Three Ways to Think Big and Start Small

Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship is simultaneously exhilarating and paralyzing. If you’re like most entrepreneurs you’ve been living and breathing your business idea for what feels like forever, growing its potential in your head with each passing moment. And despite the anticipation and excitement, when the time comes for action, you feel stuck. Where do you even begin? How do you go about building an empire, changing an industry, or creating a legendary business?

The key to success for most entrepreneurs is learning to toggle back and forth between thinking big and moving things forward, which often requires taking small manageable steps. Here are three ways to make some progress.

1. Get in the Right Frame of MindEntrepreneurship is a marathon not a sprint. It’s easy to succumb to the feeling of urgency to do everything now. But burnout and entrepreneurial fatigue can mean sabotage for your business as well as your personal life. Prioritize longevity and keep one eye on the horizon. Think about what pace you need to set now to maintain your stamina and enthusiasm for years to come.
   Establishing good habits and resisting bad ones go a long way to preventing burnout. I have several strategies for staying refreshed: setting and sticking to my work/life boundaries; making space for creative thinking time; and taking vacations. When I don’t practice these habits, I feel compromised and overwhelmed. When I do, I am optimistic, creative and energized.
   
   
2. Don’t Be Afraid to ExperimentThink about the big questions that drive your business. What challenges are you trying to solve? What changes are you going to make to your industry? How will you know when you’ve succeeded? While these questions can help to keep the big picture in mind and your mission in focus, they don’t exactly inspire a neat step-by-process. And the truth is that there may be multiple, viable alternatives instead of one clear “right” answer.
   Instead of pre-determining a hypothetical outcome, get clarity by experimenting with various strategies. Experimentation will help you get more information, test the market, and build momentum for the big master plan. It will also help you get products into the marketplace faster and help you resist the inclination to be a perfectionist. For example you can test retail concepts with a pop-up store, improve products with focus groups, and test services with pilot participants. Consider the biggest question facing your business and what experiments might yield the necessary data.
   
   
3. Brush Up on Your History LessonsWhat businesses or entrepreneurs to you look to for inspiration. Its important to identify businesses you want to be like when you grow up. But remember, these entrepreneurial superheros had beginnings too. Do some research to find out their early days were like. Learn from their lessons and take note of their milestones and decisions points. Seeing their journey helps to demystify the process and makes your business heroes human. It’s helpful to know that all business heroes had doubts and doubters of their own.
   It’s also important to dismantle your own myths of the overnight success. For example, few people realize that Hanky Panky, the famed lingerie company, had already been in business for 27 years before they scored the front-page Wall Street Journal article that made them a household name. Instead of focusing on their impressive brand recognition or their significant market share, see what insight you can glean from Hanky Panky’s recent decision to build a robust e-commerce site after being exclusively wholesale or their recent introduction of several new product lines. What can your business learn from this example and the examples of the giants in your industry?

Keeping your focus on building long term momentum, establishing good habits and taking small steps can help build momentum that will take you closer to your business goals.

5 Ways To Make a Killer First Impression

Most people will judge you within the first second of meeting you and their opinion will most likely never change. Making a good first impression is incredibly important, because you only get one shot at it.

Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov and co-author Janine Willis, a student researcher who graduated from Princeton in 2005 had people look at a microsecond of video of a political candidate. Amazingly, research subjects could predict with 70-percent accuracy who would win the election just from that microsecond of tape. This tells us that people can make incredibly accurate snap judgments in a tenth of a second.

How can you ensure people are judging you accurately and also seeing your best side? You never want to give people an inauthentic impression — many people can intuitively feel if someone is being fake immediately. However, any time you meet someone for the first time, you always want to start on the right foot. Here are a few ways you can make sure people’s first impression of you is a good one:

1. Set an intention. The most important thing to do for giving a good impression is to set your intention. This is especially important before any kind of big event where you would be meeting a lot of people — i.e. conferences, networking events or friend’s parties. As you get ready or when you are driving over think about what kind of people you want to meet and what kind of interactions you want to have. This can be an incredibly grounding experience and works very well to focus on what kind of energy you want to have for your event.
   
   
2. Think about your ornaments. Clothes, make-up, jewelry, watches and shoes are all types of ornamentation and people definitely take these into account when making initial judgments. I highly recommend getting some of your favorite outfits or ornaments together and asking friends you trust what they think of when they see them. For many men, they do not realize that their watch can say a lot about them. For women, purses and large earrings or jewelry can also indicate a lot to a new person they are meeting. Make sure that what you are wearing and how you do your hair or make-up says what you want it to say to the people you are meeting for the first time.
   
   
3. Be Conscious of Your Body Language. Body language is a crucial part of first impressions. Everything from your posture to how you carry yourself to the way you’re angling your body. Often, simply being aware of your body language can result in immediate improvements. Another way to examine your body language is to look at yourself on a video walking around a room. Subconscious cues to keep in mind include noticing where you point your feet, the position of your shoulders, and the way you shake hands.
   
   
4. Avoid bad days. People who go to cocktail events or mixers after having had a bad day typically continue to have a bad day. If you are in a depressed or anxious mood, others will pick up on this from your facial expressions, comments and body language. If you’re having a bad day, stay home! Otherwise, find a way to snap yourself out of your bad mood. I find working out or watching funny YouTube videos before events often gets me in a more social, feel good mood.
   
   
5. Be interested and interesting. If you are truly interested in meeting people and are open to learning about who they are, they will get this in a first impression. We have all had the experience of meeting someone and knowing instantly that they were dragged here by a friend and are just waiting to get out the door and head home. When you are meeting people for the first time approach others with a genuine interest in who they are. This is often contagious and you will have better conversations and lasting connections when you are interested because they become interested.

How to Achieve Success in 6 Thoughts

The Wright brothers are credited with the first controlled, manned, powered flight on December 17th, 1903. Although they failed hundreds of times before they succeeded, they never gave up on their dream. Had they done so, invention of the modern aircraft would have been attributed to someone else.

This example illustrates the power that exists in the human mind. In the Wright brothers day, no one had ever seen an airplane fly. It would have been easy for them to conclude that their goal was unachievable. Today, we know it wasn’t. For the Wright brothers, believing was the first step.

Our minds have the ability to convince us that something is impossible long before we give it our best effort. If we’re not careful, we can formulate a mental surrender that says, “I can’t do this. I’ll never make it. It’s not possible.” Those who let themselves think this way are sure to fail because they stop trying to succeed. How can you make sure that your own mind doesn’t get in the way of your dreams?

Know Your Limits

There is a difference between obstacles and limits. Obstacles can be overcome, whereas limits cannot. For example, a blind person cannot drive a car. Real limits are few – obstacles are many. Knowing your limits will keep you from striving for the unachievable and ending up disappointed. Once you understand your limits, everything outside of them becomes a possibility.

Have a Plan

A good plan is the secret weapon for combating mental obstacles. When you have a plan and are determined to stick to it, it doesn’t matter what you are feeling at a given time because you can simply ‘proceed as planned’. Conversely, if you are plagued with negative thoughts and a lack direction, it’s easy to become complacent.

Visualize Your Goals

Once you’ve spent so much time thinking about a goal that you can see it, touch it, taste it, and smell it with your mind’s eye, you won’t easily give up on it. The desire to achieve it will give you the fortitude to overcome even the most daunting of obstacles. Before you ever become successful, you should already be successful in your mind. Doing this will convince you to push through any temporary pain you might experience on your way to achieving your dream.

Ignore the Doubts of Others

At 21, while interviewing for an $8.00 per hour position, I told the interviewer I expected to be earning six figures within fie years and be semi-retired by 35. “That’s a little farfetched,” he said with a chuckle. It may have seemed farfetched to him, but where he saw obstacles, I saw opportunity. I knew the obstacles were there. I simply chose to ignore them.

Embrace Positivity

Stay away from people, places, and things that bring you down. Immerse yourself in as many upbuilding activities as possible. Choose positive reading material and positive friends. Listen to the prodding of fellow optimists and ignore the criticism of pessimists.

Understand Fear

Fear creates imaginary obstacles. Fear can prevent us from introducing ourselves to people (fear of rejection), starting profitable business ventures (fear of failure), and experiencing wonderful things (fear of the unknown). The key to overcoming such fears is to:

- Recognize them in yourself.
- Identify their root.
- Make a plan to deal with them.

The next time you have an idea you are hesitant to pursue, ask yourself if fear might be the only thing holding you back.

Success and failure exist in the power of the mind. Take control of your thoughts and you will take control of your success.