Every aspiring entrepreneur knows the rush of excitement that overtakes you when you come up with a really great idea. But unfortunately, most entrepreneurs rarely make it past the ideation stage.
If you want to take your idea from concept to reality, follow these 10 things all successful entrepreneurs do.
1. Make a commitment.
Committing to your entrepreneurial goal may seem like a simple, insignificant concept. However, it’s actually deeply rooted in psychology and can help you reap powerful rewards. In psychologist Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he says that when you commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, you are more likely to honor that commitment. So commit to doing whatever you need to in order to make your dream come to fruition.
2. Trust the journey.
There’s always a lag between doing something new and seeing results. So focus on the journey. Set your goal, then forget about it. Do the day-to-day things that most people aren’t willing to do. This is the secret to being a successful entrepreneur: taking daily action that compounds into huge gains over time.
3. Stay hungry.
It’s easy to get complacent with entrepreneurship. This is especially true for aspiring entrepreneurs who finally achieve some level of success. Always stay hungry though. Don’t rest on your laurels and get lazy. Keep continuously improving and looking for ways to grow.
4. Expect to fail.
Failure is inevitable for entrepreneurs. But how you handle failure has a huge impact on your potential success down the road. Successful entrepreneurs embrace failure and even expect it. They learn from each of these experiences and find a better way of doing things the next time around.
5. Believe in your vision.
A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs give up when times become difficult. The ones who achieve greatness believe wholeheartedly in what they’re doing and never give up.
6. Be a problem solver.
Successful entrepreneurs welcome problems because they know these are opportunities to use the skills they’ve developed. So embrace problems and don’t expect immediate gratification. Being solution-oriented is good, but being problem-oriented is even better.
7. Ask for help.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t achieve success by going at it alone. Most have mentors and a network of people they turn to for advice and help. So reach out to people you respect and ask them to help you. If there’s someone who you don’t know personally but think can help your entrepreneurial journey, get your foot in the door with him/her by interacting with them on their website or social media feeds.
8. Follow the steps of those before you.
Aspiring entrepreneurs should study the people who are successful in their field and emulate those actions. What do those people do differently? What are the unique things they do to connect with people, market themselves, differentiate their work, etc.? You can learn a massive amount of valuable information about an entrepreneur’s journey (for free) by simply going to his/her website and spending some time doing a little research.
9. Learn everything you can.
In Robert Greene’s book, Mastery
, he says, “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” Aspiring entrepreneurs learn something new every day. They attend conferences, read books, magazines, and websites, talk to people, and watch videos. These are the things that people who master their craft do.
10. Write every day.
Keep a to-do list or daily planner and write down the tasks you complete every day. A psychology professor at Dominican University of California found that people who wrote down their goals, shared them with others, and held themselves accountable for their goals were 33 percent more likely to achieve those goals.
When you do these things on a regular basis, you’ll find that you slowly progress closer and closer to your goal—and then one day it becomes reality. Of course this takes time—years, in many cases. But you’ll find that the effort and the journey are well worth it.
