What is Entrepreneurship?
- The meaning of entrepreneurship is much broader than the definition you’ll read in the dictionary. It goes far beyond just starting your own company.
- You can be entrepreneurial in practically any job, working for almost any company.
No matter who signs your check, you write it. You can be entrepreneurial in any job at any company.
- Success is transferable. It’s not just about what you’ve done; it’s about having and executing an entrepreneurial spirit.
- Protect your online reputation and think before you post. Your brand and your job depend on the presence you portray to the world.
The Power of Empowerment
- Empowerment is the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.
- The four key elements of empowerment are clearly defined goals, meaningfulness, support, and independence.
- If you’re not a data-driven organization, you’re not an organization. Data collection and analysis are crucial to any business.
- An unprepared entrepreneur is not an empowered entrepreneur. Take the appropriate steps before you launch your business.
- Once you’re in, you’re in. So you have to understand why you want to start a business.
The Essential Groundwork
- See yourself as you wish to be, then project that to the world. This principle works for anyone who chooses to use it, no matter what career they are in.
- It is not just your right but your duty to do big things. You have been given gifts. It’s your obligation to use them.
- Use daily affirmations to change your own self-image.
Don’t let people live in your head rent-free. If they’re not contributing to the wholeness of where you want to be, stop listening to them.
- If it’s not working for you, throw it out. If you want something different in your life, make a plan and execute on it.
- Aim first, then shoot.
Disruption Without Interruption
- If a company is unwilling to take risk, they will not innovate, and they will never disrupt.
- The best time to disrupt is before you start a company. Find a gap in the market, then innovate a new product to disrupt that market and build a company around that product.
- The most powerful tool for disruption is your imagination. You don’t need patents or breakthrough technology to disrupt; you need creativity.
- A reliance on common sense must eventually be replaced by data, information, research, analysis, risk assessment, and optimization efforts.
- The world needs more women engineers and entrepreneurs.
Keeping Your Human In Check
- Always behave as if what you do in the dark will come to light. Act as if you’re always on camera.
Don’t run down competitors; talk from your strength.
- To thine own self, and to others, be true. If your conscience is telling you that it’s not comfortable with your actions, you need to course correct.
- Wherever diversity and individual freedoms are embraced and cared for, growth and prosperity thrive.
- Whatever you believe, live it fearlessly and fundamentally every day.
Pressures Make Diamonds
- Discipline is not a dirty word. Self-discipline is more important than what you know or who you know.
- Don’t make a to-do list, just take action and do it. When you write to-do lists, it’s like an excuse to procrastinate.
- Pressure makes diamonds. When people go through adversity, they usually come out stronger on the other side.
Increase Value & Reduce Risks
- Entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs should always focus on value creation.
- If you’re not strategic, you’re not essential. If you can become a strategic partner to your customers, they’ll be customers for life.
- Regularly ask your customers, “What can we be doing even better?”
Clear communication reduces risk.
- People who are good listeners will have an advantage in business over people who are just waiting for their turn to talk.
- If it’s important, make sure it’s in the four corners of the contract.
Together We Win
- Seeing coworkers and colleagues as clients and customers is how you begin building a corporate culture.
- Respect and support your employees just as you would in any close, personal relationship.
- Hire great people, then support and develop them to become superstars.
You don’t have to compete against each other, you can compete with each other.
- The more transparent we become with our knowledge, the more success we will achieve.
Survive Now & Cry Later
- Survive now, cry later. Always stay calm and focused in a difficult moment until you get through it; you can get upset afterward.
- Tomorrow is another day. Everyone makes mistakes, so when you do, accept it, learn from it, and vow to do better tomorrow.
Adversity puts you in touch with who you really are. Struggle builds character.
- When everything is going great, that’s the time to work even harder.
- Ethics and law aren’t the same things, no matter how much we might wish they were. In business, eventually you will run into people and companies with questionable ethics. Stay true to yourself and your values.
Until We Win
- Starting salaries matter a lot because future raises and job offers will likely be based on that starting salary.
- Human resources can make or break a company by the quality of the talent they recruit and retain.
- If you can’t find a job, you’re looking in the wrong place. The jobs openings are there, but you may need to develop new skills.
- The result is the truth. If you’re working hard but the results are not coming, maybe you’re in the wrong position.
- Don’t be afraid to do something else. Life is too short to grind away at something you’re either not good at or don’t enjoy.