Get on The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster

I love reading books but the ones that move me are few. The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy was one of them which had my heart racing. Believe me you don’t need to be an entrepreneur to read this book. In fact even if you are working for someone else thinking like an entrepreneur can help you succeed even more.

Once you are on the Entrepreneur roller coaster it is going to be tough. We look at Oprah and Richard Branson thinking that they have fun all the time but most of the time they are not doing great work they are working on lawsuits and other dry stuff but yes 5% of time it is very cool. So if you don't have the passion for your work you don't need to worry but have passion for why you are doing the work as that is the main thing. Get passionate why you are doing the job and then you will give your best.

Look at Elon musk or the late Steve jobs they didn't show up for the paycheck. Would you do what you are doing even if it is Saturday if it is a yes then you have found your passion. When you look at something say Hell yeah and if you do that you have the passion for it.

Don't really bother about what others think. Only 10 people will attend your funeral and that will also depend on the rain or weather so don't bother just go for it. Define what success means to you as this is the most important step of all. We look at superstars and think they have an easy life but do we really want to have that lifestyle. You have to really think hard on this subject and clarify what your values are. Define your mission statement for your life and it could be very different from what your superstars may have which is good because you are unique so please go ahead and find your purpose. I think the best thing I have learnt from this passage is that you should never compare yourself with others and don’t ever think of living someone else’s life. I would rather live my life on my own terms doing what is important to me. For example in 2007, Branson celebrated the first Virgin America flight by bungee jumping off the Palms Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, a 407-foot tall building. The stunt did not go quite as planned, and Branson crashed against the building twice and ripped his pants. Even if I had all the money I would never attempt that :). The key is to do only the things that make you happy and not do anything for getting the approval of society.

There are four key skills for an entrepreneur and here they are

Sales - Everyone sells for a living. Never forget that. The first law of sales is empathy and it is the key 21st century skill. Another thing is we always find a need and fill it. Don't do that as it is bad advice rather you should find a perceived need and fill it. Imagine someone is driving an old car and likes it if you just think they need a new car it won’t work with that person. It has to be a perceived need. Another key is to ask a lot of questions in sales and mention what the product can do for the customer. The simple message is find few people who love your product and let them do the sales for you.

Recruiting - This is a key function of a leader. You need to be very careful on who you recruit. Make sure they can do the job and you have to hire based on a proven track record. A bad decision here can be costly. You have to hire on evidence not based on hope. Remember great people can free up your time to do the most important thing. As Jim Collins famously said “Get the right people on the bus, wrong people off the bus and then have the right people in the right seats before you drive the bus.”

Leadership – To be a 21st century leader you need to have an ownership mindset. You are the pace setter so you need to set a great example. You are 100% responsible for anything and everything. There are no excuses. Be open to feedback as you might think you are doing great but only when you get feedback can you really change. Once you find the right people for each area like selling, marketing etc delegate everything and focus on leading. Keep doing this for all the areas. All successful leaders quit but the key is they quit the right things and delegate it to people who can execute successfully without them. Become a creative quitter. People don’t like bosses but they like leaders who don’t act like bosses. This is the key to effective leadership.

Be ultra-productive - This is interesting because if we see someone like Richard Branson we think how is he able to do so much even when managing so many businesses. The answer is simple he doesn't do everything. He just does a few things but those few things we can only do in our dreams. The key is to identify what are your top 10% activities and focus only on that. For example checking twitter or reading a newspaper has no real value in that case just eliminate it as that will give time to do other things. Keep doing this in every area of your life and you will be productive. As Warren buffet says if I receive 100 requests I reject 99 of them. You have to say no. Focus only on 3 priorities at a time and have the discipline to work only on that. Delegate the rest.

Finally don't follow every personal development leader out there as everyone has various suggestions. Find one mentor and follow them. Even in books read few books but get the complete knowledge. Do the thing you fear till you become totally fearless. Make this life count and go out on this life roller coaster and don't get scared of the ride.  Once you get on it people especially those close to you will ridicule you. Don’t worry because every visionary was laughed at.

The book was absolutely riveting and inspired me a lot. I hope you enjoyed reading this post.

 The views expressed in this are my own and do not represent my organization.