By nature, an entrepreneur runs head first into things regardless of the risk, meaning that sometimes we make mistakes that make us want to quit. Though it’s hectic and overwhelming, especially when dealing with multiple businesses, you need to learn to move past these small missteps to truly succeed.
Throughout my years of being an entrepreneur, I’ve realized that wanting to quit is inevitable – but failure isn’t. Every time I want to throw in the towel, I know that it’s time to take a step back and re-evaluate before I move forward again. The real question is, what can you do to ensure that you keep moving forward instead of quitting?
Take a Step Back and Look at Yourself – Take a second to examine the path you’re taking. What’s brought you this far? Determine whether you’re the person stopping yourself from your own success. Sometimes the problem is simply self-doubt and in that case, you need to find ways to overcome it.
Be Brutally Honest With Yourself – Take the time to question if you’re making excuses or whether a certain venture is a bust and you need to start over. If you can’t move past a particular mistake, is it due to a missing skill-set? If so, why haven’t you reached out to someone to overcome this? You need to be resourceful and keep on asking why until you get to the source of the problem.
Clearly Define Your Goals – When you’ve clearly defined where you’re going, it’s easier to pick up momentum and keep going forward. Your small positive efforts will turn into larger positive returns in the future. It’s important, however, to create a plan for yourself so that you know which steps to take next so you don’t burn yourself out. Even if your steps are small, every step is a step forward.
Put it in Writing- Do you ever break contracts with your clients? I sincerely doubt that you’ve done it on purpose, so why would you a break a contract with yourself? Write down your commitments and put it somewhere that you can see everyday so you’ll always feel accountable.
It’s important to realize that you’re not the only one experiencing these challenges. A challenge may end up sucking your energy for an entire day or even a week, but that doesn’t mean that you have to call it quits for good. How do you keep pushing yourself forward when you’re close to calling it quits?
Anyone who has become more successful, has merely failed much more. It is a matter of numbers in many businesses. If you make 100 contacts, only a small number of them will talk to you, likely less than 10%. From that small number, only a small number of them will do business with you.
This is why we have to improve ourselves, our methods, our abilities to communicate, study human nature and know what to do when that NO come along, as it always will.
If you can still pick up the phone and leave that last No behind you, you are already a success. Hone those skills and the numbers will improve.
Thank you for reminding me to stay focused Frank. I’m currently at a crossroads with my future endeavours and in the middle of making an important decision and you’ve helped give me direction on how to accomplish what I want to do. The hardest part for anyone I think is realizing that something needs to change but not setting a deadline and a path to find your way out. Once you make a decision you have to have to go full force with it until you achieve what you want or can say you truly tried your best. Ivan Andres Ramirez.