Tag: optimism

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Bouncing back after emotional upheavals and falls as an entrepreneur

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

Some time back after leaving for home after dark I stopped at a traffic light and my passenger front window was smashed and my two cellphones were stolen from my car. It all happened in a flash. I heard the loud bang against the window, the crashing glass and looked up but I didn’t even have a chance to see the criminal’s face. I drove home with glass splinters in my hand and back and when I got out the car I could hardly stand my legs were so weak. Continue reading “Bouncing back after emotional upheavals and falls as an entrepreneur”

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How do you pick yourself up after failing in your startup?

(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2014 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

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.” Continue reading “How do you pick yourself up after failing in your startup?”

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Are you afraid of your new business idea?

Fear - Graffiti
Fear – Graffiti (Photo credit: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha)

I was listening to an entrepreneur talking the other day about start-up owners and other entrepreneurs sometimes being too afraid to implement their idea because of the risk that it involves. Starting anything new involves trepidation and fear that if you let it get out of hand, can block or paralyse you.

Have you had this experience before? Is there something that you may have started or come up with and then decided not to do it because you had too much fear about what would happen if you really got serious about your idea? Continue reading “Are you afraid of your new business idea?”

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What can you learn from an entrepreneurial MOOC?

Credit: wikimedia commons (Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License)

The East Rand, just outside Johannesburg, has an infestation of Norway rats. Things have become so bad that people kill them and throw them in the street. One local business person said the rats are big as his size nine shoe and that his two big dogs “deal with them”.

A small fact tucked in the article mentioned that the municipality was spending “millions a year” to fight the scourge.

If you are entrepreneurially minded, where do you see the opportunity in these giant-sized rats?

Chunking it down, you might see opportunities for pest control businesses, rat poison and even a system for devising better waste disposal. Continue reading “What can you learn from an entrepreneurial MOOC?”

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Rewire your brain for opportunities

BIA flatecoverAre you missing opportunities because you are dwelling too much on the negatives? What is it about entrepreneurs that enables them to spot opportunities?

A professor from a university running an entrepreneurial course recently explained that entrepreneurs need to rewire their brains for positivity. He said it was important for opportunity awareness to have an optimistic attitude.

One of the tools for increasing optimism, he said, was that you could list five things that you are grateful for. Have you ever done this exercise? Does it sound silly or have you tried it out and has it worked for you? Continue reading “Rewire your brain for opportunities”