One thing that isn’t spoken about a lot in entrepreneur circles is getting up after your falls. An entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran told Associated Press recently that she had learnt that the most important trait you need as an entrepreneur is when you take a hit to not feel sorry for yourself.
Barbara at age 65 should know. Her career included being the founder of a New York real estate brokerage. Now she is reinventing herself as an author and TV personality after selling her company. She says that the best entrepreneurs when they take a hit bounce back and say, “hit me again.”
A recent study in India among small-scale entrepreneurs pointed to the importance of self-confidence in entrepreneurial businesses. The researchers measured several variables including being capable of achieving goals, positive attributes, awareness of strengths and weaknesses, trust in one’s own judgement and venturing forth with self-confidence.
The number one item that came out in this part of the study was that entrepreneurs believe that are capable of achieving goals. Basically, positive thinking and an optimistic approach creates a favourable atmosphere to get things done, the researchers found. Entrepreneurs need to have confidence in themselves and the determination to achieve the goals. They may feel down after setbacks but don’t get disheartened by them; rather they have the ability to stick to their goals through thick and thin.
Not every idea that you come up with and try to develop into a viable business is going to work out. Even if you put money and other resources into developing your idea and it takes off for a while, it still doesn’t mean that you have got a winner on your hands. The saddest thing is when you get all stoked and buoyed up because you are finding success with your business idea and then you find demand plateaus or drops off altogether.
It may sound easy to say that you need to take your hit and quickly get over it but in real life emotions come into play. Life tends to be more of an emotional game than we think. When you are riding high and everything is going right for you including your start-up business then you are emotionally healthy and feeling good. But when the cracks show and the small business spirals downwards, you’ve got to stop, take stock and make some hard decisions.
Often the most successful entrepreneurs are those who don’t quit after their first fall. They keep falling but remain realistically optimistic. It’s no time to “wallow in the mire, as Jim Morrison sang. You’ve got a get up, brush the dirt off your your knees hands and face and move on to something new.
