Source: facebook.com via Trish on Pinterest
A business is about having a soul.
At least I think. I believe we entrepreneurs start businesses not so much to make money, but to help people live better lives. I’m sure there are other sorts of entrepreneurs out there who don’t think this way, but rest assured, this is the point of this blog and the point of me being in business.
I want to have a soul.
So, how? How does a business begin or grow and keep the soul that is so vital to growing a business well?
1. Passion. I talked about this a bit last week and I want to come at it from another direction. You can’t show a life changed without a life changed. How many of you are coming out of terrible corporate jobs or even worse discouraging entrepreneurial ventures that never really made it anywhere? This is where passion has to come in, but more than passion, the ability to share with the world how that passion has changed your life. Once people see that, they can imagine it for their own.
2. Drive. Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart. The television and movies talk about how people who run their own businesses often don’t work that hard or have money to burn. HA! Even in the darkest of moments—usually when cash flow is barely a trickle or you’re so tired because you’ve worked all night—entrepreneurs who want to succeed keep right on going.
3. Compassion. Your customer is looking for something. Can you provide it? Or do you care enough? Usually, I see a lot of failing entrepreneurs making those pivotal mistakes—growing too fast, not paying attention to the little things, or not marketing enough—and I wonder if they care only about the profits. It’s not polite to say (and I’m being brutally honest when I say it, because it has been true for me), but you’ve got to get over the get-rich-quick attitude and begin to care about what you are doing. You’ve got to consider that you may be that lifeline to a customer out there who is withering in their life. If you’re not able to give them what they are really looking for, I don’t question your entrepreneurial expertise, I question your empathy.
Go! Be liberated!
