5 Ways to become a young successful entrepreneur

Here are tips young entrepreneurs can implement in the successful running of their business to make it successful and make things easier.

A young entrepreneur is a young adult who starts and operates a new business or identifies new market ideas or opportunities irrespective of the risks involved. The ultimate career for most young adults is being their boss. Therefore, many of them launch their businesses rather than working for someone.

It is not enough to launch a business; there are some tips and strategies that you must put in place for its successful running. As a young entrepreneur, you should also learn from people who successfully handle their businesses. It validates the need for a mentor.
There would be some obstacles on the way, but this should not put you off. And it can as well be challenging to filter the needed information on the internet.

Here are tips you can implement in the successful running of your business to make things easier.

How Starting A CBD Business Can Help Young Entrepreneurs Achieve Success

With the current popularity and amount of usage, the CBD industry displays great growth potential. Being in its infancy, you can grow alongside the industry.

More people are using CBD as a healthy alternative to dangerous drugs that are prone to abuse. The use of CBD extends across all age groups. There is a huge gap in this business for young entrepreneurs. The CBD business can pave the way for success for young entrepreneurs because of its increasing popularity in the market.

Selling CBD gummies is one aspect of the CBD business that has proven beneficial. CBD gummies have diverse flavors and formulations. With the increasing wellness craze, the market for CBD gummies has gained massive popularity.

There is a marketplace for Cbdgenesis edibles products in UK. It is filled with brands that lack potency and purity, but a selected few sell the highest quality CBD gummy in the UK.

5 Ways To Become A Young Successful Entrepreneur

Self Assessment

Your personality will go a long way in helping you determine how much effort it will take you to succeed. Take an unbiased view of your weaknesses and strengths. Take note of the skills you possess, such as knowledge, resilience, experience, and persistence. Consider assessing your financial standing that is relevant to your business.

You can succeed in your chosen industry with the required abilities and knowledge, read more here.

Identify a Market Gap

This step is often overlooked, but it is an important process. This option is stating the obvious, but it remains one of the reasons startups fail.

It does not necessarily have to be an invention; you could consider recreating an existing product. Your idea must also be a profitable one. Some brainstorming will help you when you’re stuck. Using past experiences can also be helpful.

As a young entrepreneur, you need to view the world with the eyes of a problem solver. Some people recognize ideas but don’t work on them; you should not be like others.

Here are some guiding questions to aid your problem-solving process:

  • How do you want to create value?
  • Who would you like to target?
  • What are the trending business models?
  • Make inquiries on what people are missing in the market
  • What niche would you like to work in?

Pick a niche that you are passionate about

There are some challenges that entrepreneurs are likely to face in their businesses. But success is assured with the proper qualities. These qualities can be displayed when the business is born out of passion and interest.

Make your hobbies into businesses and put them out there. Lots of creativity is also needed for a business to thrive.

Utilize Networking Opportunities

It is important to recognize the experience and value people can offer your business as an entrepreneur. Make the best use of your networking opportunities from events. These relationships need not be in professional settings. It could be from industry talks or morning catch-ups.

Entrepreneurs need to be networking because it greatly helps them in their field. There are some places with groups meant explicitly for young entrepreneurs. This is a great way to meet professionals in your field and build your business connection.

Put Your Finances in Good Order

Even without excess funds, you can still be smart with the one you have for your startup. It is perfect to have a solid background in managing finances. It will assist in keeping your business alive.

Consider all the costs you will need to put in your business and your funding resources.

Conclusion

As mentioned earlier, it takes a lot of hard work to be a successful young entrepreneur. It does not happen overnight and requires enough planning to set off. Creating a clear vision for your business is paramount to the growth of your business.

The guide provided in this article entails baby steps that can be taken towards being a young and successful entrepreneur.

3 courses every self-taught entrepreneur needs to take in order to be successful

To make up for the lack of skills, an aspiring entrepreneur could always look to take courses to enhance his venture’s reach.

While the concept of the self-taught entrepreneur is catching up across the globe in a huge way, it is only normal that these entrepreneurs teach themselves the various courses and skills they have missed out on in B-school. Most entrepreneurs have had help from the experts in the field while looking to make their venture a successful one. For instance, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg heavily relied on the advice of Sheryl Sandberg to make it big in the field of social media.

Similarly, to make up for the lack of skills, an aspiring entrepreneur could always look to take courses to enhance his venture’s reach. Listed below are a few courses we believe every entrepreneur needs to make it big:

1. The web designing course

It is a waste of money to keep hiring a web designer to develop and keep revamping your website when you can do it yourself. The web designing courses are fairly simple and teach you how to work around the complex languages: HTML, JavaScript and CSS. You could use these skills to propel and start your website with minimal finances and efforts and also make some extra bucks by putting these skills into use as you can now develop websites for other companies.

2. The marketing basics

It isn’t a big deal if you’ve skipped basics by not attending a B-school or doing your MBA and delved into this field directly especially when there are a variety of courses to help you get your fundamentals right. These basics will enlighten you on the various business models that exist and teach you the different tactics you could employ to make your business a successful one such as push-pull strategies, SOSTAC, PESTEL analysis etc. Hence, this is a recommended course for every entrepreneur who wants to make the best use of marketing strategies.

3. Online user engagement course

If you already have a venture, it is a smart move to examine and employ a few new strategies to improve your current situation. The various courses available online help you learn how to market your product/service online and keep a track of engagement. The course will help you understand website traffic, use email subscription, increase engagement, read analytics and observe and predict online trends which are necessary for any digital business to prosper.

7 reasons you need more than just hard work to succeed as an entrepreneur

It is not just hard work which you need to put in to become an entrepreneur.

We’ve often heard that hard work is what will get you where you want to be. However, it is not just hard work which you need to put in to become an entrepreneur. Instead, it is a combination of factors along with hard work which is the true reason for entrepreneurial success.

Here are 7 reasons why you need to put in more than just hard work to succeed as an entrepreneur:

1. Hard work doesn’t come up with a kick-ass idea

Hard work begins only after you have a brilliant idea which is innovative, out-of-the-box and appeals to the masses. No amount of hard work can boost your creativity to come up with an idea in an instance. An idea might come to you randomly or with some inspiration but hard work is certainly not the way to get one.

2. Entrepreneurship requires team effort

Hard work isn’t enough to succeed as an entrepreneur because it isn’t a one-man show. It is a collaborative team effort and you’re doomed if you’ve hired the wrong guys. No matter how hard-working you are, you might have to slow down for your team members to catch up and then, continue working as a team.

Related Post: 6 TV shows or web series which every entrepreneur must watch

3. Creativity isn’t a by-product of hard-work

Some people are creative while some aren’t; no amount of hard work will make you as creative as the other person. You can look for inspiration which comes from within or the surroundings but putting in mindless hours of hard work won’t make you a creative person.

4. Earning money

In order to earn more money as an entrepreneur, one needs to be smart and take good decisions instead of slogging like a donkey. Hard work is necessary but what is more important is to apply it the correct places for maximum productivity and output. If you can earn 500$ in 5 hours, why put in 10 hours to earn the same money?

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5. Experience

Just because you work for 20 hours a day doesn’t mean you can compete with people who’ve been in the scene for 20 years. No amount of hard work can match up to experience and it is only the latter which can help you make quick yet balanced decisions for your company.

6. You can’t kill competition with hard work

You competitors might be better than you because they have a more evolved idea and better investors. You need to buck up on those fronts rather than just adding hours to your work schedule. Hence, for an entrepreneur, it is necessary to strategise well and come up with a plan which informs you about the shortcomings you need to work on.

Related Post: 7 questions budding entrepreneurs need to ask themselves during failure for motivation

7. You stop living your life

This is the worst thing you can do to yourself. Just because you work very hard doesn’t mean that you have the opportunity to ignore everything else. Instead, it is important to take breaks and spend time with loved ones so you can remain more focused on your work and eliminate the chances of emotional burnout.

This article doesn’t demean the importance of hard work in any way. All it says that an entrepreneur shouldn’t mindlessly put hours of work which might go for a waste. Instead, one should be smart and try to gain maximum benefits and success from the time one actually devotes to a task.

Related Post: 5 Ways for a new entrepreneur to ensure success

7 Business tips lessons from successful entrepreneurs

If this is your first plunge into the entrepreneurial scene, it is always advisable to learn from other mistakes.

Entrepreneurship is a serious business as one needs to be dedicated and passionate about what they are pursuing. Business lessons gathered from people who are more successful or experienced than you can prove to be useful which is why they need to be paid attention to. If this is your first plunge into the entrepreneurial scene, it is always advisable to learn from other mistakes.

Here are a few business tips from successful entrepreneurs which will help you to enhance your business knowledge:

“It is vitally important to present a clear, concise plan that investors can easily understand and repeat to their own people. In the first meeting, avoid overly complicated, numbers-laden presentations. Nothing stays the same for long, so explain how you plan to tackle the inevitable technological changes and market shifts that are heading your way.” -Richard Branson, Virgin CEO

“Go after solving a problem that you have. Something that’s near and dear to you, not some random market opportunity. Because, when things get hard, if you’re chasing just the dollars, or a random market opportunity, you’re not going to be able to have the fortitude, the passion, to stay with it.” -Jarvis, CEO of CreativeLife

“ I learned that you can’t build a business with two centres of gravity. Your centre of gravity isn’t your product, or your customers, or your market. Rather, your true centre of gravity is somewhere at the intersection of what you’re passionate about + what problem you want to solve + why that problem matters.” -Dan Greenberg, CEO and co-founder of Sharethrough

“Focus. Don’t try to do too much. Entrepreneurs are always thinking of the next thing to do. It’s great, but we only have so much time and brain power to focus on the right areas.” -Sujan Patel, founder & CEO at Single Grain

“If you get a prototype out and you get enough people using it, you never have to write a business plan. A prototype is where you separate the BS from reality.” -Guy Kawasaki, chief evangelist of Canva, author of ‘The Art of the Start 2.0’

“Take your time to think through something and when you’re ready, act fast. This absence of this diligence has been a common thread among some of the failures I can think on – hiring vs. firing, inadequate snap judgments, arguments, etc. Firing people, for example, can be one of the most difficult parts of an entrepreneur’s journey. It can be important for a company to move forward, but they’re moments that are never devoid of emotion.” -Matt Galligan, CEO and co-founder of Circa

“Though my previous company was ultimately a failure, it taught me a very valuable lesson: be maniacally focused on your customers. Though my previous company was ultimately a failure, it taught me a very valuable lesson: be maniacally focused on your customers.” -Jon Beekman, the founder and CEO of Man Crates

5 shortcomings in your personality which can help you become a great entrepreneur

Traits which are perceived negatively for the corporate culture are what helps you become a successful entrepreneur.

There is no shame in being a misfit in the corporate culture or the race to earn more money. Often, these traits which are perceived negatively are what helps you become a successful entrepreneur. All you need is to channel these shortcomings in the right manner.

Listen below are 5 such personality flaws which can help you become a great entrepreneur:

I. Obsessive

If you are the kind who cannot get a peaceful sleep at night without completing what is expected of you, entrepreneurship might be the right field for you. The constant obsession to achieve your goals and targets on time is something which could prove to be your asset when you are nearly burning out.

II. Cannot fit into the 9-5 culture

Chances are that your impatient self doesn’t understand the concept of a 9-5 culture merely because you aren’t good at conforming to regulations. In all probability, you don’t shy away from working but prefer doing things according to the deadlines you set for yourself. This is a huge reason why brilliant but chaotic minds choose to take up entrepreneurship because it comes with the choice of embracing freedom.

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III. Social butterfly

Your social skills and the ability to skirt around different circles might not be very appreciated in a corporate setting. However, with a little brushing up, you can network with more people. since, you already are an extrovert, it wouldn’t take much time for you to talk your way into important circles which could prove to be very beneficial for your business.

IV. Issues with authority

Most successful entrepreneurs claim that they had an issue with authority and lesser mortals bossing over them which is why they chose to start their own venture. The rebellious streak is what makes you more of an entrepreneur than a worker bee. Nobody who didn’t break rules ever became a raging success.

V. Extremely confident

You don’t have to be over-confident to make people see the best in you but once you’re sure enough about your ideas, your dedication shouldn’t falter. You are probably confident because you know your stuff thoroughly and want people to view things through your lens. There’s nothing wrong with this and your decisiveness could be the sole virtues which makes you a great leader.

Related Post: Four signs which show that you have a hidden entrepreneur in you





10 Reasons why it’s never too late to start a start-up

There are many successful entrepreneurs, with ages ranging from 30s to 60s, shows that the success of a business is not directly related to the age of its founder.

It seems that it is often young entrepreneurs who make the headlines and receive most of the recognition for their accomplishments. Think of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) and Pete Cashmore (Mashable) — all in their early 20s, and high up on the list of successful entrepreneurs. But the age of the founder is not the primary factor that determines whether a business will be successful or not.

There are many successful entrepreneurs, with ages ranging from 30s to 60s, shows that the success of a business is not directly related to the age of its founder.

In fact, there is an argument that those who start businesses later in life have a better chance of reaching success. Studies have shown that if you’re over 55 years old, you are twice as likely as your counterparts who are under 30 to launch a high-growth start-up. Not convinced? Here are 10 reasons you would make a better entrepreneur now than you would have when you were younger.

1. You have life experience

The most obvious and undeniable benefit of starting a business later in life is the fact that you now have years of life experience to pull from in your new venture. You are seasoned in the ways of the world, and you have a level of business acumen that you didn’t have in your 20s. You are more patient and willing to take each step in the business start-up process one-by-one in order to give your business the best chance it has at success.

While you may not have hands-on experience in every segment of the start-up process, it is very likely that you understand the importance of things like having a business plan, creating a solid financial plan and conducting thorough market research. And you know who you need to help you with the pieces you can’t do yourself.



2. You know more people (and they know people who know people)

At this stage of your life, you have likely built a large and diverse network of peers and colleagues. And because a new business often requires a village to thrive, your connections will be invaluable as you get started. Think about all the experts you have met in your life that could share their advice or provide services to help you in your new venture — attorneys, accountants, marketers, venture capitalists, financial planners, real estate agents, contractors, designers, and writers. This depth of a thriving network often takes years to build, so age is certainly an asset in this situation.

Having experience in the business world, you also understand the importance of networking and can ask for introductions when needed to move projects forward. This can often expand your network by double or even triple, giving you all the resources you need to get started.

3. You know how to set and achieve goals

Goal setting is an integral part of starting and running a business, and is necessary on a consistent basis during the life of the business. In our younger years, we don’t always understand the power of smart goal-setting for getting from one place in life to another.

As a seasoned goal-setter, the process of outlining a desired outcome, as well as the actions you will take to make that outcome a reality, will come as second nature. Your life experience will also help you remain objective as you consider different paths you can take to reach your goals so you can move forward in a more efficient, cost-effective and productive way.

4. You may have an advantage with investors

While young entrepreneurs are often favoured by investors because it can be easier for them to get a bigger ownership stake and have more control in the business, it can be argued that older entrepreneurs offer better chances of success because of what they bring to the table.

Many venture capitalists are looking for older, seasoned and experienced entrepreneurs who have “been there, done that.” The best investors are opportunistic, and by backing older and wiser entrepreneurs who have already made mistakes, they are able to make smarter investments.



5. You know what you’re passionate about

Many young entrepreneurs know they want to start a business of some kind, but they may not know exactly how they want to do it. This is because they haven’t had enough time to develop an idea of what they are truly passionate about. Richard Branson says that “Passion is one of the most effective motivators when it comes to launching a business — and often one of the strongest predictors of whether an idea will lead to success.” Without passion for your work, it’s very likely your business idea will fizzle out at some point. Older entrepreneurs know what they enjoy doing — and what they don’t — and can tailor a new business to fit that.

6. You have knowledge that is valued in today’s economy



7. You are financially secure

Starting a business when you’re young means you will probably be juggling the cost of business ownership along with the rest of life’s major investments many of us face: mortgage payments, children’s expenses (childcare, education, sports, vacations), healthcare, insurance, automobile payments, student loan repayment and retirement savings. While the expenses never really go away, the older you get, the more likely you are to have paid off a significant percentage of the big stuff. This frees up cash to invest in your business. Plus, having less financial responsibilities makes the idea of starting a business less risky since theoretically you will have a lot less to lose if things don’t work out.

8. You have a lot of start-up options

When you’re young, you have limited experience, a limited network and limited capital, so your start-up options are often limited as well — usually a bootstrapped start-up is the only way to go unless you can secure the ever-elusive financial backer. As a financially secure, seasoned professional, you have more options when it comes to your path to entrepreneurship. Sure, you can start a new business from the ground, but that is not the only option on the table. You can buy into a franchise, leveraging the power of an already successful brand and making it your own legacy. You can also form a partnership with a fellow entrepreneur and split the costs, workload and profits. Or, you can become an investor yourself, moving to the other side of the table by providing capital for someone else’s business idea. In return you get a percentage of the business, leaving the “in the trenches” work for them to handle.

9. You’ve failed before

Failure is a part of life, and the older we get the more failures we have on our tally. Whether you have two big failures on your list or 22, they are a huge benefit for two main reasons. First, the most valuable part of each failure is the lessons you learned in the process. Each failure taught you the importance of being prepared, hard work and why you need a contingency plan. Second, your fear of failure is probably a lot less significant now than it was in your youth. Since being afraid to fail can result in an inability to make a decision, lack of confidence and inaction, having less to fear can be a powerful reason why older entrepreneurs have an easier start.

10. You are self-confident

You know all of these failures we just talked about? In addition to valuable lessons learned, these failures also create one more big benefit as soon as you are able to rebound — they boost your self-confidence and motivate you to do better. Many young entrepreneurs have high self-esteem and a certain level of confidence naturally, but much of that comes from pure optimism that their business idea will turn into a hit. Optimism is definitely needed when starting a business, but when you take that optimism and add in confidence that comes with a track record of proven success, it’s unbeatable. As a seasoned professional, you have already experienced both wins and defeats, and have emerged with a powerful confidence that will allow you to take the challenges of business ownership in stride and come out ahead.

So if you are getting older and feel like your chance at entrepreneurship is fading away a little bit every year, think again. Now just may be the perfect time to take the plunge and start a small business.





6 global celebrities who are now successful entrepreneurs

Many global celebrities have forayed into the world of entrepreneurship following their passion.

Many global celebrities have forayed into the world of entrepreneurship following their passion. A few popular celebrities who have managed to stick to their companies and made it bigger over a course of time are listed below:

I. Kate Walsh


Kate Walsh has appeared in popular movies like Perks of Being a Wallflower and TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy but hardly do people know that she owns a beauty product company called Boyfriend LLC. The company manufactures a wide range of fragrances, oils and creams which can be bought on the website as well as in select Sephora stores.

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II. Sandra Bullock


This popular actress is the perfect entrepreneur as off the camera, she runs a popular production house called Fortis Films which has produced high grossing movies like Miss Congeniality. Apart from her production house, she is also the owner of a restaurant in Texas called Bess Bistro and a bakery called Walton’s Fancy and Staple.



III. Clint Eastwood


Clint Eastwood, who is a popular Academy Award winning actor, apart from acting and producing films is also a great entrepreneur whose net worth is approximately $400 million. He owns the Mission Ranch Hotel and restaurant along with the very popular Tehàma Golf Club which he looks after with utmost passion.

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IV. Jennifer Aniston


The woman behind making Rachael Greene’s hairstyle famous back in the 90s is also a successful co-owner of a hair care company called Living Proof. It was founded by biotech scientists in MIT, Cambridge and she claims that this brand aims to simplify hair care for both men and women. It is a successful brand which is sold across 1000 locations.



V. Chris Noth


Chris Noth who is popular for his role as Mr. Big on Sex and City is also a very dedicated entrepreneur who owns Cutting Room located in Lower Manhattan. Cutting room is a popular nightclub and restaurant. Before this venture, he was the co-owner for The Plumm, another popular night club and Once Upon a Tea Cup, a tea party themed restaurant.

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VI. Kathy Ireland


Kathy Ireland is a famous model who ventured into the entrepreneurial field by starting her own sock line in association with Kmart in ’93. With the growing success of her sock line, she founded Kathy Ireland Worldwide which sells apparel, garden equipments, furniture and home decor. Her net worth is over $350 million because of all her entrepreneurial ventures.





What do successful entrepreneurs do that you don’t?

Unless you have the zeal to achieve success in life, there is no point in getting into the business world, where there are millions of people already.

There are entrepreneurs and there are successful entrepreneurs; if you are trying your luck in entrepreneurship, you have to focus on getting into the latter. Unless you have the zeal to achieve success in life, there is no point in getting into the business world, where there are millions of people already. Individuals strive harder and harder to make their name in this field; they make sure they are always moving towards their goals, no matter how many setbacks they go through in their professional lives.

If you have been failing in your professional life, you may be looking at others around you and thinking about the ways they’ve attained success; you are bound to ponder upon what makes them successful… what is it that they are doing and you are not?

Well, you may find your answers here; we have come up with a list of the things that successful entrepreneurs are doing and you are not due to which you are still far, far away from success:

Successful entrepreneurs are prepared for failures

Did we just say failures? Yes – we surely did! Unless an entrepreneur is all set for his failures, he can’t expect success in his professional life. An entrepreneur who welcomes his failures, learns from them and then moves ahead like nothing happened at all is the one who achieves success in entrepreneurship.

They are not working for success; they are working for their business

Here’s a secret you need to know about all the successful entrepreneurs – they work because they want to, not because they have to. Businessmen work to provide their customers with good products, not to earn money from what they sell. Earning money is a secondary thing; for them, customer satisfaction is what matters the most.



They believe in surviving in the long run and not just entering into the market

Planning is a part of success. All the businessmen that you see on cover pages of different magazines plan to stay in the market and not just enter it. Even after reaching the peak of success, they work to sustain their position.

Successful entrepreneurs enjoy risks; situations and problems that are threats to their business are motivation for them

Did you just say you fear risks? Why? Can you possibly be an entrepreneur if you fear risks? Everything that anyone does has risks. Even when a toddler begins to walk, he takes risks. If you, as a toddler, feared falling on the floor, you would have never learned to walk on your feet. Successful businessmen believe in taking risks and hence, they fear nothing, even if they fail at times. You don’t need motivation to take risks; you only need self-belief.

Such entrepreneurs believe in teamwork

They don’t take more on their plate than they can eat: Stuffing yourself is a bad habit, remember? Always eat as much as you can digest and as much as your belly allows you to; eat to meet your hunger and not to stuff yourself. Successful entrepreneurs delegate tasks and don’t take more projects than they can’t handle.

Successful entrepreneurs respect time

Time management is something that all the successful entrepreneurs know.

Successful entrepreneurs believe in law of attraction

They throw into the universe what they want back in their professional life: Professional life can be quite disheartening if you don’t believe in the concept of law of attraction. If you want to achieve success in entrepreneurship, believe in affirmations.

One goal at a time

Such entrepreneurs focus on one thing at a time and don’t try to be a failed multi-tasker: Don’t be a multi-tasker; take one thing at a time and finish it with all your heart.

They know when to say NO

Just because you are a businessman does not mean you are open to do everything that’s coming on your way. It is okay to get thousands of projects as a professional person, but if you think you are unable to take a few more projects, you must know when to say NO. One of the reasons most of the entrepreneurs fail is because they take more projects than they can handle; they don’t know how and when to say NO.

Such entrepreneurs believe in the concept of gratitude: Entrepreneurs with success in their hands know how to be thankful to the universe, The Creator, their teammates and their customers as well. Every successful entrepreneur respects every single customer who comes to their door. Gratitude is the most important quality noticed in all those businessmen, who have occupied the first three pages in business magazines. In fact, if a businessman has achieved success due to online marketing, he even thanks technology to show his gratitude towards what he has achieved in his life.





7 Secrets that all successful entrepreneurs are hiding

How do successful entrepreneurs get successful?

How do successful entrepreneurs get successful? How do stories turn from rags to riches? Do they have a secret? Or do they just do things differently?

1. Grab opportunities

Successful entrepreneurs see opportunities where none exist. They think differently form other people and do things no one ha sever done before. That’s how they get successful.

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2. The secret lies in hard work

Everyone knows hard work accomplishes results. But no one really realizes how true that can be, or sees the amount of work that goes into being a successful professional. Everyone wants results, but very few are willing to put in the work for it. Those that do, succeed! And they are then asked for their secret. The secret is nothing but hard work, folks!

3. Winners indeed do things differently

“Winners don’t do different things; they do things differently”. Successful entrepreneurs do things like no one has ever before. Their ideas are unique and their risks are massive. That is the only way to succeed.

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4. The road to success is long!

Success doesn’t come easy to anyway. People see the facade of huge success, they see the glitz and the glamour; they don’t see what’s behind it. Success can be slow, elusive and sometimes tantalizingly out of reach. Every successful person has at some point felt worthless and of no use.

5. Give back to society

Give back what you have gained from society and you will get more. It’s a cycle; the more you give, the more you get!

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6. Delegate, delegate, delegate!

No one person can be good at everything. Much as you want to, you can’t do everything by yourself. Place your trust in your team, and set them tasks to do. Let them use their own judgement. A good team is crucial for a leader. Set about putting together the right team.

7. Measure success on your own terms

No one successful ever got anywhere by listening to people. Your success can be defined on your, and your terms alone. No one else can measure, rate or decide your success. So let the detractors detract, and listen to your own heart.





12 things successful entrepreneurs don’t stress about

There are certain things that an entrepreneur knows are short-lived which is why they don’t give much importance to those.

There are certain things that an entrepreneur knows are short-lived which is why they don’t give much importance to those. They believe stressing about certain things is pointless and only a waste of time. Instead, a successful entrepreneur prefers giving time to better things like innovating further for the business or expanding it further.

Here are 12 things successful entrepreneurs do not care about:

Failure

Successful entrepreneurs are often not affected by failures as they know failures are stepping stones to success. They are also aware that failures are short-lived and should be treated as a lesson and not as something deterring.

Success

Well-seasoned and experienced entrepreneurs are also aware of the fact that success just like failure is short-lived as well. If they achieve success early on in their life, they revel in it and strive to do better in future. To keep the success streak alive, they work harder and come up with more ideas to keep their business going.

Stress

An entrepreneur is aware of the fact that s/he needs to deal with major stress as one is solely responsible for the company but a true and successful entrepreneur doesn’t let the stresses of running a company and making profits affect him/her majorly.

Related Post: 4 mindsets every entrepreneur should adopt

Employing extra-ordinarily smart people

Great entrepreneurs aren’t threatened by the IQ levels of very great employees who might actually be smarter than the entrepreneur.

They are aware of the fact that smart employees have a lot to contribute in terms of strategy to the company and help it grow which is why they prefer hiring smart and creative employees.

Risks that are proved wrong

Risk taking is a major part of the entrepreneur’s job and to survive in the dynamic market, one needs to take certain risks. An entrepreneur isn’t afraid to take risks and if the risk results in failure, s/he just puts it behind and moves on further.



Making money

An entrepreneur gives more preference to achievements over money. S/he is aware of the fact that money isn’t an issue as long as one is doing well in the market. Also, an entrepreneur gives more preference to achievements and establishments which allow his company success in the long term.

The professional-personal life balance

This might sound very harsh but entrepreneurs in their initial days need to give the company their complete attention and focus. Their personal life might suffer. But a committed and dedicated entrepreneur prefers giving his company utmost importance in the initial years.

Competitors’ success

Keeping a close watch over competitors is important to chart their strategies and marketing tactics. However, the competitors’ success is not something that affects the entrepreneur to such an extent that he’ll let it affect his business. An entrepreneur just strives to do better and be the best in the market.

Related Post: 10 Reasons why entrepreneurship is awesome

Stuff that might not go their way

An entrepreneur cannot afford to be pessimistic. One has to take calculated risks and hope for the best.

Creative boundaries

Successful entrepreneurs are aware of the fact that the creative limit doesn’t exist and while one is innovating, there aren’t any boundaries. Hence, they motivate their creative people to think out of the box.

Following rules

An entrepreneur is aware of the fact that rules were established long back and they are meant to be revised time to time which is why they set their own rules.

Related Post: 5 Signs that entrepreneurship is not your cup of tea

Taking chances

Some chances might work, and some might not. Failed risks cannot affect an entrepreneur in such a way that s/he might not take any chances in future.



Image credit: jeffwallacephotographer.com

From a farmer’s son to providing Internet TV access to 400 million households – Uday Reddy’s story

Forty three-year-old Uday Reddy is the Founder and CEO of YuppTV, a brand that has grown to become the world leader in converged Over-the-Top (OTT) live TV and Catch-up TV Solutions. Although his services attract nearly five million visitors every month with a peak monthly traffic of 20 million, his journey has certainly not been an easy one.

Forty three-year-old Uday Reddy is the Founder and CEO of YuppTV, a brand that has grown to become the world leader in converged Over-the-Top (OTT) live TV and Catch-up TV Solutions. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Although his services attract nearly five million visitors every month with a peak monthly traffic of 20 million, his journey has certainly not been an easy one.

Born to a farmer in Hanamkonda, a small town in Telangana, and brought up amidst scarcity of resources, even Uday wouldn’t have imagined that he would one day walk into the unventured paths of technology and contribute into bringing global Indian communities close to their culture and roots. All he wanted to do was become an IAS officer, and work for his village’s development, particularly in the fields of healthcare and education. Uday recalls,

“I had decided to join civil services during my education at Government Junior College, Hanamkonda. My family supported my decision. I had grown up knowing the problems of rural India and wanted to solve them. I did my engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Delhi College of Engineering with the same intent. I was chosen by Siemens during campus placements and decided to work for a year before appearing for the IAS exams. But then, work took over. I couldn’t leave the telecom field, and my interest in technology grew.”

Uday soon joined Nortel in the year 1995, and his life took off. It was the time of telecom revolution in India. Wireless networks had just begun. Uday recalls how he was flying all across the world. He worked in Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. “I worked as Director of Sales for Nortel. The next 11 years, I got to know how the Serbian and Latin American markets work. This was the golden era of my learning,” he says.

Being an enterprising person, his day job couldn’t hold Uday for too long. In 2006, he started YuppTV USA Inc. His idea was new even for the US standards. Uday had seen the dearth of Indian entertainment content for the Indian expat community living abroad. Even news was not available to them in their own language. He wanted to bridge this cultural gap and help them connect back with their roots. Uday recalls,



“I started my office in a basement. Broadband technology was not as evolved as today. Smart TV and smart phones were not as popular. In a way, I started much before the time was ripe. I didn’t raise capital from the market, and invested my savings into the idea. All I wanted to do is make live television viewing available via the Internet. I also wondered why I couldn’t view a show later on the Internet if I had missed the original telecast. It was with an intent to find solutions to these problems that I started YuppTV.”

Uday’s journey was not an easy one. His company was up against the monopoly of one large corporation which dominated the market. He had difficulty retaining his customers too. Soon he ran out of all the capital he had. His ideas were still new, and often incomprehensible, to many people and hence the market had not really opened up. In 2010, he sold his plot and took loans from his friends. This paid off, and soon, YuppTV started building larger customer base and attracting the Indian diaspora living abroad.

Today, millions of people use YuppTV services to watch TV in more than 50 counties across the five continents. With more than five million visitors every month and a peak monthly traffic of 20 million, YuppTV has been setting records across the OTT content industry. With a reach to 400 million households across the world, till date, YuppTV has had over 7.5 million app downloads, making it the second most popular app in Android Playstore in India under the Entertainment category. YuppTV is also one of the most downloaded Smart TV apps. It has also recently won the prestigious ‘Top 100 companies in the world’ award by Red Herring based on innovation, disruption, and technology for year 2015.

Starting out with just two channels, today YuppTV offers more than 200 Indian TV channels, over 5,000 movies, and over 100 TV shows across 13 Indian languages. It presently has over 25,000 hours of entertainment content catalogued in its library, while nearly 5,000 hours of new on-demand content gets added to the platform every day. Uday takes great pride in his success story, but believes that the journey is far from complete. He says,

“It feels good to have come so far. But I believe that the journey is far from over. I have struggled a lot to reach here. I have spent 50% of my time away from my family. We still believe in the startup culture, and do not let our success make us arrogant. Perseverance is still the key. I had to meet a TV channel eight times to convince them to join us. Another channel took more than a year to agree. But once a relationship is established, it is rock solid.”

YuppTV ensures both accessibility and affordability in India with packages starting as low as Rs. 5 per day, and is currently ranked #1 Internet Pay TV platform for Indians living abroad. Uday believes that the three key strengths on which a successful company can be built are market understanding, respect for the potential of new technologies, and people management. Uday’s message to young entrepreneurs is simple – focus. Only when an entrepreneur is clear about what he wants, he can go and accomplish it. “Today technology enables everything. You need not go to the US to run a business there. An entrepreneur located anywhere in the world can go global,” Uday says.

When asked whether he is still pursuing his childhood dreams of becoming an IAS officer and solving rural problems, Uday says that his dream has only got bigger. Currently expanding his business in India, he is also working for the people of Veenavanka, a village located in Telangana. He is using telemedicine to provide healthcare facilities for free. He is also making education affordable and accessible through technology. Once his model is successful, he wants to take the technology across the world and make education and healthcare accessible to all.

This story was originally published in YourStory



Too Late To Start? Quarter Life Crisis and Late Bloomers

Does success have a deadline? And if yes, what is the best age to succeed?

Does success have a deadline? And if yes, what is the best age to succeed? Here is a visualization of the relationship between age and success.

“The Critical Period” – Do It Early or Bust?

Language, it is believed, cannot be learned without an accent after the critical age (usually 16). Musical talent is usually apparent in the first ten years of life. Most people we know as successful programmers started coding as children, and successful athletes commonly celebrate their twentieth birthday already celebrities. This can make one look like a failure at 27 if all you got is a college degree. But that may be a false impression.

The Data Behind The Success Age

Looking at the biographies of top 100 founders on the Forbes List shows that 35 is the most common age to start one of the top companies in the world. We excluded the companies that were inherited from previous ones, and the companies where governments were heavily involved. For example, one of the largest companies in the world is Agricultural Bank of China. It was founded by Mao Ze Dong while he was the country’s chairman. This types of founders we excluded, to make sure the list only contains self-starting founders.

The Middle Of Life or Mid-Life Crisis

The result is a bell curve, just like in school most people get grades somewhere in the middle, in life most people succeed mid-life, that is about 35, for the current generation.

Intuitively then, we expect some major life achievements to happen around the middle age, otherwise – the mid-life crisis.



The Quarter-Life Crisis

When you graduate college, with expectations from parents on your shoulders, seeing teenage CEOs in the news can make you feel like a late bloomer. Even at 25. Since today we expect to live longer than today’s average life span of 78 years, at 25 you can reasonable think you are through a quarter of your life. This is a newer term than the good old mid-life crisis.

Late Bloomers, Not Losers

So what about those who succeed later in life – the late bloomers. Is it better to be an early achiever or a late bloomer? That’s the same as asking if it is better to start Facebook at 19 or IBM at 61? For the world at large it does not matter. Perhaps Facebook could never happen if IBM did not exist. Should Charles Flint have felt himself a loser when he organized IBM out of a time-card punching technology firm at the ripe age of 61? Those time card punchers turned out to be early prototypes of computers.

Perhaps you have not heard much about Flint, but the device you are looking at right now is possible in part because of what Flint started at 61. He even lived another 24 years, working and enjoying the fruits of his late-in-life success. A later bloomer? Perhaps. Too late for him at 61? Never too late.

This article was originally published in Funders and Founders

Image credit: www.roncolbroth.com



India’s 15 most successful female entrepreneurs

Let’s meet 15 such Indian women who can be easily termed as role models for every Indian.

Gone are the days when women were considered no match for all powerful men in this world.

The male-dominated world was always reluctant to even acknowledge the fact that women were as good as men on parameters of hard work, intelligence quotient (IQ) and leadership traits.

The new generation women across the world have overcome all negative notions and have proved themselves beyond doubt in all spheres of life including the most intricate and cumbersome world of entrepreneurship.

Yes, there is a section among women who believe in short-cuts but at the same time, there is no dearth of women who are confident, believe in themselves and have the enormous fire in their bellies to take on the best in the business and beat them at their own game.

India too has its own pool of such bold and fearless women who have made a mark for themselves both within the country as well as overseas.

Their relentless zeal, incessant quench for success and willingness to walk the extra mile have broken all myths about their inborn limitations that were supposed to be major roadblocks on their success expressways.

Let’s meet 15 such Indian women who can be easily termed as role models for every Indian:

1. Indra Nooyi

Current position: CFO, Pepsico

Indra Nooyi,56, is the current chairman and CFO of the second largest food and beverage business, PepsiCo.

Born in Chennai, Indra did her Bachelor’s in Science from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 1976.

Beginning her career in India, Nooyi held product manager positions at Johnson & Johnson and textile firm Mettur Beardsell. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was named president and CFO in 2001.

She has been conferred with prestigious Padma Bhushan for her business achievements and being an inspiration to India’s corporate leadership.

2. Naina Lal Kidwai

Current position: Group General Manager & Country Head – HSBC, India

Naina Lal Kidwai, 55, is presently the Group General Manager and Country Head of HSBC India.

Naina has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi university and an MBA from Harvard Business school. In fact, Kidwai was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School.

She started her career with ANZ Grindlays . Presently, she is also serving as a non-executive director on the board of Nestle SA. Kidwai is also global advisor at Harvard Business school.

Indian government conferred Padma Shri award on Naina for her contributions in the field of Trade and Industry.

3. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Current position: CMD, Biocon

Kiran, 59, is the founder Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Biocon Limited.

Born in Bangalore, Shaw completed her Bachelors in Zoology from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore University. She later did her post-graduation in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University.

She worked as a trainee brewer in Carlton and United Breweries, Melbourne and as a trainee maltster at Barrett Brothers and Burston, Australia.

She started Biocon in 1978 and spearheaded its evolution from an industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company.

Today Biocon under Shaw’s leadership has established itself as a leading player in biomedicine research with a focus on diabetes and oncology.

Kiran is also a member of the board of governors of the prestigious Indian School of Business and Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.

Kiran received the prestigious Padma Shri (1989) and the Padma Bhushan (2005) from the government of India.




4. Chanda Kochar

Current position: MD & CEO – ICICI Bank

Chanda Kochar, 51, is currently the MD & CEO of india’s largest private bank ICICI Bank.

Rajasthan born chanda got Masters Degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy.

Chanda Kochhar is married to Deepak Kochhar, a wind energy entrepreneur and her Business schoolmate.

5. Indu Jain

Designation: Chairperson (former), Times Group

Indu Jain, 76, used to be the chairperson of India’s largest and most powerful media house – The Times Group.

A strong votary of women’s rights and women entrepreneurship, Indu contributed immensely to the growth of Times group. Now, her two sons Samir and Vineet are running the company.

Indu Jain is also founder President of the Ladies wing of FICCI (FLO).

Indu is also the Chairperson of the Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust, which awards India’s most prestigious and highest literary award, the Jnanpith award.

She addressed the United Nations in 2000 at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, a speech in which she stressed the need for oneness among faiths and went on to chair a special session of the conference.

6. Simone Tata

Current position: Chairperson (Former), Lakme Chairperson (Present), Trent Limited

French by birth and educated in Switzerland, Simone is wife of Naval Homey Jahangir Tata and step mother to Ratan Tata. She is better known as ‘Cosmetic Czarina of India’.

She has the distinction of changing a small subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills into the largest cosmetic brand in India – Lakme , that became synonymous with indigenous Indian cosmetics.

In 1996 Tata sold off Lakmé to Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), and created Trent from the money it made through the sale. Presently, Simone is the chairperson of Trent Limited.



7. Neelam Dhawan

Current position: MD, HP-India

A woman with ‘never-say-die’ spirit, Neelam Dhawan is presently the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard (HP), India.

Neelam is an iconic figure in Indian IT industry . She is an inspiration for women working in IT sector. She dared to enter the IT world in early 1980s when there were just a handful of women in this industry.

At the start of her career she yearned to be a part of major players in the FMCG space such as Asian Paints and Hindustan Lever.

Unfortunately, these organizations did not want a woman to be a part of their marketing and sales efforts and hence she was rejected at the time.

But a determined Neelam refused to give up and fought back with laurels galore.

Before joining HP, India as Managing Director (MD) , Neelam was Managing Director (MD) of Microsoft, India.

She had successful and rewarding stints with other leading players like IBM and HCL

8. Sulajja Firodia Motwani

Current position: JMD – Kinetic Motors

Motwani is the Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Motors.

Sulajja has single-handedly designed and developed marketing strategies to spearhead the company’s growth forward. Sulajja worked in a California-based Investment Company before coming to India to join her grandfather’s business.

Sulajia’s good looks has been recognized by India Today group which named her the ‘Face of the Millennium’ and she has been selected as the ‘Global Leader of Tomorrow’ by the World Economic Forum.

9. Priya Paul

Current position: Chairperson, Apeejay Park Hotels

Priya joined the family business at the age of 22 and worked under her father as Marketing Manager at the Park Hotel, Delhi.

After the death of Surrendra Paul, she succeeded him in 1990 as the Chairperson of the Hospitality Division of the Apeejay Surendra Group.

Her contribution to the hospitality industry has got recognition from the government of India which conferred on her Padma Sri award in 2012.

10. Mallika Srinivasan

Current position: Director, TAFE (Tractor and Farm Equipment)

Mallika has an MBA from Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania.

She joined TAFE in 1986 and has since been responsible for accelerating turnover from 85 crores to 2900 crores within a span of two decades.

Her innovative business ideas and excellent leadership qualities have won her laurels from every quarter.

She was awarded ‘Businesswoman of the year 2006′ award by ET.

11. Ekta Kapoor

Current position: JMD & Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms

Ekta Kapoor is the daughter of legendary star of yesteryears Jeetendra and brother of Bollywood actor Tusshar Kapoor.

Ekta has created a niche for herself in TV serial and film production. She can easily be termed as the most successful female producer of entertainment world.

Ekta has produced many successful films including Kyo Kii… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta , Kucch To Hai Love Sex aur Dhokha, Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Shor in the City, Ragini MMS, Kyaa Super Kool Hai Hum and The Dirty Picture.



12. Ritu Kumar

Current position: Fashion Designer

Ritu Kumar is one of the big names in Indian fashion industry.

Ritu has carved a niche for herself in designing a variety of wardrobes including swimwear, eveningwear, traditional Indian wear, casual wear and formal evening gowns.

She has the distinction of designing costumes of three winning Miss Indias.

Her son Ashvin Kumar is a director, who has made films like Road to Ladakh (2002) and short film Little Terrorist (2004), which was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film, and in which she did the costume design.

13. Shahnaz Hussain

Current position: CEO, Shahnaz Herbals Inc

Shahnaz Hussain is the biggest name in herbal cosmetics industry in India. She has introduced a number of trend setting herbal products .

Currently, the Shahnaz Husain Group has over 400 franchise clinics across the world covering over 138 countries.

Her pioneering work got recognition from Govt of India when she was conferred with prestigious Padma Shri award in 2006.

14. Jyoti Naik

Current Position: President Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad

Jyoti Naik, is currently the President of Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, an Indian women’s cooperative based in Mumbai.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission of India has conferred the Best Village Industry award on Lijjat Papad from the period 1998-99 to 2000-01.

Jyoti Naik was conferred Businesswomen of the Year (2001-02) for corporate excellence by the Economic Times.

15. Ravina Raj Kohli

Current position: Founder & Executive Director, JobCorp

Ravina Raj Kohli is an international media veteran with an experience of 24 years spanning across television and radio broadcasting, advertising, filming and journalism. Ravina is also Indian television’s first woman CEO.

She was CEO of Star news until 2004. Before Star, Ravina worked at Sony Entertainment Television as Head of Content and Communication and with the Kerry Packer owned Channel 9 on the Doordarshan platform as CEO.

She has earned a Diploma from the London School of Journalism, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Economics and Literature from Bangalore University.





How successful people are more productive

Sharing Infographics with key things on “how successful people work less and get more work done”.

People who work as much as 70 hours (or more) per week actually get the same amount done as people who work 55 hours.

Sharing infographics with key things on “how successful people work less and get more work done”.

Image credit: www.lifehack.org



10 Truths that sustain successful entrepreneurs

We have found that no matter what your goals are, the industry you are in or what you are looking to achieve, there are a few pieces of solid that always apply that help entrepreneurs succeed. Here are the 10 that we find most important.s

As an entrepreneur, you will run into a number of challenges along your journey. You will likely also run into advice from virtually every resource imaginable. We have found that no matter what your goals are, the industry you are in or what you are looking to achieve, there are a few pieces of solid that always apply that help entrepreneurs succeed. Here are the 10 that we find most important:

1. You can achieve what you thought was impossible

Along your journey, chances are you will have plenty of people telling you what you can’t do. In fact, you may be one of the people telling yourself that something is impossible. Aim big, you are capable of achieving anything, even what you thought was impossible, no matter what anyone says. Always trust this. Always believe in yourself and never give up. My years of experience have proven to me we are all capable of achieving more than we think.

2. There will be failures

We all fail, and chances are you will fail a lot before you find any measure of success. The key to finding the success you seek is not giving up when these failures come around. Pick yourself back up and keep working. It will pay off in the end.

3. Growth takes time

You aren’t going to double the size of your company overnight. In fact, you aren’t going to notice big growth at your company in a few weeks or a few months. Real, sustainable growth takes time and it happens slowly.

4. Freedom is the best reward for your work

There are many people who make a million dollars a year, but are slaves to a job or a boss they don’t respect. The best earnings from your work as an entrepreneur is the freedom to do what you want and get the most out of life.



5. It’s OK to lose

There will be times when you lose money and you will want to give up on your efforts. You may be in the entrepreneurship game to make money, but it doesn’t mean you won’t lose it as well. You can lose. In fact, you can lose a lot, just don’t lose everything and give up.

6. Successful entrepreneurs control their emotions

Being self-employed is tough, its overwhelming and its hard. Never lose control of your emotions. Keep them in check so a cooler head can always prevail.

7. Never be afraid to be wrong

You will be wrong at some point or another in your journey. No one is ever right 100 percent of the time. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, and take some risks. They may pay off in the end, or they may not, but either way it is OK.

8. Your success depends on you

The level of success you achieve depends entirely on your individual commitment. If you are not reaching the success you think you deserve, chances are you are not committed enough to your goals.

9. Never stop trying to improve

You must never stop learning and improving. Even when you think you have achieved a desirable level of success, there is always room to work more, achieve more and improve more.

10. Financial freedom can help you get the life you deserve

Financial freedom is a powerful thing, but it is important to remember it shouldn’t only be your end goal. No matter where you are from or what you are working for, people all over the globe, want one thing: to love and be loved. Love and happiness are the most important things in the world, and financial freedom can help you get there. Works towards financial freedom not so you can buy things but so you can have the time, energy and resources needed to find love and happiness and to spend quality time with those who matter most.

This article was originally published in Entrepreneur.com

Image credit: www.finanscapes.com



10 dirty little secrets of successful entrepreneurs

The most valuable lessons can be found between the lines. It’s not so much that they’re secrets as they are things left unsaid.

Entrepreneurs rarely have the opportunity to speak about their experiences without someone asking for their top tips or secrets for success. Over the years you might have heard about many such prescriptions for winning at the game of business. Words like “passion,” “persistence” and “initiative” are among the more common adjectives used to describe successful entrepreneurs.

Sometimes, though, the most valuable lessons can be found between the lines. It’s not so much that they’re secrets as they are things left unsaid. Here are such ten dirty little secrets of successful entrepreneurs:

1. People are lazy

This may sound harsh but, really, we are. Whenever possible, people will seek to accomplish whatever needs to be done with as little effort as possible. We also refer to this as efficiency, but it really amounts to the same thing. Think of the most successful innovations in the past year, or the past decade, or even the past century. Now ask yourself whether they involved reducing effort or made our daily lives harder and in fact required greater effort. Whether you thought of automobiles, computers, mobile phones or – my personal favorite – the TV remote control, reducing effort (or increasing efficiency) pays dividends.

Another way to think of it is to ask yourself why some innovations don’t succeed. A classic example is the Dvorak keyboard layout. It is much more “efficient” than the conventional QWERTY keyboard, but was doomed to failure because it required users to learn a new skill. Entrepreneurs should be cautious when trying to launch a new product or service that requires users to climb much (or any) of a learning curve. The magic of Apple devices has long been their intuitiveness. Easy-to-use doesn’t guarantee success, but hard-to-use is a recipe for disaster.

Laziness is also found in how we think. In a nutshell, thinking is hard work and we don’t do any more work than absolutely necessary (and often not even that much). Given a choice between exerting a bit more effort (mental or otherwise) or a bit less, how many of us choose to work harder? That’s right – we’re all a bit lazy.

Related Post: 5 challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India

2. People are impatient

Just as we want things to be easier, we also want them to happen faster. As in, right now. Not later. How long are you willing to wait for a web page to load? How do you react to being put on hold? For most of us, the answers are: not very long and not very well.

One of the most famous experiments in psychology is known as the Marshmallow Test. Children were given the choice of one marshmallow (or Oreo cookie) immediately, or two if they could wait ten minutes. As you might expect, some took the immediate reward, while others were able to wait. The striking thing about this research came years later, when the research team was able to identify significant differences in the life trajectories of the now vs. later groups of kids. Those who were able to delay gratification at a young age were more likely to have finished school and obtained college degrees, had lower incidences of divorce, addiction, and obesity, and tended to be better off economically.

The lessons for us? If we can delay gratification, we can attain some significant advantages. But as entrepreneurs, we should be just as wary about launching a business that requires our customers to wait as we are about one that makes them work hard (as per point #1 above). The success of the fast food industry should tell us all we need to know about the value of instant gratification.

Related Post: 5 Things only entrepreneurs can truly understand



3. Everything takes longer than you think

Despite the tendency of people to prefer instant gratification, the process of starting and building a new business is slow and deliberate, without immediate rewards. There are always a few exceptions – Facebook is often cited – but the definition of an exception is that it isn’t normal. And the greater the degree of novelty, the longer it will usually take to educate and persuade potential customers. That’s not to mention the core activities of developing the product, building a team and raising the capital to pay for everything.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much time we allow for any given task – whether it’s picking up dry cleaning or writing an article. Time seems to evaporate, leaving us scrambling to catch up. Watch entrepreneurs working during the start-up phase of a new venture and you’ll find them working whenever they’re awake; they almost never sleep. They’ll tell you it’s because there never seems to be enough hours in the day.

Bob Nourse, founder and former CEO of The Bombay Company, notes that “running out of time is failing.” If you can’t generate revenue and/or profits fast enough to keep the business afloat, you fail. Half of all startups experience this outcome within the first five years. Failing to allow enough time to make things happen is a major reason why.

Related Post: 8 signs you might be cut out for entrepreneurship

4. One thing leads to another

Investors are fond of saying they’d rather bet on an “A” team with a “B” idea than a “B” team with an “A” idea. They know that business models change, technologies evolve, and customer tastes are in a constant state of flux. Those same investors will tell you that most business plans are obsolete the second they come off the printer.

Simply put, there’s no substitute for being part of a market (launching your product or service without exhaustive market research). There’s tremendous value in simply getting started and learning as you go. Accept that the first (or first 10) version of whatever you’re selling won’t be perfect. The process of trying, fixing, and trying again is how entrepreneurs figure out what their customers really want and what it will take to deliver against those expectations.

Netflix is an online entertainment company. It began life when CEO Reid Hastings mailed some DVDs to himself to see whether it would actually work. The simple act of doing something triggers a reaction – sometimes good, sometimes not so much. But the difference between a dreamer and an entrepreneur is that only one of them takes action. Businesses can’t grow if they never start in the first place.

Related Post: 5 ways to boost self-confidence as an entrepreneur

5. There is no free lunch

Most of us learn early in life that you can’t get something for nothing. It’s a lesson we sometimes forget and have to re-learn (more than once). Choices are necessary, if not always pleasant. There’s only so much time and money and talent available. Spending an hour on one thing means that you can’t spend this hour on something else. A dollar spent on a cup of coffee in the morning is a dollar no longer available for pizza later that night.

Harvard Professor Michael Porter describes the essence of strategy as “deciding what not to do.” Leaders who aren’t able to make tough choices doom their organizations to mediocrity when they do too many things in an adequate way and nothing with excellence as the desirable standard. The hardest thing for a new company to do is say “No” to a customer. But if you chase every shiny penny you see on the sidewalk, you shouldn’t be surprised if you end up somewhere you didn’t want to be. Businesses evolve, but they can’t be everything to everybody. Recognizing when trade-offs have to be made, and having the mental discipline to make hard choices often separates the winners from the losers.

Related Post: How to get better at leadership?

6. Stuff happens

And sometime the stuff that happens is wildly outside our set of expectations. There are a number of labels for this: The Black Swan Effect, Tail Risk, or, the more prosaic, Shit Happens. We have different mental models to explain why things happen, including luck, karma, fate, destiny, chaos theory, and the law of unintended consequences. But whatever phrase or rationale we might use, there’s no denying the fact that we can’t plan for everything. Moreover, sometimes the very thing we expected least is the very thing that comes to pass.

Sometimes the surprises are predictable. But when we are caught by the unexpected, how do we react? In some ways, our ability to respond depends precisely on the nature of the trade-offs we’ve made in the past. Committing to a particular technology, for example, can lock a company into a dead-end trajectory if a new technology displaces the old. But failing to commit, which increases our options, may be too costly and lead to an uncompetitive position.

One type of “unexpected” event that is both common yet sometimes hard to imagine is the dissolution of a partnership. Just as newlyweds find it difficult to envision divorce, so too do entrepreneurial founders struggle with the notion that their partnership might not last forever. Building a “shotgun” clause (also known as the buy/sell provision) into a shareholders agreement is not unlike a pre-nuptial agreement in a marriage. A tough conversation to have, but well worth the effort.

Related Post: 10 Inspirational quotes that will help entrepreneurs handle criticism



7. We’re all animals

We are biological machines and we don’t work well if we neglect our bodies. If you don’t believe me, try a simple experiment: fast for a day or stay up all night and see how well you make decisions and get along with people. Research is continuing to show how closely our minds and bodies are connected; fatigue and low blood sugar are just the tip of this particular iceberg. Yet how often have you pushed far beyond the point at which you can think and function effectively? Don’t underestimate the value of a light snack or a power nap when it comes to making good decisions.

Taking care of our organic selves results in a lot of business opportunities. For example, what percentage of our incomes is allocated to the basics requirements of food and shelter? As population demographics begin to shift, the nature of those needs will also change; entrepreneurs are pursuing those opportunities as you read these words. So start treating your own body well and begin to think of yet-to-be launched businesses that can cater to our animal natures.

Related Post: 3 attributes required to be a successful entrepreneur

8. Sweat the details

Understanding the intimate details of a venture is necessary. Not sufficient to ensure you’ll wind up on the cover of Fortune, but necessary to keep your head above water. Forensic analysis has revealed how poorly corporate leaders understood the nature of the risks they were taking. Unfortunately, the consequences of their actions affected far more of us than those who made the decisions.

The example of a buy/sell clause in a shareholders agreement is another example of a detail, which, if overlooked, can literally destroy a business. When it comes to cost and revenue drivers, lacking a crystal clear sense of what influences each one, and how costs and revenues move together (or don’t) can be catastrophic. This is not meant to encourage micro-management (see point #10 below). Knowing the details is important. What you do with that knowledge is another thing altogether.

Related Post: 8 stress busters that will help entrepreneurs in dealing with distress

9. Learn from everything

We can learn from success. We can learn from failure. We can learn from our own experiences and from what happens to others. We can learn from what we see and hear today as well as from history. The title of this paragraph really says it all. But just because we can learn from everything doesn’t mean that we actually do.

Ask yourself what really new thing you’ve learned in the past 24 hours or the last week. And if you can’t, watch a TED talk, pick up a magazine you’ve never read before, or find a blog that sounds interesting. It might not help, but it’s hard to imagine how learning something new will do you any harm.

Related Post: 7 ways in which an entrepreneur can keep himself motivated

10. Don’t be a jerk

Just because this is the end of the list, don’t think that this is the least important. If you want to build an organization with great people, you need them to want to be part of your team. And, since we all know life is too short to work with jerks, it’s a certainty that the best people will exercise their options to work with the best other people they can find.

You might be a technical genius, a visionary thinker, and/or a world-class salesperson. But that doesn’t mean you can’t also be kind, considerate and empathetic. The best organizations in the world (armies or companies or churches) are made up of volunteers – people who passionately believe in what they’re doing and choose to be there. If talented people are in your organization despite you rather than because of you, sooner or later they’ll be somewhere else.

Laziness. Impatience. Unpredictability. These are hardly virtues and it’s a list unlikely to appear in anyone’s advice column on how to get ahead in life. We don’t have to be proud of these particular aspects of human nature, but we should at least acknowledge them. And, if we’re willing to learn, pay attention to what matters, and be decent to one another, things might just work out all right despite our collection of dirty little secrets.

Related Post: 7 Lessons from Ramayana for every entrepreneur

This article was originally published in Ivey Business Journal

Image credit: www.lifehack.org



7 Sleep habits of successful entrepreneurs

Follow these seven sleep habits and dream your way to business success.

We all know lack of sleep is harmful to our health — sleep affects mood, increases risk of psychiatric disorders and depression, cardiovascular disease and lowers immune system health. Yet the stress of running a company and long working hours means entrepreneurs often find themselves functioning on little sleep.

Evanston, Ill.-based sleep expert Dr. Lisa Shives says getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night is a critical component of entrepreneurs’ business success. “Sleep affects our executive function; the area of the brain responsible for decision making, creative thinking, memory and reaction time,” says Shives.

Follow these seven sleep habits and dream your way to business success:

1. Avoid alcohol before bedtime.

While alcohol may help you fall asleep, it will affect the quality of your slumber. “Sleep is lighter, you have less REM (the deepest stage of sleep),” says Shives. Alcohol can also wake you up in the middle of the night. “Many people wake up after about four hours, because that’s how long it takes to metabolize alcohol, then they have trouble getting back to sleep,” says Shives. Although studies have shown a glass of wine at dinner can have positive effects on cardiovascular health, Shives says to avoid drinking any alcohol within three hours before bedtime.

2. Turn off electronics before bedtime.

Shives recommends shutting off gadgets an hour before bedtime. “The light that’s emitted [from the screens] slips your neurotransmitters into an awake position,” says Shives. Our gadgets also force our brains to stay active when they really need relaxation time to distress before bedtime. Shives recommends using the hour before bed to do something relaxing and enjoyable like reading a book or having a chat with your partner.



3. Write your worries away.

If you find yourself lying in bed stressing about the events of the day, Shives recommends keeping a worry journal to write down the issues that are bothering you. For those who find their heads swimming with to-do-lists, Shives says putting the list on paper rather than thinking about it can help to clear your head and shut off your mind before bedtime.

4. Create the perfect sleep ambiance.

The optimal sleep environment is one that’s cool, dark and quiet. “Part of becoming drowsy in the evening is that your core body temperature starts to drop,” says Shives. Eliminate noise and light distractions by charging smartphones outside the bedroom door to avoid the glow, the ding and the temptation to get up and check on something.

Also read: 12 Ways To Avoid Startup Mistakes

5. Exercise.

Exercise promotes healthy sleep patterns by releasing serotonin and dopamine. These are the same neurotransmitters that are important for regulating our 24-hour sleep-wake cycle, known as the circadian rhythm.

6. Avoid sugary snacks before bedtime.

If you have a hankering for a snack, Shives recommends grabbing a bite containing protein and fat such as yogurt rather than one containing starch or sugar. “[Protein and fat] have very low glycemic levels which means they will give a steady release of energy throughout the night,” says Shives. Simple carbs or sugary snacks give you a quick burst of energy, followed by a crash which can disturb the quality of your sleep.



7. Wake up to the light.

The morning is just as important to your sleep habits as the evening. Getting sunlight when you wake up re-sets your body’s circadian rhythm, helping to ensure you’re more tired at night. Enjoy your morning coffee sitting next to a large window is a great way to start your day right.

Also read: 8 Things Entrepreneurial People Do Differently

This article was originally published in Entrepreneur.com