How to keep your motivation up after staggering setbacks

Before I was a business owner, I was a boxer. Albeit, not a fabulous boxer, but I liked the blood and the grit - nothing can give you more satisfaction than seeing your opponent bleed as a result of you. I've noticed that both boxing and business have something in common: Whether you’re growing a company or taking punches to the face, you need to learn how to shake blows off quickly.

When you start a new business,  you encounter so many hurdles that you never dreamed of, along with countless sleepless nights. One day you will answer the phone or get an email with some really bad news, and it will feel like someone just did a right, left combo to the nose then to the jaw. First it stings like you just snorted wasabi paste, then your eyes will water, and you may even blackout for a second. If you don’t shake it off immediately when he comes in for another jab left hook you’ll be laying face down ass up on the floor. You’ll be out of the ring and your motivation to win is gone.

Early in your startup you can have ten serious setbacks before you finally have any big win. That is why it is crucial to stay motivated. Mark Cuban, a billionaire entrepreneur and regular “shark” on ABC’s Shark Tank admits he has failed to close several key sales deals which resulted in having to shut down a powdered milk business. He was on trial twice for Insider Trading, once his case was dismissed and the second time he was cleared of all charges. Cuban’s first big win was to start Broadcast.com and sell it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in stock in 1999.  He has said, “What I do isn’t rocket science. It just requires an unrelenting effort.” Cuban now owns the Dallas Mavericks and is the Chairman of AXS TV. Cuban had the determination and motivation. He shook off every punch to the face. When others would have thrown in the towel, he kept going.

Here’s my advice, first redefine what you think is “bad news”. Understand it is you who is defining the information that is being delivered to you and it is you who is defining it as bad. It is actually just information, you label it as you’d like. If you define it as “bad”, then you’ll have to shake off the bad news, get up and keep fighting. Your motivation will vanish if you allow setbacks to shape your vision.

Many high powered entrepreneurs have experienced devastating setbacks and retained their motivation to win. Elon Musk, the billionaire who once co-founded Paypal and now sits as CEO at Tesla and Space X, said that he financed Space X with half of his money from the sale of Paypal to cover its first three satellite launches.

Each of those three launches failed.

The other half of the money from his Paypal sale went to founding Tesla. He admitted to borrowing money from friends to keep Tesla from going bankrupt in 2008. He almost lost both businesses in the same year but he didn’t allow these setbacks to change his vision. He could have shut one down to save the other, instead he persevered on both fronts. Musk said in a 2005 interview, "You don't learn when everything goes smoothly, and if you aren't learning, you can't adapt to the changes or the future.” Today, Space X is now profitable boasting several NASA contracts, and Tesla expects to be profitable by the end of 2016.

Mark Cuban and Elon Musk persevered time and time again and you will too, as long as you are able to shake off every setback and keep fighting for the big win. To paraphrase Henry Ford, "Whether you believe it is possible, or it is not, either way you are correct."

Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. – Brian Tracy

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work. – Seth Godin

The Lucky Entrepreneur

The Lucky Entrepreneur

If you ask me if there is such a thing as a lucky entrepreneur, I would without hesitation declare that many entrepreneurs are lucky.  That is because I define luck as preparedness meeting opportunity.  Or as Oprah would say “I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity”. Most of the population operates under the illusion that luck happens to some people while it eludes almost everyone else.

The smart entrepreneur understands that an open eye and an open mind are key to finding the success that others are unable to grasp and command.  The open eye is required to see when an opportunity is before them. 

“An open mind is necessary to be able to see opportunities where most other people see problems or obstacles”

An open mind is also the ability to place your ego and pride aside and have a very open mind to other ideas that people bring to the table.

Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, these magnets attract to us the forces the people the circumstances of life which harmonized with the nature of our dominating thoughts. If your dominating thoughts are those of success and opportunity, your life will attract those very things to you. For those entrepreneurs who are open and receptive, luck and opportunity will be ahead of them.  

“As an entrepreneur you always have to maintain a spirit of open-mindedness”

I’ve tried to live my life as an explorer, discovering and taking advantage of opportunities others may not have because of the fear of being wrong, I’ve come to realize that there is nothing wrong about being wrong. Eloise Ristad said

“When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time give ourselves permission to excess”

As an entrepreneur there is one thing for certain, you will be wrong many, many times but “luck” shines upon those who take a risk, fail, get up and persist again.

The smartest thing I ever did was to hire my weakness.

– Sara Blakely

You manage things; you lead people. – Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

Colin Powell on Leadership

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.

– Colin Powell

EVERY PERSON IS BETTER THAN YOU IN SOME WAY 

If you ever see me walking along the sidewalks of downtown or line at Starbucks and you see me with someone. Know that that person you see me with is better than me at something, or a lot of things

I’ve learned that people have rich gifts to give this world, whether they are homeless and destitute or a thriving CEO. Each person brings color and richness to this world in some remarkable ways.

I’ve been very fortunate to surround myself with people who have enriched my life, motivated me and made me stronger. So the next time you see me with someone, know that they enrich this world and make it a more colorful place for all of us. 

-Ted Stearns 

The Power of your Thoughts

The Trick of Autosuggestion:

Autosuggestion is a tactic which I use every day to implant ideas into my subconscious mind. Whatever thoughts I put into my mind, whether they are positive or negative voluntarily reaches my subconscious mind and influences the subconscious with these thoughts a skillfully plant and water.

 ”The mind is built so that we have absolute total control over the material which reaches the subconscious mind”

However that is not to say we always exercise control over what reaches our subconscious mind, most of the time most people do not exercise control; this is why there is so much poverty in the world. 

I have an exercise I follow each day, each morning when I awake I read myself my vision statement; it is a written statement of my desire for money. But, the reading of the words of my vision statement are really of no consequence, the most important factor in reading the vision statement is that

You have to emotionalize and add feeling and color into the words.

Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts only upon thoughts which you have been injected with pure emotion. This is the most important exercise in the quest for riches, to the same degree this is the main reason the majority of people who try to apply the principle of autosuggestion get no desirable results. Simple plain words do not influence the mind, you most color them and add emotion into them, you cannot just say the words, and you most feel them.

Your ability to see results using autosuggestion will depend greatly on your ability to concentrate on the given desire.You must be able to concentrate until the desire you have converts to a white hot burning obsession; a want or a wish won’t suffice.

There are a few strategies you can use to effectively increase your concentration. One of them is to fixate your mind on the amount of money you desire to acquire, close your eyes until you can actually see the physical appearance of the money to the extent that you can actually feel it in your hands, you can smell it and that you can look at the bank statement in your mind and see the balance which you desire.

Here is the most significant fact – the subconscious mind takes any orders given it in a spirit of absolute faith, and acts upon those orders, although the orders often have to be resented over and over again, through repetition, before they are interpreted by the subconscious mind.

Don’t think of the money you desire as only a want, rather, demand the money as if you must have it, that this money is already waiting your claim and that your subconscious mind must hand it over to you. Once you hand over the demand for the money you desire your mind will start to develop a plan for you to acquire the money you desire.

It is at this time when your mind will do the miraculous work. Be on the alert for a plan which you mind will deliver to you. When the plan appears in your subconscious, it will typically appear as a “flash” into your mind in the form of an “inspiration”

Be on the lookout for the “flash” of inspiration, when it comes, don’t delay, act upon it. The difference between you and someone else is that most “flashes of inspiration” are stillborn; they die upon birth, however for you, you must nurse it and give it life as soon as it comes to you.   ~ Ted Stearns 

Do one thing everyday that scares you

~Eleanor Roosevelt 

TAKE A RISK

If you take risks, you will fail it is as simple as that

No great thing has ever been accomplished in a comfort zone, Chuck Yeager didn't break the sound barrier while in the comfort zone, Alexander the Great  didn't conquer the known world in his comfort zone, and Democracy; giving everyone the right to participate in how they are governed could never have won the battle in her comfort zone. 

Courage ~ No great accomplishment was every win without it. 

Throughout history, many lives were lost to achieve great successes; however, more than likely no lives will be lost for you to accomplish your great successes. 

 

Be what makes an entrepreneur so great is that we don't view failure is final defeat. We accept it as being one step closer to success. 

Take risks or you will live a life of regret.

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them" ~ Mother Teresa

This is a fact that I learned too late in life. Forming an opinion of people before I got to know them didn't define them but it defined me.

Life is more enjoyable when you allow others to enrich it.

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Failure ~ And What to do About It.

Failure ~

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. 

~Napoleon Hill.

I've found that one of the greatest strengths of an entrepreneur is their persistence in the face of defeat. Defeat is never a defeat until you accept as such.

A story about Kobe Bryant as told by a professional trainer who worked with Bryant this past summer, for the Olympics:

It was about 3:30am. I lay in bed slowly fading away when I hear my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.

Hey uhh Rob I hope I’m not disturbing anything right now.

Uh no what's up Kobe?

Just wondering if you could just help me out with some conditioning work that's all.

I checked my clock, 4:15am. yea sure ill see yo in the facility in a bit. It took me about 20 minutes to get my gear and out of the hotel.

When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor I saw Kobe. Alone.

He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn’t even 5am.

MY THOUGHTS: 

I am a firm believer that in order to be successful as an athlete or entrepreneur the talents necessary to do so are not taught in universities or schools. The attributes are deep within us; the determination and unyielding and unrelenting drive that lets nothing stand in the way of us attaining our vision for ourselves.

The principles are carved in our soul.

I know how it feels when you have been beaten down time and time again. When others truly want nothing more than to watch you fail and that giving up would put a smile on their faces.

But, I will never know what it feels like to throw in the towel.

You actions today will impact your life a week from now, a month from now and a year from now.

Make today a day your future self will be proud of.

I went to military academy but never served in the military. I have never lost comrades to a bullet of an enemy. 

I have never placed wilted flowers on a brass nameplate at Arlington, yet I know Memorial Day isn’t about beaches, closeout sales at Macy’s or BBQs.

Mission Accomplished to Corporate America to commercialize this day along with Christmas.

Arguably not enough people see it with more depth and value – including at time myself.

It is a day to pay homage to the 1,300,000 men and women who sacrificed their lives so we can freely enjoy our day, with sons, our daughters and our loved ones.

They fought for our freedom so they would have wanted you to enjoy your weekend — but I hope you and I can pause to remember them, too.

Do Not Be Afraid of No

Image source: el3mentsofwellness.com

Being a salesperson is the best job in the world. Just ask Ted Stearns and he will readily agree. Most people fear sales because they are afraid of a small two letter word: No.

Ted Stearns, who is currently President and CEO of eDisabilityQuotes along with being a Principle with Aegean Capital Partners, can attest to the fact that many people stop their own success because they are afraid of hearing no when they ask for something. His opinion is that if you are getting yeses all the time, you are not asking for enough!

Image source: kriscole.wordpress.com

Furthermore, Ted Stearns see the value of hearing no and still moving forward. Life is a game of numbers and it is merely a matter of finding the right product or service for the right person. This means that if you offer it often enough, you will be certain to find the person who wants it and will say yes. He believes that every time he hears someone say no, he is that much closer to finding the person who will say yes.

It is also important to understand that when someone says no to you, they are not necessarily rejecting of you. If your life and happiness depends on having everyone say yes to you every time you ask for something, you are now at the mercy of other people. By switching your attitude and asking with true curiosity if someone is interested in what you have to offer, you can find out that hearing no or yes is merely satisfying your own curiosity rather than feeling attacked and unwanted.

Image source: compassionatebeginnings.wordpress.com

Just for a day, decide to find out what happens to you if, whenever someone says no to you, you tells yourself that you just learned something about someone else concerning what they do not like. You can take the heat and fire out of the no you hear and begin looking forward with anticipation for those eventual yeses that will come your way if you just do not give up!

Imagination

Imagination

If I told you that you have access to a lab or workshop where every single one fo the greatest inventions were conceived, would you use it? There is something about this lab where genius takes place, things like the internal combustible engine were designed, genetic engineering were conceived, nanotechnology, Hadron Collider, pesticides, transistors, harnessed nuclear power and electricity and, antibiotics, all were imagined and brought to life here. If that were the case, would you use this lab? Would you want to gain access to it? How much would it be worth to you to work in it whenever you desired?

The imagination in your mind is literally this lab which I have described. It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine. Thru the use of the imagination, man has harnessed the use of the sky to create planes and rockets to fly at supersonic speeds, or submarines to plunge the depths of the sea or unraveling of your DNA to layout the blueprint which is you. Man has conquered much thru the use of his imagination.

Man’s only limitation, within reason, is his development and ability to use his imagination. In general, most only realize that they have an imagination and very few know how to use it. We have two forms of imagination, “synthetic imagination” and “creative imagination”.

Synthetic imagination is where you take existing concepts and amalgamate and rearrange them into a new combination. This creates nothing; it simply works with ideas and material which is already present. It is the faculty which is used by most entrepreneurs like me.

Creative Imagination is where the finite mind of man has a direct communication with the infinite intelligence. It is when man has the ability to “tune in” or communicate with the subconscious mind of other men and the infinite source. This creative faculty becomes more polished as you develop it and use it. The greatest leaders of business, science, physics, finance, music, art and writers become geniuses because they have learned how to develop and harness this faculty of creative imagination.

Like any muscle or organ, the use of the creative and synthetic imagination becomes stronger with use. For an entrepreneur to achieve the lifestyle and wealth they desire means they must create something to fill the void in the marketplace or create something better than the competition.

In order to achieve that wealth, entrepreneurs require a plan to turn the intangible impulse of a thought into actual money. The imagination will assist in that. If you have the white hot burning desire for wealth but lack a plan or a truly genius idea to get you there, tap into the imagination to develop that plan for you. Ask for a “Million Dollar Idea” and expect it will come to you. When it does, reduce that plan to writing, the minute you do so, you have taken the first of a series of steps which will empower you to take your thoughts and imagination and turn them into money.

Ted Stearns 

Writing a business plan is like running; you always feel better when you’ve finished!

Writing a business plan can be tortuous for entrepreneurs, getting us to sit for hours on end is an activity at the antithesis of our core. Naturally we like to wing-it. For us, we feel that since we are running the ship, and all the plans and know-how’s are in our heads, why must we spend the time to put it down on paper? Yet, developing a business plan is one of the most important exercises a business owner can do; it forces us to think thru the minefields before stepping on a landmine.

Here are some tips, this is not meant to be a step-by-step “how-to”, but it should serve a catalyst to encourage you to take a pen to paper and draft up a plan.

1.     Don’t put it off

Most business owners will only start to draft up a plan only when the bank or investors have asked for one. If you wait until then, chances are you’ve shown the investors that you are not fully prepared to accept their money and that you are not serious about your venture.

2.     The Master Cash Flow

Cash flows are one of the most important components to the plan and they can be the most time consuming. Your Excel skills may be dismal and it may have been eons since you’ve taken an accounting class, but lacking the expertise to develop a cash flow isn’t a reason not to do it, that actually means you need a cash flow even that much more.  

Here’s a tip; place a project on Guru.com; there are plenty of talented freelancers on Guru who can help you develop your cash flow for a few hundred dollars. Years ago I met a phenomenal freelancer on Guru, she has her BA from Harvard and went to business school at Stanford. Over the years she has developed many of cash flows for me and during that time she’s saved me plenty of heartaches.

3.     Growth projections

Your projections have to be conservative in order for you to defend them. As my father would say, “take your projections, cut them in half, and then cut them in half again, then again”. There is much truth in that. The projections must be conservative in order for you to defend them.

4.     Your Team

Chances are your idea and vision will not sell investors. Investors invest in people, not ideas. You and your team will. Who do you have on your team? Think about developing a high caliber Board of Directors who can stand behind your idea, who love start-ups and who can open their network of contacts to you.

5.     It’s not as bad as you think

Really, creating a business plan is not as hard as you think; it doesn’t have to be a doctoral thesis or a novel. Many books have been written to help guide you and software programs will take you step-by-step thru the process (check out Business Plan Pro).

6.     Fluffy vague goals

Leave out hyperbole and hype about being the best. The business plan isn’t meant to be subjective. Keep in mind, the objective of your plan is to point out specific dates, management roles and responsibilities, budgets and milestones.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Creating a business plan is similar to running, I can’t say that I thoroughly enjoy running, although I run or workout almost every day, I do it because I love how it makes me feel when I am finished. I have always felt better after a run, and you will feel better after drafting your business plan.

Good luck

Thwarting the Idea Crushers by Ted Stearns

Thwarting the Idea Crushers by Ted Stearns

Have you ever thought about what Fred Smith and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? Both have created billion dollar juggernauts while their college professors called them crazy. Not to pick on teachers, however, I cannot think of the last professor who has taken their own idea and turned it into a billion dollar company lately.

Idea Crushers, they are all around us, they sit with open ears waiting for a good idea to come around so they can flex their intellectual genius and obliterate it. Yesterday I was discussing a business idea with a friend. In about 3-nano seconds this friend started to explain to me how and why this idea would not work and how it would take insurmountable challenges to implement it. I’m not entirely sure what the underlying reasons were but they seemed to find joy in taking a Scud Missile to my idea.

Now, I have enough confidence in my abilities and experience with taking ideas and exploiting them. Sometimes I will even use their pessimism as fuel to prove them wrong; that always brings a smile to my face.  

The term Idea Crushers is what I use to describe individuals who whether knowingly or not take joy in crushing aspiring ideas. They are black holes; the gravitational collapse so intense that no good idea can ever escape.

They may be colleagues, friends and most of the time family who want to thwart you from making a blunder and being financial mistake. On the flip side they could be jealous, either consciously or unconsciously, of your initiative and success. Or they could be the type that fails to see worth in any idea until it is main-stream.

The Yongle Dadian couldn’t contain a list of all the companies that have launched into the stratosphere that have, from the very beginning been bombarded, attacked and attempted to be derailed with perhaps well intended criticism, still, negative viewpoints, yet they survive and thrive.

If you have Idea Crushers in your life, and we all do from time to time, here are some ways that you can prevent them from detonating a nuclear bomb on your dream:

1)      Don’t discuss your idea with Idea Crushers until you have a proven concept. Ideas are like new born babies, immediately you have to care and shelter them. Wait until your idea has time to grow roots.

2)      If you do find yourself engaged in a conversation the an Idea Crusher, while explaining your idea, disassociate yourself from emotion; ground your reasoning on logic, make sure the principles governing your rational are based on logical arguments rather than subjective emotionally reasoning.

If the negative comments from the Idea Crusher causes you to question your dream and doubt starts to enter into your mind and you find your once white-hot idea has digressed into uncertainty and hesitation, guess what, they have succeeded.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Keep your dreams close to your heart and only share them with trusted friends who will inspire you to go out execute upon them.

Great advice for anyone with insurance

The article talks about keeping your address up to date regarding disability insurance, but it apply's to pretty much any type.

-Ted Stearns
http://readme.readmedia.com/Keeping-Your-Insurance-Up-To-Date-On-Address-Other-Changes-Is-Important-To-Safeguard-Life-Insurance-Coverage/1806627