By Sean Glasser, Founder of Stressballs.com
Sean Glasser started his company when he was 19 years old with just $600 and turned it into a multi-million dollar success with over 50,000 organizations as his customers, including Google, Nike, Netflix, Dreamworks and many more.
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Fads
Think fidget spinners or Pokemon Go. They come on quickly with immense popularity and go out just as fast, leaving many would-be entrepreneurs with big losses.
Fads can be highly profitable if you are in the right place at the right time and just as importantly, get out at the right time. However, many people look to a fad and start dreaming of retiring early and investing too big and too late, only making matters worse for themselves.
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you want a business that will sustain over longer periods of time and that isn’t flooded with fools as competition. It is rare a get-rich-quick scheme is ever a good financial decision and that is usually all a fad is for most people.
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Hiring people you cannot easily fire
When you are a new entrepreneur you will be tempted to hire only in the circle of people you know because it’s both easy and, most times, these people can be trusted.
However, there is a huge risk to hiring people you knew before working with them. It is usually very difficult to fire them without some repercussions to your relationship with them or with someone else. No matter how much you think someone is professional and will never sour you will be surprised when money or working is involved how things can go south. Think twice or even three times before going down this road. Keep business and personal separate.
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Living up to others’ image
When you are an entrepreneur people will expect things of you that they don’t from other occupations. You will be expected to pay for things or expected to act a certain way or look a certain way. You will be asked how large your company is or how many employees you have (to validate if you are a real company in their eyes).
As an entrepreneur you do not have to validate yourself to (mostly) anyone. You have to do what’s right for you, your company and your family. You don’t have to be pressured into paying because someone thinks you should. You don’t have to get an expensive office space or hire unnecessary employees because you want to “feel” like a real company. You do not have to dress or act anyway except how you think you should. Don’t worry about what others think. Worry about what makes sense (and cents) only.
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Defeating thoughts
Everyone can have defeating thoughts at times. These are the hopeless feelings that come over you when you are trying to accomplish something big or when life just keeps throwing obstacles in your way. They can be very damaging and time consuming to your mission.
As much as you can, avoid giving in to these thoughts. Being an entrepreneur is hard and can take a long time to feel like a success because there usually isn’t a clear road to travel. You are a bit of a pioneer and with that comes adversity.
The best advice I have is to stay focused on objective things that will improve your situation or solve a particular problem in front of you. If you do that long enough you will stay or get positive again in short order.
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Relying on luck
For every story of the FedEx founder betting his fledgling company’s money on the roulette table and winning there are dozens of failures not told. Luck is great for story telling but a bad friend in business.
Early on in business you will want some wins and you will be lucky at times but relying on luck will only sink your ship. You need to expect and prepare for failure and rejection. You need to build your success on hard work and planning. You need to work three times harder than you think you should in order to win. You need to be relentless, disciplined and consistent over long periods of time and only then, will you be “lucky”.
Interesting Related Article: “Three Ways to Reduce Your Business’s Overheads in 2023″