Brian LangThrough the years, I’ve met a good number of people that want to start their own business.
Many people have a dream to live a better life than the one they’re currently living.
And often that dream involves starting their own business.
But most people I know will never start a business. Or if they do, they won’t be amazingly successful.
In a previous article, I mentioned that “pursuing your passion” is not the optimal approach for starting a business. In fact, it can often be a recipe for failure.
So what do you need to do to succeed in business?
What’s far more important than pursuing your passion, is having passion for business itself.
Do you have what it takes to start a business? Or are you just a dreamer like most people?
Here are a few things to consider…
1. How Much Time Have You Spent on Business?
A few years ago, I met a nice lady who thought it would be cool to start her own business one day.
I hung out with her and her friends from time to time, but as I got to know her, I realized that she probably would never start her own business.
When I started talking to her about business and marketing, her eyes kind of glazed over.
Although she was interesting in the “dream” of owning a business, she wasn’t really that interested in business and marketing itself.
The first step in starting a business is learning about business. It’s when you learn about business and marketing that you start to get ideas for starting your own business.
2. Are You Able to Delay Gratification?
Scientists did an interesting study with a group of children.
Each child had a plate with a marshmallow placed in front of them and they were told that if they didn’t eat it, they would get another marshmallow later.
Then the parent left the room for an hour or so.
Some of the kids ate the marshmallow right away. Some played around with it and some sat there patiently without eating the marshmallow.
These children were evaluated as they grew into adults and scientists found that the children that were able to resist eating the marshmallow ended up being more successful in life than the ones that needed immediate gratification and ate it right away.
Business often requires sacrifice in the short term.
You have to learn about business and marketing on your own. You have to plan out and execute your business while other people are relaxing after work or playing around.
Are you going to work on your business this weekend? Or do something else?
3. How Much Progress Have You Made Towards that Goal vs a Year Ago
Here’s the real litmus test.
In life, you’re either moving towards a goal or away from it.
And if you’re not moving forward, then you’re not going to get there.
Take an honest look at the past year and ask yourself what you’ve done to move towards your goal.
If you haven’t done anything or gotten anywhere, then what do you need to do to start making progress?
Many people will never start a business simply because they aren’t moving in that direction or trying to.
4. Do You Consider Yourself a Leader?
People write about and talk about leadership a lot, but most people aren’t leaders.
And they don’t want to be.
The truth is that society and human nature conditions us to be followers, not leaders. Leadership is more unnatural and rare.
In school, we’re given books and told exactly what to study and what we will be tested on.
At work, we have a boss that trains us and tells us exactly what we need to do to stay employed and collect our paycheck.
In business, we have to decide what to learn and what to do. The curriculum is infinite and we’re likely to fail at least some of the tests. And that’s scary for most people.
Ultimately, you have to decide if you are a leader… or if you prefer the ease and comfort of being a follower.
5. Have You Surrounded Yourself with Friends that Are Passionate about Business
Finally, it’s easier to be successful if you are surrounded by people who strongly believe in the same things and pursue the same goals.
If your friends are more interested in playing all the time, then that could become a distraction if you don’t set some boundaries.
Having other friends with common goals can help you stay motivated and move forward.
Additionally, you can also consider getting a business coach if you are serious about moving forward in business.
The Most Important Thing…
So how did you do? Did you pass or fail the test above?
More importantly, are you going to doing anything different going forward?
By the way, if you want to learn more about business, feel free to download my free resource below – 50+ Free Tools and Resources to Grow Your Business.
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