8 Ways to Be More Successful When Starting a Business - Part II

Last week, we shared Part I of “8 Ways to Be More Successful When Starting a Business.” Today, we share Part II.

Starting a business can be an exhilarating and exciting opportunity, a realization of a lifelong dream, or a great way to build something amazing with family or loved ones. But it can also seem like an overwhelming or daunting task, one that causes some hours of lost sleep or some shorter fingernails.

The good news is that there are lots of little tips that can make the process of starting a new venture more satisfying – and your business more successful. Read on to see if our tips resonate for you…

5. Don’t be afraid of failing. Most people are so afraid of failing they never even try. Having the right attitude about failing makes it much easier to be successful. Fear of failure leads to excuses and avoidance. This isn’t the way to achieve success.

● Expect to fail at least a few times. Get excited when you fail. Learn from your failure and you’ll get a little closer to success each time you fail. Like riding a bike, if you fall down, you get back up....

● Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx (and a billionaire to boot), shares the story of how her father taught her to celebrate failure and welcome the lessons failures bring. That attitude taught Sarah to work her way from selling fax machines door to door to building an empire based on her revolutionary undergarments.

6. Invest in yourself. It’s important to continue becoming a better version of yourself. Take the time to read books, learn new skills, attend courses, and become a more capable version of yourself. Investing time, money, and energy in yourself will pay off for the rest of your life.

Have some self-awareness. This means you know your strengths and weaknesses. You know how to motivate yourself when your motivation is dwindling. You can deal with your emotional ups and downs. You know how to manage yourself. And where to get the support you need when you need it.

Find a mentor. Why make all the same mistakes everyone else has made that has previously travelled the path you’re on? A mentor can greatly cut your learning curve and help you to avoid mistakes. The right mentor can save you a lot of time and pain.

While our list of attributes and attitudes are mere suggestions, it may be easy to see how they increase the odds of success. If you’re chasing after a goal, see how well your own approaches match this list. Doing so may give you a good idea of whether you can expect a positive outcome, or if some modifications need to be implemented to increase your odds of success.

Perhaps the most important takeaway, however, is highlighting how we all have a choice about our attitudes and habits. That the choices we make are the most correlated markers to success.

And when it comes down to it, do your own choices reflect how successful you want to be?