorrow is a new opportunity to do it differently. Interpret each failure as a lesson on the road to success.
7. Positivity fuels productivity
Thoughts are like the steering wheel that moves our life in the right direction. Success comes from positive energy. You can choose to get caught up in the negativity surrounding you, or you can decide to do something positive about your situation. You always have a choice. Remember, happiness is an element of success, and the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they use positive energy to make the best of what they have.
8. You must believe you can
You must find the place inside yourself where anything is possible. It starts with a dream. Add confidence, and it becomes a belief. Add commitment, and it becomes a goal in sight. Add action, and it becomes a part of your life. Add determination and time, and your dream becomes a reality.
9. Helping others is a big part of being successful
Successful people constantly come up with new ideas, new projects, and new and innovative ways of helping others. This means that your aims and objectives just benefit you, but also help benefit others as well. Bottom line: Your long-term success is directly tied to how well you serve your community.
10. Success is a journey of countless baby steps
It’s a constant process of growth. If you want to be successful, you must continue to hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else, and strive to improve. Oftentimes a person or organization will be successful, but then drop off. A person may become lazy, and an organization may succumb to weaknesses or competition.
11. Sustained success
Sustained success means continually improving even if others may not see a need for it. Remember, the great thing in the world is not so much where we stand at any given time, as in what direction we are moving.
