More and more people are turning to entrepreneurship, or even independent contracts and remote work agreements, for revenue and higher job satisfaction than ever before.
Higher job satisfaction means being able to make your own decisions, work on your own time for your own personal targets, an opportunity to apply your skills to what you love doing, and turn all that into a career.
Then there is the so-called comfortable and content 9-5. Assuring you that tomorrow you’ll still have a job. Most people go for this because no one likes the unknown. Everyone wants to have some sort of guarantee that the future is safe. It seems at least a little more secure than the life of an entrepreneur.
Which side are you standing on?
Seth Godin’s Linchpin explains the PERL (Percentage of Easily Replaced Laborers) concept, where the cause of employee suffering is the desire of organizations to turn employees into “replaceable cogs in a vast machine.”
This can be better understood by looking at the evidence around us. Technology is now doing what people used to do. Trains don’t need drivers; you don’t need to work the premeditated 9-5 work day to have a real high-earning job anymore. The world has changed, and it’s going to continue to change. We’ve all been hearing more and more about this stuff.
I imagine the world is full of innovative people who dream about being the next Mark Zuckerburg. Lately, it seems as if large revenue is being generated by doing big things. But really, you don’t have to come up with Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to be a successful entrepreneur.
What you have to do is to think bigger than your conditioned thoughts.
You have to do what no one else is doing by creating what hasn’t been created yet, by thinking differently than the rest of the people around you. It’s okay to be considered weird, it’s okay to day-dream a lot, and it’s okay to perceive yourself as a top-notch innovative thinker.
For those looking to become innovative, successful entrepreneurs, it’s important to be attentive to your surroundings. Is there something you want to do but are prevented from doing because of reasons A, B, and C? What are the exact reasons for the lack of A, B, and C? Take some time to establish the things lacking around you so that you can change it and turn those reasons into success stories that you and/or others will benefit from. Don’t let anything hold you back. Not your fears, not the what-ifs, not the financial constraints. Think. Bigger.
Is the turnaround time for something too long? What can you do to drive it forward? How can you make it better? Never ever say, “That’s not my job.” Those are four, deadly little words that will kill your innovation and career faster than you can say them.
To spot things that we lack is easy. Take advantage of people’s complaints. Think of how you can turn it into a success story. It requires practice and a change of mindset. You need to put yourself in business mode. Allow yourself to dream of your crazy ideas, so you can turn them into realities.
Have you ever finished the sentences of the person you’re talking to in your head (if not out loud with confidence)? That is not a good habit for an innovative thinker. Don’t pretend like you already know what someone is going to say (even if you have an idea and even if you are right 99% of the time). If people in conversation agree on everything, what would be the point of conversing in the first place? Communication is not merely to show that we have common ground with other people. Boring. We may as well be talking to ourselves then. We learn by allowing other people to express their views. It’s important to listen to their needs and their ideas.
Someone once told me, “You can learn something from every single person you will ever speak to, even if you think you know more than they do.” If we took the time to get into other people’s heads, it would become so much easier to invest in our own employees, as well as the rest of the people around us.
If you invest in people, they’ll want to invest in you and your business. If you keep on giving, you will keep on receiving.
Of all the people I’ve worked with and for, Elisa is hands down my favorite source of inspiration. At CYC, I flourish every time I sit down to work on a project. She’s readily shared her Kindle library as a go-to, so we are able to find inspiration and knowledge from any of the hundreds of books she has purchased.
We’re able to learn any skill that we are interested in and love doing, which we can also apply to our positions here. Communication is plentiful and open. (Hell, I even received a paid-for course to learn eBook formatting!)
In turn, the company is ultimately at great benefit. We want to work hard, we want to get results, and we strive for consistent improvement.
Just another reason I love working here at CYC.
You cannot succeed if you let your vision for yourself fade out of sight. Success starts with you and your thoughts.
You may have heard this quote before, but let’s hear it again. Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” This is the perfect expression for how our thoughts influence our decisions, and the ultimate outcome of our successes and failures.
Spending time with the wrong crowd influences our decisions and mental attitude in ways that we’re sometimes not too consciously aware of. Not everybody is equipped to brush off negativity and give back an apathetic “fuck you” in return. Learn to let go of that which is only going to drag you down. If you value personal success and innovation, spend your time around people who share your vision. Steer clear of bad company, an unsuitable job, negative energy, bad habits, or even an unhealthy diet.
Taking action is probably the most important trait of someone who invests ample time to being innovative and successful. It’s easy to read a motivational book/article thinking that it’s going to kickstart things for you. But that’s definitely not all it takes.
You need to actually do whatever advice you decide to follow. Those 20 pounds aren’t going to lose themselves. Your business isn’t going to raise its own startup capital. Revenue isn’t going to fly into your bank account. Your friendship plants aren’t going to water themselves. It takes hard work, focus, determination, dedication, long hours, late nights, and lots of caffeine before you will have anything to show for it. That, and your constant willingness to improve yourself and the aspects of your daily life will make your career and your future as an entrepreneur a success.
Think about this.
What are you waiting for?
Sherise is a full-time virtual assistant, and currently, specializes in SEO, content creation & marketing, web research, and outreach. Sherise works and travels and in her free time she spends time in the gym, reads, writes and tries to visit more unsought after destinations on earth. For more of her work, you can find her here!
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