Motivation is a daily struggle for entrepreneurs, so I’ve
put together these motivation-boosting tips from 10 of today’s successful
entrepreneurs.
1. Fear of failure.
In an article that he wrote for Bloomberg, Mark Cuban stated
that he uses the fear of failure for self-motivation.
“No matter what business you’re in, you’re always at risk --
particularly in technology, where it changes so rapidly you’ve got to put in
the effort to keep up,” writes the Shark Tank panel member. “There’s always the
opportunity for some 18-year-old to come out of nowhere and crush you—that
motivates the hell out of me.”
“Every one of my companies, whether something I started or
something I invested in, is a scoreboard. How am I doing? A lot of investors or
advisers play it as a numbers game.”
“If they invest in 20 companies, as long as one success
covers 19 losses, they did OK. I look at every loss as a huge failure. I had an
investment go bad recently. I lost $1.5 million on it. It pisses me off to no
end."
Failed at something? Ask these Mark Cuban questions.
"You can also use it as motivation. What did I do
wrong? Who did I trust that I shouldn’t trust? What can I learn from this
situation so I can avoid it next time?”
2. Do what you’re passionate for.
This is the key. However, as Chalmers Brown, co-founder and
CTO of Due writes, “We want to not only make a lot of money but enjoy what we
do as well. We are willing to take on the risk of unstable pay in exchange for
following our dreams.”
“Unfortunately, your dream job may not always be the best
decision financially. Sometimes your hobbies are best kept as projects in your
spare time for fun (which is great!). If you do want to try to turn your
passion into a full-time job, these tips can help you get started the right
way.”
Brown gives the tips below:
Improve something that you’re already doing.
Figuring out where market.
Sharing your passion with others.
Stay happy and motivated by assigning tasks that you’re not
a fan of to someone else.
3. Keep affirmations where you can see them.
“It’s so easy as an entrepreneur to get sucked into feeling
exhausted or frustrated, and often the blame is yours alone,” writes Murray
Newlands, founder of online invoicing company Sighted. “But a negative mindset
sucks up mental bandwidth and energy that you need to stay focused and
successful.
"It is crucial to maintain an optimistic attitude in
the face of setbacks. Whenever you see a quote or a picture that helps you stay
positive, place it front and center so you can remember what this journey is
all about.”
4. Leverage the power of rejection.
“On June 26, 2008, our friend Michael Seibel introduced us
to seven prominent investors in Silicon Valley. We were attempting to raise
$150,000 at a $1.5M valuation. That means for $150,000 you could have bought 10
percent of Airbnb."
"Below you will see five rejections. The other two did
not reply,” writes Airbnb Co-Founder Brian Chesky on Medium. “The investors
that rejected us were smart people, and I am sure we didn’t look very
impressive at the time.”
Today Airbnb is valued at just under $30 billion.
5. Surround yourself with highly successful and motivated
people.
"No one does it alone," said Mark Zuckerberg
during a Q&A in 2016. "When you look at most big things that get done
in the world, they're not done by one person, so you're going to need to build
a team."
When building your All-Star team, seek out people who excel
in the areas where you’re not strong or have less experience. "You're
going to need people that have complementary skills," Zuckerberg
emphasized. "No matter how talented you are, there are just going to be
things that you don't bring to the table."
6. Never feel sorry yourself.
“All of my best successes came on the heels of a failure, so
I’ve learned to look at each belly flop as the beginning of something good,”
said Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and Shark on Shark Tank.
“If you just hang in there, you’ll find that something is
right around the corner. It’s that belief that keeps me motivated. I’ve learned
not to feel sorry for myself, ever. Just five minutes of feeling sorry for
yourself takes your power away and makes you unable to see the next
opportunity.”
7. Look for inspiration.
Inspiration is a driving force that you can use to motivate
you. Lyft Co-Founder Jordan Zimmerman said that, “Right now, my daughter is a
huge inspiration. Thinking about the future of our cities, the world and what
environment she’s going to grow up in.”
“Also, the driver and passenger stories we hear every day.
In a past team meeting, we had a mother come in and tell the story herself. She
is a Lyft driver living in New York and her daughter is in Los Angeles.
"The daughter was going through a rough living
situation with a roommate and had to leave and move into a new place. The
mother called a Lyft for her daughter, had a quick conversation with the driver
and the driver took care of her daughter in this tough situation.”
“These stories inspire us to think how we can make things
more efficient and create a platform for two people to have a really positive
interaction?”
8. Don’t obsess over your vision.
Yes. Think about your vision. But don’t spend too much time
over it or it will bog you down. Elon Musk, for example, only spends around 30
minutes a week on his vision of SpaceX colonizing Mars. Besides those 30
minutes, Musk spends a majority of his time focused on the milestones that are
the most immediate and critical.
9. Be grateful.
“Most of the time when people ask me about motivation, 80
percent of the time I attribute it to gratitude. If you want real fuel to win,
be grateful,” writes Gary Vaynerchuk.
“Gratitude is what has gotten me through my toughest moments
in business. Whenever I have lost a deal to a competitor, or an incredible
employee, or millions of dollars in revenue, I default to gratitude. It’s
impossible not to stay motivated or get too down when you’re feeling grateful.”
10. Forget about motivation.
“So many people wait to feel ‘motivated’ before they do
anything. Here’s a newsflash: happy productive people do not wait for
motivation, they just get on with it,'' said Marie Forleo. I suggest that you
watch the entire video where Marie shares her tips for motivation. It’s
spot-on.
Source: Entrepreneur India
