How To Wake Up The Genius Entrepreneur Inside You

When we think of success, one of the images that come to mind is often one of a businessman (or woman) decked out in a suit, standing at the top of a high-rise building and looking out over the streets below.

We associate business with success in this way for many reasons.

First, business success often brings money. Second, business success suggests a particular skill and ability level and tends to yield a higher status and importance.

For these reasons, business & success go together; those are the specific heights that many are aiming towards achieving.

But is business success really what you want? How can you go about getting it? And what might you (accidentally) be doing wrong that could be sabotaging your success?

In this guide, we’ll take an in-depth look at what it means to be a business success; and how you should go about getting there.

Be Careful What You Wish For

The first thing to remember is that you should be careful of your wishes. For many, the idea of business success is a very romantic and idealistic one.

It’s something we might spend a lot of time daydreaming about achieving. But, very often, the reality isn’t always what you might have expected. And it might not even really be your dreams that you’re having.

Let me explain.

Many people associate success with the business they work within. We’ve already explained this, and it seems to make sense on the face of it.

We hold this association in mind because of training; adults taught us how to think when we were little. Over many years, we have seen images of successful people almost always wearing suits and wielding power. Books and movies depict this image of success.

For example, films like Limitless or Wolf or Wall Street paint a picture of success (even though both these movies were lessons against seeking too much power, too quickly).

Perhaps you want to make your parents proud? Maybe you plan to follow in their footsteps?

The image of success that your grandma has is linked to business as well! But this can then lead to your downfall if it means that you chase after things that don’t bring you joy.

Suppose it means that you become the head of a big delivery company or a corporate legal team. Maybe it means you become a procurement manager.

Whatever the case, you can end up taking a stuffy job, being a “suit,” and attempting to get rich that way. You’ll start at the bottom, put in the hard work, and climb the corporate ladder.

But is that really what you want? Not only are you now facing years, possibly decades of working hard with little rewards, but you’re also going to be working toward something that may not be all that gratifying.

Sure, the pay is useful when you’re standing in that high-rise, but do you want all that responsibility? And do you feel passion for the product or service your company is providing?

The price of success is that you end up staying late until 8 pm or 10 pm, that you have to deal with people shouting at you on the phone all while being responsible for millions of dollars.

All so that someone can get their boring package delivered on time. Or so that the business can avoid a lawsuit.

Is that your image of “success”? And what do you spend the money doing? Do you buy expensive clothes? A car? Was it all worth it? In many cases, this is not a success.

If you climb the corporate ladder, put in the work, and do your time, then you actually won’t be as successful as you could be. Think of any massive success (Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk).

How many of them started a tedious job and then “worked their way up”? None. They started passion projects. They looked for things that no one knew they needed yet.

They innovated. Trailblazed. They came up with completely fresh and novel ideas. And because they did that, they were able to have breakthroughs that no one could have imagined, reaching truly unprecedented heights.

The Strategy

So, here’s the strategy. Learn to separate ‘income’ from ‘wealth.’ If you read the guide on the money mindset, you’ll see that the two do not go hand in hand.

Then learn to separate your status at work from your sense of pride and accomplishment. You know what? If you write a brilliant novel in your spare time and nobody reads it, then that should still be rewarding.

So, I want you to take some time out. Find your passion and follow that path (But do it on the side). And view your day job as a necessary evil to help you get by in the interim.

Over time, you can turn that passion into a way to make money. Then maybe you go part-time, until you quit your day job.

Why Passion is Crucial for Success

When Elon Musk created SpaceX, he was not the well-known name that he is today. Musk was a relatively unknown name whose mission was to encourage the private sector to go into space — no small task.

But you know what? Musk did it. And one of his reasons was that he aimed big. Many of us feel that we need to reign in our dreams and goals.

We have been lead to believe that aiming too high will disappoint and make us look silly. But the reality is that aiming high is what you need to do.

Because when you aim high, you inspire others. When you have something exciting to say and are excited about it yourself, people listen.

It’s so much more inspiring to hear someone tell you they want to go to space than it is to hear someone say they’re a hairdresser (if that’s your passion, there’s nothing wrong with that too!).

If you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance you’re in the internet marketing industry.

Let’s say you are. You might have a plan to launch a website, sell an ebook, and make money. There are two ways you go about that.

One is the cynical way. The way where your heart isn’t in it. The way that you see time and time again. This approach involves looking for the hottest new ‘niche’ in the market.

Whether or not that’s a niche you’re interested in doesn’t matter. Then you buy some content, maybe hire someone to write some, maybe pump out a little yourself by just throwing-up what you already find online.

Then, you lace into that content as much SEO as you possibly can. You do everything you can to make the site sell. You cover it in ads. You call it something like ‘The Best Fitness Site Ever.’ And you wait for the cash to roll in.

But that won’t work! Why? Because there’s no passion. Suppose you have a site about animal welfare and hire the very best writer in the world to write for it.

If you tell them to write to you the latest, most exciting, newest content, you still won’t do well. Why? Because they aren’t you. They can’t speak for you.

They don’t know your point of view. And the writers probably don’t know the topic. So, they’ll do their research. Learn it thoroughly and try to write something great. But it will be safe — Generic, boring content. People will visit the site, and they’ll see that.

The site has no personality. No tone of its own. No ‘mission statement’ or purpose. There is no passion or love behind it, and so no community grows behind it. The site dies. That’s why the thousands of low-quality sites never make it big. Think of the sites that do make it.

Like the MOZ blog, Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Blog, Pat Fynn’s Smart Passive Income. The Verge. The BBC. Forbes.

These are sites that are written by passionate experts. They have unique, engaging, and brilliant content; And unique, sharp points of view that are unique to the brand. They have high production values, beautiful designs, and thriving YouTube channels.

Do you see the difference?

Think about the sites that you read daily. I bet they are either:

A) Large teams of enthusiastic professionals

OR

B) Single, passionate individuals

None of them will be spam designed to make money quickly. None of them will be ‘overly SEOed.’ You can’t create fantastic quality unless you are passionate about the topic.

You have to love doing it. You need to put everything into it. You have to want to spend your free time writing articles, answering fan-mail, and tweaking the logo. It mustn’t feel like a job.

If there isn’t a topic for a website you feel that way about, then being an internet marketer isn’t for you. You need to find what you are passionate about sharing — your calling.

That is how you become Elon Musk and not a ‘tired, overworked, stressed person, who works himself to an early grave.’ Do you see the difference? You can’t fake it. You have to love it!

Presenting the Image

But I know what you’re thinking: it’s all good and well having the dream and the vision, but you also need the skill, and you need that business persona. And it’s true.

If you’re going to lead, inspire, and get investments, you need to learn to present yourself, and others need to take you seriously. And this is a skill that will help you in every other aspect of your life too.

So how do you go about it?

The simple place to start is with the realization that you are a brand. Your name is your brand, and just like any business brand, it is your job to protect that brand professionally.

Do you know how important it is for a website to be correctly spelled, have great design, and pay attention to even the smallest details?

It’s the same thing as your brand.

You need to present yourself in a way that inspires confidence and trust. You need to make sure that every interaction that other people have with you is a positive one.

You need to present the face of a service that people can trust. You need to gain the confidence that you know your topic. You do this, to begin with, by professionally conducting yourself.

That means that you put effort and hard work into everything you do, whether it’s your 9–5 or a small client who does not seem worth the time. If you don’t give them 100% of your attention, if you rush things or make a silly mistake, that is a mark against you.

If you say you will get a piece of work in by a specific deadline, make sure you do it.

You never know when unique opportunities might come. And you never know where one interaction might lead. If you deal with someone in a poor manner or do a sub-par job, the word might spread.

If you do an excellent job, you just might get offered something. The same goes for any work that you put out with your name on it. Make sure it is of excellent quality.

Next, you need to make sure that your presentation is perfect. That means learning to communicate and learn to present yourself professionally.

I highly recommend taking classes to help you with public speaking. These classes will help you to get your point across in a way that other people understand. It will teach you to sell yourself, thrive in interviews, and win clients and backers.

You also need to think about the small details of your appearance. How are your nails? How is your hair? Do you have a nice suit? Are you in good physical shape?

All of this has been shown in countless studies to make a difference. People want to bet on the winning horse, and if you look like you can barely keep yourself together, then why would anyone believe that you’re going to be able to run a business? Sell a product? Or provide an excellent service?

Again, tiny things make the difference here: things like your shoes, how polished they are, how the laces are tied.

Be continually improving yourself and investing in you to make a better impression. Meditate. Get enough sleep. Have enough vitamins and minerals. Be ready to take those opportunities when they come.

Springboarding

And learn to see opportunities where you don’t expect them because it won’t always be obvious. Think of Sylvester Stallone, who wanted to become a famous actor.

He got turned down from all the acting jobs, so he eventually got there by writing a fantastic script for a movie. That movie was Rocky, and he would only sell it if he got the leading role.

The rest is history.

Opportunities might present themselves to you that don’t seem directly related to your goal. But adapt, learn to see the alternate routes because success in any area can lead to another’s success.

It builds confidence; it gives you connections and resources. This technique’s called ‘springboarding,’ where you use one ‘win’ to launch you to the next.

If you turn down an opportunity because it doesn’t seem to match your plan exactly, then you can end up missing out on something that could have been huge.

Always be looking for that next move. Business is like a massive game of chess. And once again, this is why you still need to put your best foot forward. Making the right impression and protecting the brand opens those opportunities.

Keep your goal in mind, keep winning, and keep taking that next step. Don’t let yourself become comfortable. And use the lessons from our other guides to get over your fear of risk and failure to keep taking those chances.

If you do all this, you never know where your drive and effort might take you. THAT is how you become a business success.

Your next step is to get my FREE master guide “Lead Your Life.” I’ll show you how to look back on yourself 12 months from now with excitement and fulfillment because you reached a level of your life where you feel like a world-class leader.

Increase your time with the people you love, and start leveraging the principles in Lead Your Life to make this the most amazing year of your life.