Episode 2: Discover How the Word “START” Can Change Your Life (The Overlooked Secret of the Rich)

photo credit: stocksnap.io

Welcome to the second episode of this series: how to start your business today with little or no money.

The essence of this episode, is to bring to light, the problem people face in business and career pursuit and how the magic word “START” can be the game-changer.

Majority of the people I meet and ask about their goals will always have great stories to tell. They never a lack a word to express their ideas. But why are the same people not making any wave?

Great ideas capable of transforming our world, lie in the recesses of the hearts of men but an inhibition represses its realization. People often get into the temptation of blaming themselves to be supposedly dumb. You will hear something like,

•   I am a dumb ass
•   Why can’t I get my head straight?

•  I suck at this

•  Everyone’s doing it except me

You keep blaming your innocent self, whereas the problem “like a ghost,” lies unrecognized and untapped.

What’s the problem?

The problem is not your idea. You are not in lack of ideas, in fact, I can bet that if you started this series from the beginning, that a couple of great ideas would have in some way run into your mind.

The Frequently Answered Question (FAQ)

In your next gathering with friends, ask them about their short and long term goals. You will be literally marveled at how the ideas flow. Majority, don’t even regard these ideas as goals, but notice that they will always have something to say, a story to tell, and an idea to share.

This ability to generate ideas and know exactly what we want, comes naturally to us. You probably would recall how when you were a kid and you’ll be asked a couple of times, “what do you want to be in future?” probably your reply was a doctor (I actually did this one), engineer, pilot and some of those high ranking white collar professions.

The point is, you always know what you want even if you may not know how to get there.

Just a few days before writing this post, I personally experimented this.

I met a customer at my work place and during our get-to-know chat, I asked the FAQ – “what goals do you wish to achieve in the long run of your life?” with a certain aura and vigor, he explained how he admired the rich so much and how he has been planning to build a mega business.

This customer detailed his explanation in so much that I was marveled. His definiteness of purpose was astonishing and the motivation that zoomed from the sound of his voice was profound and astounding. 

He was so interested that he’d go the extra mile to explain even what I didn’t request. He went on to explain his idea of a business and the financial projections while I silently listened as the dazzling unction for action proceeded from him.

Guess what else he told me? He had written a plan for his business already.

He explained the whole idea in such an action oriented way that left me wondering at his motivation. Now very curious, I asked, “So, what’s the big picture?”

“I hope to build the biggest business ever known,” he said with every boldness and conviction.

“That’s great, so what are you doing now?”
“I'm actually still planning and making research I hope to fully launch by next year.”

And when I heard that, I knew that there’s no getting near the path to success. This is a very serious problem that not just my customer faced but a large lake of people are facing. How I wish he understood how to harness the START MINDSET.

"The problem is not with your idea, it’s with your mindset."

Do you know that of all existing living things, humans have the best thinking faculty and IQ, and the manner in which the human brain can generate fantastic ideas remains a wonder. You are fully equipped and sophisticated with the resources you need to succeed. Utilize them.

So why do you remain where you are despite all the fantastic ideas running up and down your head? Why can’t you take action even when you’ve figured out exactly what you want to do and how to go about it?

please click to subscribe to this blog - lots of goodies loading.  

The Overlooked Word That Changes the Game.

The ability to start anything from nothing is one of the greatest talents our world’s most influential people have figured out. Do you and can you harness this talent? Of course you do and you can.

The problem is that we’ve been taught rudimentarily to understand the word “START” from its literal point of view. We fail to acknowledge what tremendous change that single word can bring when we completely decipher its true meaning not just from the literal view but from a metaphysical and philosophical approach.

The word “START” came from the German word Styrtan which means to caper or leap. It is a command to your soul. It’s an automatic trigger for action. It sets you off even when you are not ready. It convinces you when you are criticized. It is a supernatural and extraordinary drive for action. The rule of the word, is:

"Keep going, don’t look back. Soon you will see the light at the end of the tunnel."

We are looking at ‘starting,’ from a very critical and philosophical aspect. It is a force that sets you off at the slightest vista of an idea.

The world’s most successful people has in some way discovered the secret unlock code for incorporating the metaphysical abilities of that word to their lives. They didn’t succeed because they had wonderful ideas (of course you have even better ones), they succeeded because there was that unseen yet evident drive for action that will move them to act whether or not they were ready, whether they succeeded or not. That mindset leads the way and you follow.

It’s very sad that we overlook such a great agent of change.

Maybe you were not aware but do your research and you will discover that.

•   Mark Zuckerberg had the idea to start Facebook but wasn’t sure about what it would turn out to be (of course no one ever is). A force pushed him to action - THE START MINDSET. Not the idea.

• Henry Ford claimed no other invention as his own except the phonograph. He stated that other inventions and patents filed in his name, was simply a remodeling of other people’s ideas. What did these people lack that Henry Ford had? THE START MINDSET, not an idea.

subscribe here

How to Incorporate the ‘START MINDSET’ That Can Change Your Entire Business and Career.

How can you turn the word “START” to a meta-physical trigger in your life that will reward you with undaunted and extraordinary drive for action in your business or career?

•  Clear your mind
•  Narrow your focus
•   Get determined
•   Associate with dream builders not breakers
•   Start in the smallest way you can and the muse will catch up with you.

•  Build confidence in your plan

•  Find time to meditate (very powerful tool to auto configure your mentality)

•  Consider partnering with the right people.

•  Seek a mentor: one is too small a number to achieve success (the #1 rule of teamwork) – John. C. Maxwell.

These steps, will help you incorporate the START MINDSET (The often overlooked principle of the rich) as an action trigger that will activate your career or business. I hope you learn.

And I recommend that you constantly seek for ways to kick of any plan of yours. That’s the only way anyone attains success. It is said, “a journey of a 1000 miles begins with a step.” Let me rephrase that.

"A plan without a start is child’s play."

Continue on this expedition until we’ve fully uncovered the secrets behind making wealth. Continue this series here.

Click here to subscribe so you don’t miss any one of the episodes.

Is there another way to look at the word “start”? In what other ways have you successfully built a START MINDSET? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Read the previous episode

Read More

The Grand Finale: How to Start Your Business or Career with Little or No Money

Photo Credit: stocksnap.io

We’ve finally approached the end of this series and it is a pleasure that you’ve participated all through. The series: how to start your business with little or no money, was crafted with the young entrepreneurs and investors in mind. It means to annul the statistics that proved that there are many more business failures than startups. And although the numbers in the statistics below may vary, no doubt this holds true for majority of the countries.

“The United States census bureau reports that for an average of 400,000 small businesses created in the United States every year, 470,000 fail.”

This series calls to mind the many who fail because of the wrong mindset to business startups and thus, it has successfully outlined the problems we face and their respective solutions.

Lawlessness in Business.

You will of course agree with me that there is no all-knowing person and as such, we never stop learning new strategies of doing things. One can only decide to pause his learning process, which is very endangering. So while the ways of expanding our knowledge on startups keep growing and there are a number of new strategies to learn, let us take cognizance of the best methods so far.

Where there is no law, people languish in lawlessness. Principles are not valued; natural laws are broken without remorse. Nothing happens to persons who trample on the fundamental rights of others and so, failure becomes inevitable, as there is conflict with both self and purpose. This is the case with a lawless nation or organization and because businesses are operating in lawlessness, the gloomy statistics are stacked against us.

There are no trusted and consistent principles that guide businesspersons on how to launch into businesses and as such, the repercussions are evident. Statistics are yelling back at us. The rate of business failure is getting higher and higher as the years go by. We need a rule, we need a pattern, and we need the business startup guide.

Because we break ourselves against the natural laws of business startup, it appears the deck is stacked against us. We seem to make progress in the first few years of starting up and thereafter, our doom draws nigh, and soon we discover that our motivations were based on the wrong principles.

In the final analysis, the overall skill of the rich is the ability to build businesses; everything else revolves around it. However, what difference does it make if these businesses end up in failure. Therefore, it is not just building many businesses that matters, it is building one that can stand the test of time.

Someone once said, “It is not about reading a thousand books but reading the right few.” Perhaps this is the case with business.

In a meeting with Expert Insurance Broker and Consultant Mr. Celestine Anyadufu, he gladly shared the following. “The problem with unsuccessful people and businesses is that they lack a style and a system. They go about their day just the way they see it — without a pattern or set of principles. If you want to be extraordinarily successful, get a style, get a system, and ultimately, respect the process.”

The first episode of this series was based on that notion of giving you a style and a system. It focused on how people could observe a tested pattern that led to success. It uncovered a secret path which when followed correctly could salvage our rudimentary world from obsessive business failure to that of an outstanding business success. That indisputable theory is the Start Formula — the ultimate business startup guide.

Therefore, with the picture of this whole series in mind, it is time we recollect on the principles taught so far so that you can put them somewhere handy and use it in your day-to-day life.

 

Practice These Things.

It will not matter if you do not act, it will not make any difference if you do not practice. There is a lot of information out there, and we find ourselves in the dilemma of which one to follow. Nevertheless, as you apply these principles to your personal lives, career, and business, you will be glad you followed the ultimate startup guide.

For a clear and intrinsic understanding of the principles taught in this series, I will outline in bulleted list, an overview of the core values of these lessons. Take your time to go through it and keep in mind that these principles have made heroes and prodigies. Therefore, nurture it, keep it safe, and ultimately, use it to propel whatever goal you have in life. It has worked for me countless times and I have a hunch it will likewise work for you.

Core Values from the Ultimate Startup Guide.

In order to be effectively and efficiently productive, you have to have a rule, a guide, a style, a system, a strategy. Launching into anything with no methods and set strategies will eventually lead to failure. This holds true for many top-notch industries today. You cannot venture into industries like Forex, real estates, or paper assets (stock, mutual funds, and bond) without a consistent success guide because failure will be inevitable. And how about football? Will you set players on the football pitch without a formation and team strategy? Oh hell no… you ain’t gonna try that because that’s disaster.

“One thing is for sure. When one neglects the law, the style, system, and strategy, he gets catastrophe.”

However, with reference to different industries, whether you call it a strategy, team tactics, formation, an extraction plan, or a startup guide as I do, it still has the same fundamental meaning.

The principle motive in all of these cases is to eradicate lawlessness. There has to be a pattern to follow, there has to be a leading strategy. So, next time you have a dream to pursue, a business to build or career path you want to fulfill, ask yourself, what is my style, system, strategy, guide, or rule?

The first episode covered all of that. However, for the purpose of clarity and simplicity, here is an overview of the core values preached in all this series.

When next you want to launch into a startup

• Prepare — remember that indefatigable and consistent practice is the price one must pay to attain preparedness.

• Write an action plan

• What else can you start investing except money?

• Render some free services or do a public presentation — this is the best method of advertising in the whole of history.

•  If they are product services, give it out at a subsidized rate.

•  Take a step — one foot first.

•  Review the S.T.A.R.T formula

•  Exorcise your fear

•  Believe in your plan

•  Build confidence by achieving little successes daily.

•  Seek a good mentor

•  Build a team around your goal. (choose carefully)

•  Acknowledge your mistakes as you progress and correct them.

•  Neglect your naysayers

•  Value your critiques

•  Do not give up (it is all right to fail a 1000 times — Thomas Edison proved that principle.)

•  Generate capital — Sell some unimportant stuff because you don’t need everything.

•  Choose the right environment for your craft.

Maybe this might not be all you need to make it big in whatever you wish to take on, but believe it or not this principle are worth trying out and you’ll sure be surprised how thing begin to work out very easily for you.

Surely, these are some insightful points to be grasped from this series. They have constituted its very creation and its basic aim is to arm and transform young investors from the level of a potential to that of a practitioner.

The next time you have a business or career plan to fulfill, come look at these steps, and practice them. You can’t undermine the fact that your success is guaranteed.

I would like us to get in touch to know how you are applying these principles and how it is helping you become a better you. I will also like to hear your questions. So, say hi on Facebook, and Twitter.

Subscribe Now!!!

How has this series affected your notion about startups? Share your thoughts in the comment.

Automate your business emails for free up to 5000k subscribers

Read More

Episode 8: Why Your Preparation Will Be Futile Without Consistent Practice

Photo Credit: stocksnap.io

Preparation is the basic and most essential element of business success. However, in most cases we find it hard to act out our preparation, to create a mark that will speak volumes of our preparedness. What impedes or hinders us from making a difference even after the much preparation? Perhaps, there is already an answer to it.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
— Stephen King

Preparation Is Prerequisite For Success.

Preparation is getting ready. We become a better version of ourselves by preparation. There is no magic to it, there is no abracadabra; preparation is simply the most essential element of success.

Preparation precedes success

As algebra precedes calculus in mathematics, and crawling, walking in the developmental stages of a child, so is preparation a prerequisite for success. The prepared person will win if he shows up. The prepared, will always have an edge over others. They are at an advantage even over the most talented of men because they have mastered their skills and sharpened their saws through deep commitment and devotion to the learning process.

The next time you walk up to an event in which you are one of the participating players or presenters, one of the many questions that silently linger in your heart would be, “am I really prepared for this?” This again proves that preparation precedes success.

Preparation is a very important factor for any real success. You need to be actively present in what you profess to represent. Are you an entrepreneur businessperson, a business coach, an athlete, a scholar?

“The best way to succeed in business is to be in business”

You’ve Been Prepared Mentally

This series has centered on preparing you to be able to take on whatever business idea, career or craft you wish to pursue. It means to help you find and utilize your opportunities.

Opportunities come to us in many ways, but sometimes we don’t even recognize them and consequently we miss our big chance. Preparation opens your eyes to opportunities. It helps you see beyond the normal. However, this is not just about recognizing opportunities but utilizing it.

The ability to recognize and utilize opportunities is more of a mental exercise, and from the very beginning, we’ve focused on building that exceptional mentality for success.

Some of these mental preparations are as follows:

•         The start formula

•        How to exorcise your fear to start

•        What hinders you from success

•       The action plan that activates the start formula

All these, prepare you mentally and set you in the right mindset for action. They inscribe the basic principles of success so that you win mentally and when you win mentally, you are already a winner.

Preparation Vs Practice

Preparation is getting something or somebody ready in advance. Nevertheless, preparation and practice is sometimes mistaken to mean the same thing but this is not so.

Practice means the act of repeating something to get better. It is the performing of a task so that a person gets accustomed to it. Practice is the continuous repetition of an activity, a consistent participation in a craft in order to get better. It involves the activities a person does, in respect to his jurisdiction that makes him a better artisan.

In other words, a prepared person denotes a ready or set person whereas practice involves all the activities after which a person or a thing is certified set or prepared.

Going back to the maxim, “preparation is prerequisite for success.” It can also be said that “practice precedes preparation which in turn is prerequisite for success.”

Before attaining the state of preparedness, one must have practiced repetitively whatever be his craft. Practice is the successive realization of set goals for the basic purpose of getting better and preparation is the state at which practice accounts for a mastery in the said skill or craft.

Does Practice Have To Stop?

However, the problem with some of us is that we are too fast to assume the state of preparedness. It takes time to get prepared; more than we even conceive. Preparation costs practice and indefatigable commitment.

A football team spends days practicing for a 90 minutes match, the same way a speaker will spend several hours for a 30-minute speech. Consistent and unrelenting Practice is the cost one must pay for attaining a state of preparedness. However, when you are truly prepared, success is not farfetched.

Even after reaching a state of preparedness, practice is just too precious a thing to let go. We tend to forget about perfecting in things and areas we’ve already been awarded excellence.

Statistics shows that only one-third of adults finish an entire book after their last graduation. This proves that our teachability drops rapidly immediately we attain erudition in a given profession. Why does it have to be so? Why do we have to stop practicing?

When you stop learning or practicing, your preparedness dwindles. You become less and less competent until you are back in a pit you once triumphed. The Mathematics professor will always say, “Friends, if you leave Mathematics, Mathematics leaves you.”

It will all be for nothing if you do not practice consistently or participate actively in your craft. If you hope to build a career in singing, writing, marketing, or entrepreneurship and you do not find a way to sing, write, market or find new business opportunities respectively, every day, then there is absolutely no way you can get to success and remain at it.

Success is not a one-time achievement of a predetermined goal as many people see it. It is a gradual and systematic acceleration towards that goal. What this means is that every step you take, and every action, can lead either to your success or to failure.

Here is the bottom line. No matter how good you get in your business or profession, find ways to practice every single day and even when you attain erudition in a profession, keep practicing.

Here is a simplified progression flow.

Writers, write; investors, invest; businesspersons, build businesses; athletes, participate in sports. Every single day, in the very best way you can, always practice and you’ll be surprised how good you’ll get.

As you begin to figure out ways you can start practicing your craft, note that a couple of things can always hinder you from practicing.

#1 Friends

Friends are great tools for success as they can be an inhibition to growth. The friends we keep determine most of our actions and that is how it is. When a writer has a friend whose center is pleasure and entertainment, you can imagine how impossible that combination is. More often than not, the writer will certainly be dissuaded from embarking on a project he has at hand perhaps due to a party that will be held at some place after the next two or three streets.

When you discover a friend who inhibits your productivity, perhaps that’s not a good union and I think there’s an obvious action to take — Keep away. This is because friends are important determining factors of our success rate. You think you're the boss of your life, well that’s only partially true. Your friends subconsciously rule you and since they do, it is an unarguable fact that you need better friends.

#2 Your Boss

Many people work for money and not for passion. Some of these persons are innocent about this because they never did have a choice. People take on roles in organizations or positions in business premises mainly due to frustration and the unavailability of a second choice. Thus, they work for money and not for their passion. Their day-to-day actions are inconsistent with what they actually want to be or do. Therefore, they don’t practice their craft because their busy-ness does not align with thier core values.

Your bosses push you away from the activities you really care about, and then they allot you some stuff that is irrelevant to your craft and profession. The point is that if in your place of work, you are not delegated to activities that concern your career or interest, your boss may be trampling on your practice environment.

Do you suffer from a tight schedule at work? Are you delegated to do things that are incongruous with your career? Then maybe you are spending precious time under the wrong boss.

#3 Your Environment

The environment plays an enormous role in the making of a person. Whether you emerge a winner or a loser, your environment has the major answer. Many a time, we tend to be the eagle that dwells amongst chickens. We tie ourselves to a strange environment and as such, we are greatly affected. We undermine our potentials and tend to put up with the flow of things around us. However, we consequently live a life whose potential talents and fortune lay waste on an island of no return.

If you dwell among wolves, you tend to act like one; the eagle raised in a chicken’s pen thinks he is a chicken and acts as such. Therefore, until you break loose from your hallucinations and move to the right environment for your craft, you may never soar like that eagle did.

You may be spending time in wrong place all this while and that might just be the reason you cannot practice. Your environment plays an important role in making you the success you want to be. You can’t be the eagle that dwells among chickens. That’s insane.

#4 Family

I do not want to talk much about this, because there is no avoiding it. My advice is that you figure out the perfect timing so you can practice your craft and still get back to family. Family time is fabulous time — don’t mess it up.

For instance, a writer may decide to write within the hours of 3am to 4:30am then she wakes by 5am in order to attend to the kids and get them early to school. However it applies to you, make sure you find time and practice.

Here are a few things you can do to create the best aiding environment for practicing your craft.

• Change your friends. Speaker Joe Larson says, “My friends did not believe that I could become a successful speaker, so I did something about it. I went out and found me some new friends.” You too can do the same. Nothing should stand in your way to success; it is just too costly a mistake to make.

•  Be Always at the right environment — don’t be the eagle in a chicken pen.

• Change your boss — of course, you can. Find yourself a new boss who understands the importance of working in a position that is consistent with your craft and interest.

• Schedule your practice time so it does not coincide with family time — respect family)

You may be a professional athlete but if you do not show up on the event day, it won’t matter. You may be the most sophisticated investor, but if you do not start investing, how will you discover? You may have gathered all the financial education on business building, but if you do not build a business for real, it just won’t matter.

Revisit the action plan; get to work with it, research opportunities where you can practice your craft, for it is in practicing that you get prepared. Being a practitioner in the field is the only way you can get better. Your ideas will remain an illusion until you show up and become a real practitioner. No financial education will compensate for your inaction. You may not perform very well in the first few months or years, but trust me, the exponential power of action will soon catch up with you.

Always look for means to practice your craft for real. If it means changing all your friends, do it. Even if it requires leaving your current geographical environment, board a flight immediately and if you cannot afford one, use a taxi. Whatever it takes, however much it will cost, be a practitioner.

The lessons taught in this series, will not matter if you do not keep practicing them. Remember the quote by famous Roman philosopher Seneca, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” And the only way to be truly prepared is to practice constantly. You have a choice to start today and smile tomorrow.


Subscribe Now!!!

Are you actively practicing what you profess? Share in the comments below.

Read More