16 Feeling Good / Feeling Bad Reflection

“Happiness is the feeling you’re feeling when you want to keep feeling it.”  Author Unknown

There is more to starting a business than deciding on what you are going to do, choosing a name for your business and setting up a website.  You have to develop the right mindset for starting a business, an entrepreneurial mindset which I address in my book, 31 Powerful Lessons: Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset.

The first step is making a decision that you want to have your own business.  Part of this decision making process should include taking stock of your life and giving yourself a reality check.  It requires complete honesty with yourself.  There is no point in trying to fool yourself into something that isn’t real because in that way, you set yourself up to fail.

The benefit of having a clear picture of what you are feeling about your life is that you can take steps to transform the things that are negative.  It is important to remember, that, whether you know it or not, believe it or night, it is TRUE that your thoughts create your reality.  The more positive your thoughts are the better chance you have at creating success.

Here’s the challenge I present to you now.  Look at the 12 areas in your life listed below.  Look at the words and ask yourself truthfully, which one describes you most closely?  Circle the one that most accurately describes your life, then answer the questions below.

      Feels Good                            VS.                              Feels Bad

1.  Lifestyle                                                                    1.  Student/Workstyle

2.  Balance                                                                     2.  Disorder

3.  Financial Freedom                                                   3.  Financial Stress

4.  Great Health                                                             4.  Poor Health

5.  High Energy                                                             5.  Tired

6.  Love                                                                         6.  Fear

7.  Spiritual Connection                                               7.  Spiritual Disconnection

8.  Living on Purpose                                                  8.  Lost

9.   Healthy Relationships                                           9.  Toxic Relationships

10. Mental Clearness                                                  10. Mental Confusion

11. Experiencing Life                                                   11. Being Stuck

12. Being Satisfied                                                       12. Being Frustrated

Look through your responses to this activity.  Now answer these questions:

Which column has more descriptions of your life circled?

What do your responses to this activity tell you about your life?

Now you have something things to think about.  What can you do to transform those things that are in the Feeling Bad column?  It would be a good idea to prioritize in terms of which would be easier to take action on to change as quickly as possible.

Marcia Wieder calls this process of transformation completion.  You do what you need to do to change, fix, clear out, whatever is keeping you in the negative column and you have completed those things and find yourself in the positive column.

What have you identified as being in the thumbs down column, what is making that so, and how can you transform that?

Have you read 31 Powerful Lessons: Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset?  If not, why not?

46 Can You Just Jump Into Business?

Many people have a tendency to make things a lot harder on themselves than those things need to be.  Are you one of those people?

When I started my business, I just took my life and work experience and merged them, wrote some copy for my website and viola, I was in business.  Okay, there was a bit more involved, like creating visibility.  That was more time consuming than it was difficult.  The difficult part for me was learning how to do all the online technical stuff like getting a Word Press site up and running.  I’ve never actually been a tech person so there was  a steep learning curve.

Learn I did though.  I learned as I moved forward with my business, never letting the fact that I didn’t know how to do something stop me.  I got help.

I’m a big believer in just jumping off the cliff into the abyss of whatever it is I want to do.  It’s scary, but it’s really exhilarating, sort of like skydiving or belaying down the side of a mountain.  (The caption on the picture, in case it’s cut off, says To jump off a cliff, he jumped).

There are certainly different degrees of easy and difficulty in starting a business, depending on what type of business you want.  Turning your hobby into a business is relatively easy.  Here’s a three step plan for becoming  a professional photographer:

Really, that’s good advice.  A teacher in my life used to say that “it’s just as easy to act as if,” meaning that you should just act the part that you want to play as if it’s already a reality and it will become a reality a lot faster.

So hone up on your acting skills and jump off that cliff into whatever business you want.

12 My Opinion on Youth Unemployment

One thing that I have no trouble with is expressing my opinion and I have a lot of them.  Today, because in the blog challenge our assignment is to write an opinion piece, I’m going to give my opinion on the job situation in the United States as it relates to youth.

I have a rule not to discuss politics in public too often as it usually has no bearing on my work.  Except that the current lack of employment for our youth weighed very heavily in my decision to change my business to focus on empowering teens and young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset.

People are screaming at President Obama that he hasn’t created many jobs since being in office.  However, in the first quarter after the stimulus bill that he signed, the number of new jobs created was the highest it’s been in 30 years?  It’s just that so many jobs were lost during the eight years before he took office that it was impossible to create enough new jobs.

Also since he took office, the rate of the jobs lost has slowed so while jobs aren’t being created in large enough numbers, a lot of jobs have been saved and that’s something to be happy about.

And now with the worst congress we’ve had in my lifetime, the situation is worse and apparently, we might be headed for an even bigger recession.  Some on the right try to blame the high rate of youth unemployment on the Democrats for raising the minimum wage, however that is ridiculous.  The minimum wage has been raised periodically to help people as the cost of living rises.   If I were into assigning blame, I’d say the congress blocking all efforts to move forward to repair the economy in the name of politics is at fault.

When there are so many people out of work, we have folks with college degrees and a lot of experience vying for the same job that would normally be held by a young person.  That doesn’t bode well for our teens and young adults when it comes to being employed.

With that said, I believe that the only way many of our youth are going to be able to make a living is to create their own jobs.  This requires a mindset that will be a challenge to develop in some cases.  For whatever reason, we have a generation of children that are more hyper, have shorter attention spans and are easily distracted.  Often they have can’t hold a job once they find one for a variety of reasons.

We need to find a solution to this major issue of our time or we’re going to have a large portion of young adults unemployed, on social welfare and eventually, living with their parents, who in some cases aren’t much better off, or homeless.

It is incumbent upon us to encourage and support our children in developing an entrepreneur mindset as well as help them find the skills they need for marketing and doing business in the digital age if they are to have any hope of being financially self-sufficient.  The mindset is so important that I just wrote an ebook to help parents and others who work with teens and young adults to help them start thinking like an entrepreneur.  The book, Powerful Lessons Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset, will be on sale September 1.

What are you doing to help your children develop an entrepreneur mindset and prepare for the future?

21 What Can Your Teen Do to Earn A Million Dollars?

What talent does your teen have that could become their money tree?  What are they passionate about, what do they absolutely love to do and would do all the time if they could?  What bright ideas do they have?  Can they turn that into a profitable business?

Does your teenager want to be a musician or songwriter but they haven’t shown any musical talent?  What sort of businesses could they have around music?  How about selling music, either records, downloads, or sheet music.  What about musical instruments?  Start small by buying and selling on Ebay or Etsy.

Did you know that Richard Branson, now a billionaire who owns the Virgin companies started selling music from his home in London when he was boy?  He certainly parlayed that into a successful corporation.  He went from his home business to Virgin Records.

Recently on the show House Hunters International they featured a man who wanted to move to an island and work from home.  He started a business teaching piano on the internet using an online video platform so he could live where he wanted and teach piano to people all over the world.  He claims to have a multimillion dollar business and his home purchase seems to confirm that.  Granted he’s not a kid, but this is something a kid can do.

What skills or talents is your teen capable of teaching to someone else?  How about creating tutoring videos about math or history?  Teaching guitar by video or how to garden, how to can and preserve, how to crochet, how to scrapbook?

Have you heard about the tween who started a company called Man Candles because he was embarrassed to use perfumed candles?  They are masculine scented candles in a can.  The company grew from his home kitchen to become a real manufacturing company.

One young woman became a millionaire selling greeting cards she designed for teens because her friends complained that none of the cards in the store fit their age group.

Recently I saw a video about a 12 year old who was well on his way to becoming a five star chef because he got fed up with mother’s poor cooking skills.  He decided to teach himself how to cook.  He watched the food network, practiced knife skills then started cooking.  He turned his bedroom into a professional chef’s kitchen with money he earned and once a month he and his mother turn their home into a restaurant where he tests his skills on the neighbors.  This 12 year old is now apprenticing with some well renowned chefs and his goal is have his own 5 star Michelen restaurant in the near future.  You can see his passion when he talks about it.  It made me want to find out where he’s cooking and get an invite.

Another young man who is 11 was so repulsed by the effects of genetically engineered food that he has decided to become an organic farmer.  He is learning everything he can and is educating other young people along the way about healthy eating.

Ted Talks features a 12 year old boy who creates apps for android phones.  His apps are very popular, he’s earning a lot of money and has plans for a future in Silicon Valley.

And if you don’t think your kid can create a million dollar business around skateboarding, just google Tony Hawk and get back to me.

Kids are amazing and can accomplish awesome things when given half a chance and some solid support.  What are you doing to empower your kids to become an entrepreneur?

30 Create a List of Five “Daily Musts”

There should never be a moment during your working time when you don’t know what to do.  To avoid this situation, here is a simple little technique.  Create a list of five things you must do every day.  The idea is that as long as you get these five items checked off, you have successfully moved closer to reaching your goals.

Interact with your current community (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc, return emails)

Prospect to find customers (both online and at events in your area)

Prospect to build your list (contact people to joint venture with)

Create content (blog, create freemiums, write an ebook or report)

Increase your expertise (study your passion and learn more about marketing)

What are your five daily musts?

8 The 7 C’s of Success

Today’s lesson in the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series comes from Brian Tracy, one of the world’s leading authorities on personal and business success.

Brian studied top achievers and peak performers for more than 35 years.  He concluded that these men and women are unique and have, in most cases, mastered what he calls the Seven C’s of Success.

Those seven C words are:

Clarity – Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in and what you don’t.

Competence – You can’t climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what you do now.

Constraints – Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is constraining you or your company and deal with it.

Concentration – The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it’s done takes more character than anything else.

Creativity – Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like a muscle, if you don’t use it you’ll lose it.

Courage – Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you know are right.

Continuous learning – Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you miles ahead of the competition. Organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending messages, going through websites, because like exercise, it’s the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you’ll lose your edge.

How many of these C words fit you?  How many do you still need to develop?

23 Become An Inspiring Leader

Can you explain to people WHY you do what you do? What moved you to start your business? What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

Author Simon Sinek describes what he calls the Golden Circle of Communication. According to Sinek, communicating the why first is communicating from the inside out and “people don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.”

He presents this key to becoming an inspiring leader in a Ted Talk which you should listen to, it’s brilliant.

Sinek explains that your best customers and clients buy from you or hire you because they believe what you believe. He reminds us that Martin Luther King didn’t give an “I have a plan speech,” he gave an “I have a dream speech” and within that speech he talked about what he believed.

People didn’t necessarily connect with Martin Luther King the man, they connected with what he believed because it was the same thing that they believed. He believed that people should be treated equally under the law and that was his why.

The why that drives me forward is that I believe that all teens and young adults should have the opportunity to have the life of their dreams regardless of their life experience or current circumstances, and in light of the current economic situation, I believe we need to help them find alternatives to jobs.

Why do you do what you do?

20 Perserverance – The Essential Key to Success

Perseverance. A fitting topic to end a successful challenge with. Perseverance is the essential key to achieving success in anything that we do. You can learn all the skills you need, take all the steps you need to take, but if you don’t stick with it, you’ll can’t possibly succeed.

It has been a pleasure to go through this challenge with all of you.  I look forward to following some of your blogs in the future.

Let’s take a look at what perseverance is and how we put it into practice.

What is perseverance?

• Perseverance is commitment, hard work, patience, endurance.
• Perseverance is being able to bear difficulties calmly and without complaint.
• Perseverance is trying again and again.

You show perseverance when you:

• Give up your television or gaming time to spend hours working on your homework or building your
business
• Try to learn a new skill that is very difficult but you don’t give up
• Keep working even when discouraged
• Come from a home where there is fighting and unhappiness but you still try your best
• Have missed a week of school but you work hard to catch up
• Are at the end of a difficult race but you cross the finish line
• Save money and make sacrifices to buy something
• Spend hours practicing on your music or craft or sport
• Study and work hard to raise your grade
• Try out for something you weren’t successful at the first time

Put perseverance into action

• When something starts to bother you, wait as long as you can before you express frustration.
• When something doesn’t work right, try again and again.
• Don’t lose your temper when something upsets you.
• Always finish what you start.
• Keep working at something that is difficult until you complete it.
• Don’t give up on difficult jobs or situations.
• Focus on someone or something that ordinarily makes you lose your patience and try to understand
it (and don’t “lose it”).
• Work a little harder or a few minutes longer on a task that you do not like.

Here are two quotes from two men who persevered through many difficult times. They were both courageous men who literally had the weight of the world on their shoulders. Luckily for us, they weren’t quitters.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Albert Einstein

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. Franklin D. Roosevelt

1 3 Ways of Thinking to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset

Peter J. Cahill, an Australian entrepreneur has identified a simple tool he calls the ABC Principle.  It includes learning three different ways of thinking and regardless of which one is most natural to you, stepping outside your comfort zone so that you can use which ever method works best in a given situation.

The ABCs are:

A. Abstract thinking

Einstein once said “What counts can’t always be counted, and what can be counted doesn’t always count.” That’s what abstract thinking is all about.  It’s not tangible and it may not fit into a spreadsheet, but the results that flow from it can.  Thinking skills.  Beliefs. Confidence.  Imagination.  Visionary skills.  Optimism.  Consciousness.  Mindset.  And that’s just for starters.

B. Business intellect thinking

Business intellect thinking encompasses all your measurable business knowledge and skills such as figures, data, strategies, analysis, systems and qualifications. Many business people feel most comfortable in this space.

Most large corporations are stuck in this type of thinking.  If an entrepreneur is sharp, they understand this type of thinking and find ways of beating big corporations at their own game by thinking around them using abstract and creative thinking.

C. Creative thinking

Creative thinking is where great ideas are born.  It’s not exclusive to arty types and designers, but is a natural part all of us.  You use Creative thinking every morning during the simple act of selecting your outfit for the day or when planning a healthy meal.

This is the type of thinking that fuels your entrepreneurial engine.

Finding your comfort zone

Regardless of whether you naturally favor abstract thinking, business intellectual thinking or creative thinking, each of us has a particular way of operating that we’re most comfortable with.

Moving out of that comfort zone and into the other two ways of thinking is what entrepreneurs do best. Corporate executives and big companies don’t tend to do it anywhere near as well as soloists, and some hardly do at all.

The entrepreneur zone

Abstract, business intellect and creative thinking are like three intersecting circles. The sweet spot in the middle where the three overlap can be elusive, but is well-worth striving for.

Cahill calls it the “entrepreneur zone,” and it’s the best place to be if you want to think and behave like a true entrepreneur.

0 20 Entrepreneurship Proverbs: Ancient Thoughts on Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Welcome to day 29 of the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs Series. I ran across these 20 ancient quotes from several different cultures that I believe are worth pondering. They are all related to the entrepreneurial mindset and include thoughts about integrity, responsibility, failure, attitude and more.

Which one speaks to you the most? Is there one over all the others that you needed to be reminded of right now? Or one that you find inspirational or motivational?

1. “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese Proverb

2. “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” Japanese Proverb

3. “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” Chinese Proverb

4. “A bad workman blames his tools.” Chinese Proverb

5. “A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.” Chinese Proverb

6. “Defeat isn’t bitter if you don’t swallow it.” Chinese Proverb

7. “The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.” Chinese Proverb

8. “A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.” Chinese Proverb

9. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Chinese Proverb

10. “The loftiest towers rise from the ground.” Chinese Proverb

11. “Building a castle is difficult. Defending and maintaining it is harder still.” Asian Proverb

12. “A person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.” Chinese Proverb

13. “All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws.” Chinese Proverb

14. “Don’t stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net.” Chinese Proverb

15. “Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.” Hasidic Proverb

16. “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Chinese Proverb

17. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Chinese Proverb

18. “Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.” Chinese Proverb

19. “Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.” Chinese Proverb

20. “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Confucius