Willpower - Your Secret Weapon

Considering how most of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs are portrayed in the media, it’s easy to come to the conclusion these people have found such success because they are in some way exceptional.

 How many times have we all heard that so-and-so reads 100 books a year, is a genius-level coder, or survives on only 3 hours sleep a night?

 I’ve no doubt there are people out there just like that, but it’s important to remember that these ‘exceptional’ individuals are just that – exceptions.

 The vast (and I mean vast) majority of successful entrepreneurs are regular people. Most aren’t extraordinarily clever, charming, or even creative (as much as they’d love you to believe they are).

 There is, however, one thing all successful entrepreneurs have in common, whether they’re sleep-deprived tech geniuses or run-of-the-mill average Joes:

 Willpower.

 As Thomas Edison so neatly put it “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

 This adage is just as true for entrepreneurs as it is for anybody else: If you want your business to succeed where others fail, if you want to see your wild imaginings become thrilling realities - you have to work at it.

 Each and every day, come rain or shine, you have to keep plugging away, no matter if you have setbacks (you will) or moments of doubt (expect those too).

 Most people believe that willpower is a constant. An attribute you’re given at birth that you simply have to live with, whether you were blessed with bucketloads or a thimbleful.

 While I’ll happily concede that some people find self-motivation harder to come by than others, it is absolutely not true that there’s no way to boost your willpower and get more motivated.

 And in my next post, I’m going to outline my top tips and how to do just that.