The Most Valuable Lessons I learned as an Entrepreneur

ContentBacon isn't the first organization I have started from the ground up.??

Who knows, perhaps it won't be the last either ??

There have been endless learnings throughout this journey of building organizations, hiring key members, and facing endless challenges and opportunities along the way. It’s one of the reasons I love being an entrepreneur. Always learning and growing and adding tools to the toolbox.?

As I'm reflecting on what I want to do these next 12 months, I’m reviewing a few of the lessons I’ve learned that I wanted to share.?

Maybe some of these will go into your own toolbox??

11 Biggest Areas That Have Helped Me Create Significant Accomplishments:

1. Gratitude - Gratitude raises your vibration and puts you in a winning mindset. You can’t feel angry or like a victim when you are being grateful. And there are always things to be grateful for! Spend a couple of minutes first thing you wake up taking note of all the things you are grateful for. Build a strong habit of doing this daily.?
2. Focus - "When you market to everyone, you market to no one." Get crystal clear about what you want to be great at and what you want to suck at. Frances Frei - "In order to be great you have to have the courage to be bad". You get clear on your focus when you know your mission, vision, and values. Doing Cameron Herold's Painted Picture is a great way to kickstart this.
3. Hire Before You Think You Are Ready - "If you don't have an assistant, you are an assistant." Jack Daly. I used to try to do everything myself and never thought I had the cash flow to hire anyone. This held me back so so much. When I finally listened to this advice, my business transformed because I started spending time on things that have a greater impact. You may not be able to hire full-time people to start but you can get a VA for a couple of hours a week to do those tasks that you have no business doing. "What gets outsourced gets done."
4. Develop systems and processes for consistency and predictability - "Losers have goals. Winners have systems." - Scott Adams.
5. Systems and processes will set you free. I used to reinvent the wheel every time I did something and even convinced myself that was a good thing because I wasn't offering cookie-cutter services. The problem was I could never train anyone else to do what I did because I didn't even know what I was doing.?
6. Get out of the stands and on the court. ACTIONS! ACTIONS! ACTIONS!
7. "Make it bad, make it better." Govindh Jayaraman. The best way to get something done is to actually do it. Perfect is the enemy of done. Get your stuff out there. Look at it. Get feedback. Then make it better. Take action every day. Be relentless. Don’t let resistance get the best of you because it will!
8. Find your Tribe. Surround yourself with great COMMUNITY. Find people that are smarter than you, with more experience, and with different opinions. And then be open to listening to what they tell you, "trying things on", being coachable. Be vulnerable with your community. Share and be willing to ask for help and make powerful requests. My community and my tribe are everything to me and they help me be bigger, bolder, and braver than I even think is possible. Different than your friends - people you like to hang out with. People that challenge you and sometimes hit your hot buttons.
9. Mindset.? You have the power to decide who you will be every day and how you will show up for your family, your team, your customers, and yourself. You have to be intentional about this. THIS DOES NOT COME NATURALLY. I REPEAT. THIS DOES NOT COME NATURALLY. "You are not your feelings." You can not feel like doing something and do it anyway. "Are you going to give in to your reasons or go for results?" Julia Pimsleur. I use a morning ritual to help me create my day. I love the Take Action: Planner by Govindh Jayaraman. I also meditate each morning for 10 minutes, read something inspirational and now even make my bed -a new addition thanks to Tools of Titans which I'm reading right now. I also set an intention for everything I do - meetings, phone calls, emails, everything and let whomever I'm with know my intention. This is transformational.
10. Be 100% Responsible for your life. You can always find reasons or outside factors
11. Embrace problems! Not having problems is a problem. If you are up to anything worthwhile, you will have problems. Progress = problems

Additionally, and possibly more important than any of the above is the following:?

Take your life and make it the best story in the world.?

Do things that you're scared to do.?

Take pictures of everything.?

Tell people you love them.?

Talk to random strangers.?

Love your LIFE!?

Don't waste it!

The tragedy of life is not death…

but what we let die inside of us?

while we live.

Happy building!