How To Develop The Soft Skills Of The Successful Entrepreneur

Written by Lindsay Broder - The Occupreneur Coach

Can you really teach entrepreneurship? That question gets asked a lot, both in business and academia. Some claim you can learn the skills necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Others say you either have “it” or you don’t, whatever "it" is.

But I think we're asking the wrong question. It's not about whether you can teach skills to be a successful entrepreneur, but rather what skills need to be taught or learned. For instance, when it comes to the hard skills, anyone can learn them, either in a classroom or on the job. These include things like finance and accounting or branding and marketing or legal. They are the skills that lead to specific action… the “doing” of running your business.

But, more important are the soft skills. These are trickier to learn. They don't come in a textbook or a webinar. They don't even necessarily come from working hard at your job. They come from inside you.

Rather than be taught them, you need to unlock them and foster them. 

Fostering (or "learning") soft skills that don’t come naturally to you might seem challenging and even very uncomfortable. But know that you have more soft skills available to you than you’re currently using. Perhaps you’ve never considered some of them. Or maybe you’ve not had the opportunity to work with a mentor or boss to show you by example. But if you’re willing to look inside yourself and you’re open to making significant changes, you can learn to access and use the many soft skills available to you within yourself. Here are a few examples:

Drive, Ambition and Stamina.

Let’s face it -- being an entrepreneur is really hard at times. You have to push yourself every day to be better when things aren’t going your way. It’s a major effort to keep going when you feel like nothing is right. But that’s why drive, ambition and stamina are necessary. We all have it. We’re born with it. Some have more than others, but you can strengthen yours by looking for inspiration from those with a ton of it and following their lead. It’s like a muscle that if you exercise regularly, it will become stronger.

The Temperament to Manage Adversity.

It’s no secret that entrepreneurship is full of adversity. That’s why people with unbelievable ideas never take the plunge into the entrepreneurial sea. Some entrepreneurs have such trouble managing tough times that they go grey, gain weight, lose their hair and age 20 years from the experience. Then there are those who’ve never looked or felt better from it. These are the people who approach entrepreneurship with joy and who remain calm even in the worst of situations. They don’t let the worst of it get the best of them. While it looks like some people are just born with this kind of temperament, I can tell you that I’ve known many people who have learned how to be this way as they’ve grown as people and as entrepreneurs. They learned to let go and have faith that everything will be OK.

The Capacity to Embrace Change.

If you don’t evolve with the world around you, specifically with your customers’ ever-changing needs, your success will be short-lived. Most people hit a ceiling on growth and become stuck in their ways. Nothing can be more detrimental to running a business. If this is something you struggle with, consider forcing yourself to engage in one activity every day or every week that you’ve never done before that kicks you out of your comfort zone. Or perhaps try taking a new path to work, stopping at a new coffee shop or trying a new food that you’ve never had before.

A Ton of Chutzpah.

You’ve heard the term, “Fake it til you make it?" Some people are just really good at this. We usually call them bullshit artists. But even if you think you’re well prepared for your entrepreneurial journey, you’ll more than likely uncover a few holes that you’ll have to mend on the go. At some point you’ll likely find yourself pitching for business that you are pretty sure is out of your league or you might have to pull out all the stops and get in front of people to sell your business who might expect you to be much more experienced than you are. I never advocate for lying about anything but there is a way to message your business that isn’t lying but makes you sound pretty darn good! But if you aren’t willing to fake it, you’ll never make it or it will take you a much longer time to.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243059

Want To Change The Results You Are Getting ? Change Your Mind !

Limits Exist Only In The Mind ......... 

Make Today A Great Day !! 

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Watch this 8-minute inspirational video from Tony Robbins as he explains the golfing story behind his quote "when it seems impossible, when it seems like nothing is going to work, you are usually just a few millimeters away from making it happen ..."

Love This Anita Roddick Quote ...

"If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been to bed with a mosquito !! 

We’re all mosquitos here!"

Character Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Studies have shown that successful entrepreneurs possess these characteristics: 

1. Self-confidence 

This is that magical power of having confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities. 

2. Achievement Oriented 
Results are gained by focused and sustained effort. They concentrate on achieving a specific goal, not just accomplishing a string of unrelated tasks. 

3. Risk Taker 
They realize that there is a chance of loss inherent in achieving their goals, yet they have the confidence necessary to take calculated risks to achieve their goals. 

Entrepreneurs are people who will make decisions, take action, and think that they can control their own destinies. They are often motivated by a spirit of independence which leads them to believe that their success depends on raw effort and hard work, not luck. 

So which of these three main characteristics is the most important? Believe it or not, it has to be self-confidence. Without self-confidence, nothing else is possible. If you don’t believe in your abilities, then the first challenge that arises may knock you off the path to achieving your goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind for maintaining a higher level of self-confidence. 

Positive Thinking 

Well, it all starts with a positive attitude, doesn’t it? Believing that something good will happen is the first step. Negative thinking simply is not allowed. You must truly believe that there are no circumstances strong enough to deter you from reaching your goals. Remember too, that positive thinking can be contagious. When positive thinking spreads, it can open doors to new ideas, customers, friends, etc. 

Persistent Action 

Now all of the positive thinking and believing in the world is useless if it is not applied towards a goal. You have to take action, no excuses are allowed. This action must also be persistent. Trying once and then giving up is not going to be enough. Keep at it one step at a time. If you can’t get by a certain step, then find a creative way to try again or just go around it. 

At the beginning of this article we identified a few traits that are common among successful entrepreneurs. You should be able to look ahead and see yourself where you want to be. Now just maintain a strong belief in yourself and your skills, stick with it, and don’t give up. If you can do that, you’re already half way there!

http://plrplr.com/5339/successful-entrepreneurs/

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Successful Entrepreneurs Do These 5 Things Daily

There is a saying that there are only three types of people in the world: those who watch what happened, those who wonder what happened and those who make things happen. 

Entrepreneurs fall into the last category, of course. They are change agents, people who don’t see the world as it is but as it could be. Entrepreneurs don’t sit on the sidelines and wish for a better world. Rather they go out and create it. They don’t wait for things to be different. They are the difference.

Being forward thinkers, entrepreneurs continually push themselves to become better and do better. They are game changers. They ooze confidence and inspire greatness.

Today is a great day to become an entrepreneur because the price of admission into this elite club is free and yours for the taking.

Do you really want to succeed as an entrepreneur? Follow these five steps and you’ll be well on your way to developing the leadership qualities it takes:

1. Willingly fail and reflect. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better,” goes Samuel Beckett's line. It's not always easy, the trying again part.

Another important thing is taking time to reflect on what went wrong. In the book The Call of Solitude, Ester Schaler Buchholz says, “Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out.”

In his book, Fail Up, radio broadcaster Tavis Smiley recalls lessons he has learned through reflection. He sheds light on these so-called failures that were, in hindsight, his best teachers.

You’ll only learn by failing over and over again. When you do this, you’re able to grow. And in spite of life’s inevitable setbacks, you’ll come out the victor.

2. Embrace and confront your fears. According to author Brendon Burchard, fear can be categorized in three ways, which all relate to pain. The first is loss pain, which happens when you’re afraid to move ahead because you fear you’ll lose something valuable.

The second is process pain, which inevitably occurs every time you try something new. You have to go through the process of learning to deal with it.

The last is outcome pain. This involves not getting the outcome you desired.

Burchard insists that people need to overwhelm their fears. Just as an army invades its enemy from every side, a person should do the same with fear, attacking it from every side, as if going to war. 

For Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran, public speaking was her Achilles' heel. But she overcame it by going to war. She volunteered to teach a real estate night course in front of a small group of students to overcome her fear.

3. Practice self-discipline. This is the ability to delay instant gratification and the ability to work hard now to reap benefits later. When Academy Award-winning actor Jamie Foxx was a boy, hisgrandmother routinely made him take piano lessons even though all he wanted to do was go outside to play. He had no idea that those lessons would lead to his eventual success. To this day, he continues to hone his craft and disciplines himself to practice playing the piano for two hours many a day.

No one sees the years of hard work you might put into an endeavor. They only see the outcome. If you want to reap the rewards of tomorrow, you must put in the work today.

4. Get some sleep. Shortly after the debut of her eponymous news site, Arianna Huffington collapsed from exhaustion and lack of sleep. She’d been working 18-hour days because she was so committed to growing her company. When she collapsed, she hit her head against a desk and found herself lying in a pool of blood.

In her book Thrive, Huffington details the ordeal and says it was a painful wake-up call. She knew she had neglected sleep and took steps to correct it.

When you get the sleep you need, you’ll feel more energized, charged and ready to tackle any problem entrepreneurship throws your way.

5. Give to others. In his book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success,Wharton Business School professor Adam Grant teaches the idea of generosity in a professional setting. 

For centuries, people have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work and sheer will. But things have changed. Success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others and how much we give them.

According to Grant’s research, the most successful people are those who consistently give. Grant takes this to heart so much that he not only puts in long hours as a professor, but also as many and sometimes even longer hours giving and helping others. 

That ancient book, the Bible, was right all along: Happiness comes from giving.  

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234052