Chapter 5 – Creating the Right Environment

Like most people who consider starting their own business, you have a certain drive within yourself to move away from the status quo of having a job or working for someone else.

You believe you have something more to offer to the world. It takes great courage in starting a business and it is a huge leap in faith for most people.

Although most businesses start up with excitement and great motivation, sustaining that momentum is a big challenge for most entrepreneurs. The initial supporters and well-wishers who were as excited as you were at the beginning eventually go back to their own busy life and you find yourself fighting fire alone.

Even if you have overcome your limiting beliefs in starting your own business, dealing with setbacks and rejections from customers as you try to develop your business can be hard to take on your own. At times, you feel discouraged, deflated and demotivated to carry on.

When you were in a job, you probably got up and went to work no matter how you felt. Maybe because you wanted to impress your boss or show that you were committed. Perhaps, it was also because you didn’t want to get into trouble or lose your job. What is different about running your own business is that you are the boss as well as the staff.

What really makes a difference in entrepreneurship is an ability to take actions to keep moving towards your goal no matter what. Unless you are super disciplined, most of us find it hard to constantly motivate ourselves, especially when we have come across setback or failures.

Because when the going gets tough, entrepreneurs can start to have self-doubts or even question owning a business. Thoughts can escalate into developing your own reasons (excuses) why it is not working.

Eventually, you might convince yourself that there is a legitimate reason for the failure, leading to closing the business or even giving up on the whole idea of being an entrepreneur.

Running a business often requires you to go beyond where you thought you could go, possibly the other side of your comfort zone in order to play big.

Becoming successful requires sustaining the right mindset even if things are not going well, and to develop as a person who can face challenges and overcome obstacles. This is regardless of you being an expert in the field of the products and services you’re offering.

Because when you get stuck, so does your business.

It is important to reorganise your social network so that you regularly connect with people who genuinely want you to succeed. Make it a routine to mastermind with successful mentors and fellow entrepreneurs as supporters, which will create an environment for you to develop and sustain the right mindset.

Not all of us are good at taking actions, especially when faced with challenges and discomfort.

In fact, even top corporate executives get stuck sometimes. That is why people hire a coach or consultant who can act as a collaborator, a facilitator and a catalyst for taking their life to the next level and support them through a transformation.

Most successful entrepreneurs say that having a coach or mentor not only accelerated their success but helped them stay on their path so that they reached their goals. 

Most coaches can work with you in a specific area of your life such as your business, but some coaches work with a ‘holistic’ approach. This means that it helps other aspects of your life to be developed simultaneously. Coaches who practice holistic approach believe that success in business is interconnected with the well-being of the owner who also has a life outside the business activities.

So, they support you on your personal development journey as a whole person while looking at other aspects of your life such as physical health and relationships.

It is now not unusual for someone to hire a coach. One-third of top executives of Fortune 500 companies have had a personal coach at one time or another. Most winners, leaders, high performers and highly successful people have a personal coach. Because it is very effective and can accelerate results much more quickly than going it alone.

I would like you to remind yourself of the paths you have already walked until today. Answer each question by writing them down.

1) Write a list of challenges and difficulties you have successfully overcome in the past and paste them on a wall where you work as a reminder of your strength.

2) Make a list of five people you trust who will cheer you on when times are tough.

3) Find an accountability partner who will make you accountable for you to take actions and keep you on your track and arrange a regular meeting.

4) Decide how you will give back to the world what you will be receiving in return.