As we grow up, we realize that our lives and our jobs no longer reflect our inner self. Simultaneously, the accelerated market dynamics and saturated markets demand new business opportunities to connect customers' feelings.
The only way out is through hard work: the determination to succeed beyond anything else. This new style of entrepreneurship is inspired by devotion and goal-setting into our organizations and business methods. Even though our employees and customers respect us, an entrepreneur shows authority and challenges the competition.
Reconnect with your "Inner Rebel."
Have you ever noticed how some people who are successful in life feel dissatisfied with their success and see everything they have completed been meaningless? This stage in a successful person's career is known as a midlife crisis, but many know it as losing touch with their inner self.
Often, we realize our unique talents and passion when young, but never engage in them. But yet many successful entrepreneurs convey them into adulthood. This is a hard thing to do, I must say.
As the great Pablo Picasso said, "Every child is an artist.... the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. The question is, how far are you gone from your inner artist?
At times, we have easily adapted to social culture and rules as we grow older. We start to believe in our conscious dreams and esteem passions - to become a superstar football player or an actress - with the thinking that we are likely to make quick money this way.
But in reality what this does is disconnect us from our inner self and down the line - this leads to a wasted lifestyle.
On the other side, entrepreneurs wrestle up society's expectations and captivate their inner abilities. The source of successful entrepreneurs is found in their childhood life. For example, Richard Branson engaged in various businesses when he was young, which included growing Christmas trees and breeding parrots. Richard extended his entrepreneurship spirit into ventures at a tender age by creating different successful businesses, the likes of Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Records.
Come to think of it - how do we then restore our inner beliefs or inner self and dare to follow that childhood dream?
The first step is to take a trip into memory line by scanning through old photos, old diaries, school project or just anything which will reopen your inner self back. Some question you can also ask yourself may include: who was your hero in your young age? Who positively contributed to your life when you were in some situation?
Find the source of inner abilities and inner self that governs your entrepreneurship spirit.
Utilize Rebel Attributes | Vision, Passion, Instinct, and Agility | Remember not to lose business traction
Are all entrepreneurs selfish risk-takers and heartless leaders? Certainly not, but it's their character to examine the parameters occasionally.
As an entrepreneur, we need to execute a balance amongst the four life attributes to succeed: vision, passion, instinct, and agility.
The entrepreneurs vision enables them to create guidance for their organization, even though the organization is in a dysfunctional situation. Possibilities could arise for entrepreneurs to be unsophisticated or crazy for them to be steered by a vision which is unfeasible, yet robust.
At a point, their vision generates the direction of the organization, but the passion drives the motion. The vision and passion in entrepreneurship motivate and influence followers and all business activities in the same environment.
Then we have instinct. A good example was Steve Jobs, who had these genius instinct that entrepreneurs need to tap into, specifically, his extraordinary sixth sense to wisely know which products, like the iPhone, had what it takes to change the world.
For entrepreneurs to justify their vision, passion, and instinct they need to be agile. It takes time to put our innovation into motion, and we do not have a chance to learn all the tricks in marketing before executing the process to launch a product, as entrepreneurs, we need to trust our instincts and start an action plan when the opportunity has risen.
Be careful not to overload your abilities.
Extreme entrepreneurs are able to abuse the four attributes to an unhealthy degree. Sometimes an instinctive entrepreneur can dial into a state of denial - refusing to accept failure until it has eaten up all their energy. Getting too obsessed with our visions can lead us to the emotional breakdown and missing important everyday tasks.
To avoid such situations and help us hold our ground, we need to open up to our colleagues and friends.
Bill Gates resigned as Microsoft CEO when he realized that for the company to accomplish its long-term vision; a professional CEO will be more suitable.
A rebel leads by values.
Don't you just find it weird to see a person in an executive position that is extremely productive and efficient but boring? This happens when we leave our passions and values outside the workplace.
Everyone wants to be part of the bigger picture in our dreams. For this, great leaders allow a set of code to guide their management style and organizations.
In the book Built to Last: Habits of Visionary Companies concludes that, among the successful corporations, there is a clear relation between sustainable profitability and good core values.
There is no scientifically proven perfect set of personal values; each person has to explore their own ideology and perform them as they please. Dedicated entrepreneurs integrate them into the daily life and work.
How do you define your set of core values?
Start the process with a list of people, qualities, and deeds you admire. Find the relations between them, and use this alliance to create your core values.
For example, you admire humor and bravery. Now, let's look how these standards play a role in your work environment and outside. You will notice that sets of value are not fully incorporated into daily work life and you might even be working against them.
We should work on identifying things which do not correspond with our sets of value. Do this by listing all our healthy habits, e.g. things within our set of values, and bad habits, e.g. things from our values; and try to cut the bad habits.
Once you have a set of values that are working, the next step is to introduce them into the organization. Customer trust and satisfaction should be a top priority standard in our organization. We need to entrust our sales representatives with decision-making to provide quality customer services to the clients and reduce extra request from management levels.
Starting a rebel company? Don't lose hold of your vision
To start a business it requires vision and dedication to succeed as an entrepreneur. The beginning stage is the most difficult part at which we encounter all sorts of obstacles that at some point they will lead us in peculiar directions. The best way is to start a business with a few guidelines that will help us avoid mistakes.
The number one rule of business - never start your business with friends.
It sounds good to start a business with our long-time friends because we trust and know each other for a period, but this is the first mistake we make in our entrepreneurship careers. A combination of friends in business activity will end in a disaster and even worse, end the friendship you had with each other.
Trust is an essential element in partnership relations, the most successful way to choose a business partner is to select someone with unique business character and whom you can freely work with together professionally. Look for someone that will be complementing your knowledge and skill time to time.
Being an entrepreneur means being able to take risks. When a business idea arises, we need to work twice as hard to realize it and surround ourselves with positive people that will encourage us to fulfill our goals. We need to keep up with market changes and adapt to new ideas in the market.
Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart once said: "Swim upstream. Go the other way. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in the exactly the opposite direction."
In the business world, we should always be prepared for criticism. Not everyone will support your business ideas; there will always be those that think they know better with their MBAs always discouraging your business initiatives. The best revenge is to prove them wrong by using their skills and knowledge to your advantage while focusing on your core business goals. At the end of the day, it is your courage and instinct that makes you a great entrepreneur.
Lastly, remember the wise words of Henry Ford: "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal." Being for the customer would be the right move.
Starting a rebel company? Don't lose hold of your vision
We need to openly spread our visions and values as we start to grow our business. Being a loner at a management position will create a mixed reaction in the organization, which we should avoid at all times.
There are various ways to spread our vision of the organization. Two of the best ways to spread our vision are verbal and aspiration.
The language, tone and the words we choose to use can have a positive effect on how we want people to interpret our business vision and values. Some business has developed a precise wordings technique which makes employees and customer feel more valued than they are for example; at Disney World, they use "guest," instead of a customer; at Joie de Vivre Hotels, they use "hosts," instead of service staff.
Such wording techniques create a friendly working environment and a happy atmosphere which is part of the organization vision and customers value such organization standards.
The second method to spread our organization's vision is through aspiration.
In 1981, the new CEO of General Electric Jack Welch had a new approach to the problem the company was facing. His aspiration for the company was to make GE the leading company or second-best in all the industry, it traded, or it will opt to leave it to give an opportunity to new activities.
During this time, GE was in a diversity of slow-growing industry. Soon after Welchs announcement, about $20 billion worth of business was divested, and about $50 billion was invested in business, industry acquisitions that are likely to be best or second-best in the industry. In the midst of his term. GE net worth has increased by more than 4000 percent. This shows his vision and strategy was a success.
It is our responsibility to construct clear visions and sets of values which are understandable and sell it to our organization. Hint: express everything in a simple way that even a bright primary learner can understand.
When we run an organization to set up visions and values, a vigilant organized environment will create itself.