Do You Have the Courage to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?

Do You Have the Courage to Become a Successful Entrepreneur?

That’s right, you must be a courageous soul if you are to endure the struggles and challenges of entrepreneurship, as well as being able to handle the successes you will undoubtedly achieve along the way. You will find that over the years you will go back and forth between success and failure multitudes of times, and it takes courage to bounce back each time after these roller coaster rides. Let’s discuss what it means to have the courage to become a successful entrepreneur.

As a new online entrepreneur I found myself feeling all alone in front of my computer. I had not experienced such loneliness in my previous careers as a classroom teacher and working part-time as a real estate broker and residential appraiser. In fact, I longed for time alone during those two decades and would actively seek out time and space for that solitude.

But once my time was my own and I began to spend six hours a day or so in front of my computer I began to feel isolated from other human beings. This was when I began volunteering and getting active with local charities and non-profits. A whole new world opened up for me and I became more courageous in both my personal and professional life than I ever thought possible.

During my first year working online I began writing every day. This was new to me, as I had been someone who wanted to write since an early age, talked about what I would write, and yet did almost no writing of my own. The fear I faced was that I knew my writing was not very good. But I was determined to turn myself into a writer, and writing for an hour each day helped me to accomplish my goal. Fifteen bestsellers later I still worry that my writing is not good enough, but now I have the courage to face that fear and do it anyway.

I also made the decision to surround myself with people who were much smarter and more accomplished in all areas of life than myself. Mainly these were people I was meeting at my local Rotary meeting and other charitable groups. Sometimes I would look around the table and be amazed at the people I now called my friends. I had read that we are the sum of the five people we spend the most time with, and I made it my goal to live up to what the others would want and expect from someone they were spending time with on a regular basis. It forced me to think through my words and actions so that they would be proud to know me.

As for the previous people I used to call friends? During that first year I was out of the work force they fell away through attrition. One by one we stopped calling each other and making plans to get together because we had less and less in common. If I would be invited to a party or other celebration we would talk and catch up, but as time went by we had less and less to share. After a decade, I now stay on contact with fewer than ten people from my teaching and real estate days.

My courage continues to grow as my business continues to change and evolve over the years. Every time I reach out to a friend or colleague for help I hear a little voice in my head whisper something about not knowing enough to be a successful entrepreneur. I always whisper a “thank you” back to that voice and then proceed with the task at hand. And when someone reaches out to me for help I am overjoyed they thought of asking me about whatever it is they are working on. Working on the courage to become a successful entrepreneur is rewarding and satisfying.

Visualization as a daily practice has made my transition from teacher and real estate appraiser/broker to that of online entrepreneur and author a smooth ride. Extremely successful people like Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith openly discuss how visualization plays a part in their lives, and I wrote about them in my book Rethinking the Work Ethic: Embrace the Struggle and Exceed Your Own Potential.

This involves spending quiet time alone and imagining what your life will look like when you achieve your goals. Start small and work up to imagining bigger accomplishments over time. Then reverse engineer your situation to see which actions and habits you must develop and adhere to in order to achieve these and make them a part of your life. You may find, as I have that just spending twenty minutes or so each morning in this sacred space opens up your mind to new thoughts, possibilities, and solutions.

Have the courage to become a successful entrepreneur and your life will change forever. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as you travel your journey to entrepreneurship.

I’m online marketing strategist and bestselling author Connie Ragen Green. I work with entrepreneurs to create multiple streams of online income and would love to connect with you. Pick up my Online Entrepreneur’s Blueprint and get started right away.