Forbes, The Independent, Glamour UK and More: 11 Lessons From 2017

In 2017 I started a monthly writing challenge that I set myself. Every month I wrote about an important lesson I had learnt. I did this to try and make the lesson stick, and also to hopefully help others on a similar journey.

2017 was an exciting year- some of my highlights include:

-         Being mentioned in Forbes

-         Being included in The Independent’s Happy List

-         Selling The Moments Journal at events for the first time

-         Securing our first Stockist for The Moments Journal

-         Good News Shared being mentioned in Glamour UK Magazine

Here are the main lessons I learnt in 2017:

Say yes to opportunities, you never know where they will lead

When I received an email inviting me to ‘share my entrepreneurial story’ at an event with an audience of accelerators, VCs, brands and press, I almost said no.

The thought of standing up and ‘pitching’ for five minutes made me feel nervous.

Public speaking is not something that comes easily to me, but it is something I have done more and more of over the last three years as I have tried to push myself out of my comfort zone and raise awareness of the work I am doing with Good News Shared.

I felt particularly nervous on this occasion as it would be the first time I talked about The Moments Journal and why I created it.

Despite these nerves I agreed to do the talk, and I am so pleased I did! Afterwards, I felt really happy that I challenged myself and I really enjoyed the experience.

I knew this was a good opportunity for me, and even if it did not lead to anything straight away, the experience itself would teach me a lot.

On this occasion, this specific opportunity did lead to something exciting- a mention in Forbes!

A change of environment can improve my productivity and creativity

Working from home has some benefits, but sometimes it’s useful to have a change of environment. I love social media (Twitter in particular!) and the opportunity it gives to get to know new people, but there is still something special about meeting people in person.

Having some time away from my laptop meeting new people can be really rewarding. It gives me time to think about things I wouldn’t have thought about if I was ploughing through my daily to-do list, and I find hearing people’s stories about themselves and their work really inspiring.

Trying new things is worth it- even if it’s scary and challenging at first!

Recently a lot of what I have been doing has been new- I have started selling a physical product for the first time, so I have had to learn a lot (and still do!).

Occasionally when I want to do something new and challenging I find myself putting it off for a while, either waiting for the ‘perfect’ time or prioritising my daily to-do list.

One of the new (& scary!) things I tried in 2017 is asking The Moments Journal customers for their feedback.

Getting feedback can be scary but it is so important, which is why I decided to go for it.

Adding reviews to the shop website is something I am pleased I have done- it’s important for potential customers to see, and it’s useful for me to see what people think of the journal.

It has been really nice reading reviews from The Moments Journal customers – if I ever need reminding of why I am doing what I am doing, I know where to head!

Inspiration can come from unexpected places

A few months ago I watched a made-for-TV film which left me feeling so inspired! I didn’t love the film, but it left me feeling curious and I spent some time looking into the film afterwards. It was based on a true story of a woman who, at the age of 17, decided to do something to change the direction her life was going in. This decision led her to work incredibly hard at school, where she completed four years of high school in two years.

'Like my mother, I was always saying, "I'll fix my life one day."' she said. 'It became clear when I saw her die without fulfilling her dreams that my time was now or maybe never.'

The film (From Homeless to Harvard), Liz’s story, and – in particular – the above quote inspired me to take action on something I had been holding off from doing due to fear: selling The Moments Journal on Amazon.

Persistence is key when selling anything

When I was in Lisbon I noticed a man selling water. The water seller walked along a busy area approaching every person he passed. I didn’t see a single person buy a bottle of water from him, but this didn’t seem to deter him at all. He kept approaching everyone he passed.

Watching this man made me see how important it is to remain persistent and upbeat when selling something. It took me back to when I was working in events and I sat next to some of the sales team. Every day they would pick up the phone and try to persuade someone to buy tickets to a conference. Some days they would get sales, other days they wouldn’t. Either way, they would continue to be persistent and not take any rejection personally.

I don’t have a background in sales, so this lesson was a really important one for me to learn.

You can't achieve anything alone

I have been running Good News Shared for over 3 years now, and we have shared more than 1000 uplifting charitable stories in that time.

This would not have been possible without the 125 writers who have researched and written articles, our volunteer social media managers, volunteer website designers and developers and our Ambassadors and Assistant Editor. We all continue to be motivated by our readers who take the time to read, share and comment on our articles.

Focus on the present

I try to focus my mind on the present using The Moments Journal, and I have realised it’s important to do this in my business life too. When I had a particularly good month recently, I got excited and created new targets for myself. My mind started drifting away from the present; instead I was thinking about what I want to achieve next year, and the year after that.

I quickly started feeling overwhelmed at how much I need to do instead of being excited at how things are progressing.

I think setting goals is incredibly important. I discovered in my first job after university that I am a very target-driven person. But I have now realised that while having targets is important for me, I need to keep my focus on the present, as I will otherwise put too much pressure on myself.

Knowing what you want and why is so important

This seems obvious, but it is so important to keep remembering this lesson.

I am generally not very good at thinking about specific things I want to achieve and why. But this is something I am trying to spend more time doing on a regular basis, as the power and importance of knowing what you want and why is becoming more and more apparent to me.

I first started seeing the power of this in 2013, when I was lucky enough to be given a scholarship place on an event run by Sam Collins. At the event, Sam told us about the vision board she had created and how the things she had put on it had now come true!

More recently, a conversation with Jackie Scully made me think of this again, as Jackie told me about her ‘Brighter Life’ list- all the things she wants to do and achieve in her life. Jackie believes that the more you write things down and actually hold yourself to account, the more likely you are to actually do the things you want to do.

In July 2017, I wrote a LinkedIn post in which I explained the two things I wanted to achieve professionally. They were to continue raising awareness of the Good News Shared website and to sell The Moments Journal in physical shops. By November 2017, Good News Shared had been mentioned in Glamour UK Magazine and The Moments Journal was available to buy in a shop in West Hampstead, London!

Knowing what I wanted, the reasons why, and sharing it with people via LinkedIn helped me to achieve them.

Success and change do not happen overnight, and certainly don’t happen without challenges and setbacks

We don’t always hear the full story of how a successful person reached to the top. But it’s so important to keep in mind that no one is an overnight success.

A visit to the Apple Museum in Prague reminded me of this.

Walking through the museum, you can hear Steve Jobs’ Stanford University speech playing overhead, in which he shares stories from his life.

The museum exhibits and the speech clearly show how success and change do not happen overnight.

And they certainly don’t happen without setbacks and challenges.

For example, back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak both sold something special to raise the money they needed to start the company.

And in 1985, Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, the company he had started!

“I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.” – Steve Jobs

 

Writing and sharing goals can help them happen!

I am a big fan of the World’s Strongest Man competition and was so excited and proud to see Eddie Hall win the title in 2017.

Eddie set his goal of winning World’s Strongest Man, worked hard for several years, and achieved what he set out to. His advice to anyone setting goals? Share them with others.

“Number one rule in goal setting is: tell someone. You can be at home: 'My ambition for next year is to get a job paying 30k a year, get a house, blah, blah, blah.' If you don’t tell anyone, you’re just kidding yourself. But if you tell your mum, your brothers, your friends, 'This is what I’m gonna do,' it commits you,” he said to Vice.

Small milestones are worth celebrating too

In a year where I have had so many amazing things happen, like being included in The Independent’s Happy List, I realised that it is important for me to appreciate and celebrate the smaller milestones too- like receiving a lovely tweet from a Good News Shared reader, people buying The Moments Journal (it still amazes me that people I don’t know are buying something I created!), and a Good News Shared Agency client giving us some lovely, positive feedback.

All these things matter to me and motivate me each day, and while other people might not find them very exciting, they are the sort of things I will be celebrating and enjoying each day.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read my LinkedIn challenge posts over the last 12 months, I hope they were useful in some way. I'd love to hear what important lessons you have learnt recently- please share them in the comments below :)

Nisha Kotecha is the Founder of Good News Shared, Director of Good News Shared Agency, and the Creator of The Moments Journal, a guided journal that helps people end their day in a positive way.