Guest Post by Ekua Cant.
It is only natural to be fearful about starting a new venture or business. I have taken a solution-focused mindset. I recommend reading the following books, which have really helped me: “Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway”, by Susan Jeffers and “Mindset” by Dr. Carol Dweck.
These two books look at how to be resilient from two different perspectives. Susan’s book is a self-help book that you should read more than once to utilise the concepts featured. It isn’t arrogant to have a high opinion of yourself, but as people, we find it easier to default to self-criticism or the negative opinions of others.
Dr. Carol Dweck’s book looks at the concept of being open to change and resilience from a more academic perspective and why it leads to more success than a closed mindset in terms of being able to adapt and be successful.
I started DrinksBot after coming to a point where I wanted to re-evaluate my career. I wasn’t feeling that I fit with the work that I was doing at the time.
Being an entrepreneur means that you need to be resilient. When you start your own business you’re in love with your idea but you must remember that most people will need some convincing. So don’t get disheartened if you receive negative feedback about your business. In fact, use it to improve your business offering.
My top 3 tips for being a resilient entrepreneur are:
1. Ask for help when you need it, there’s no shame in that. It actually means you will thrive.
2. Get rid of negative self-talk! You are the only one that controls your thoughts. Feed your mind with positive thoughts and it will aid your problem solving and improve resilience 100%!
3. Surround yourself with people who are positive, have ambition and push you to challenge what you perceive as your own limits!
I believe we are all aware we have some mental housekeeping to do to improve our personal resilience. No-one needs to hold onto negative beliefs, or opinions of others. We need to train our minds to have thoughts that serve us, these thoughts are positive, problem-solving and value our own self-worth.
We should all make a commitment to doing this and to surrounding ourselves with those people that have shown resilience to get to where they are. Remember if you want to succeed, you must fail first! So don’t let failure stop you, learn from it so it can help you succeed.
If you would like to hear Uzo Ijewere of Augment Results and I talk about this topic, please tune in to our upcoming webinar:
‘Say yes to opportunity: A practical talk about the importance of mindset’.
Ekua Cant is a 34-year old entrepreneur who aims to change people’s working days by providing better refreshments and hassle-free office events. She is the creator of DrinksBot a service which is a Slack Chatbot that provides craft draft drinks on-demand and a drinks concierge service that provides a robot waitress!
If you need help developing resilience in the workplace or in your life, get in touch with us at Augment Results.
Augment Results. It has never been more important for organisations to be seen to be human. At Augment Results, we power performance in companies, teams, and individuals by helping you adopt better management strategies, improve leadership skills, and achieve overall better results through more engaged, empowered and productive people. We offer seminars, workshops, consulting, and one on one coaching.
Read more articles like this one at www.augmentresults.com/blog/
