Читать книгу No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy - Dan S Kennedy - Страница 16

To succeed as an entrepreneur requires decision and determination—total, unwavering commitment. To keep faith with this commitment, you have to develop and embrace attitudes, habits, and behaviors that are markedly different from those of most of the people you’ve known. You have to cut down on time spent with people who are not supportive of your entrepreneurial ambitions. Time spent hanging around fearful people, doubtful people, skeptical people, people not themselves committed to successful achievement, can impair your ability to succeed.

You mean I have to change my friends?

Probably. And the books you read. And the television programs you watch. And a whole lot more. We cannot help being and becoming a product of the ideas we associate with most, of the books and magazines we read, the tapes we listen to, the TV we watch, and the people we spend time with.

As thick-skinned as I believe I am and as much of an independent thinker as I pride myself in being, I admit that my performance and determination vary in relationship to what I’m reading, what I’m listening to, and who I’m hanging around with. Earl Nightingale brilliantly summarized all this: “We become what we think about most.” If you are going to become an exceptionally successful entrepreneur, that is what you must think about most.

Another way to look at this is in terms of passion. The most successful entrepreneurs I know are passionately involved with entrepreneurship in general and their businesses in particular. They’re in love being with entrepreneurs, excited about their products or services, “on fire” with enthusiasm, and that gives them superhuman powers.

This is one very good argument for belonging to entrepreneur groups, coaching programs, and peer advisory groups, so you have regular contact and share ideas and information with like-minded entrepreneurs who validate, support, and encourage you. You can greatly accelerate your entrepreneurial success and decrease your aloneness, and isolation-related stress by associating with other progressive entrepreneurs. In such an environment, you are continually challenged by the others’ achievements and progress. The other members as well as a top-notch business coach running the group can call you on your B.S. You can derive personal motivation from recognition unavailable anywhere else—after all, who but kindred spirit entrepreneurs can understand and appreciate your making the difficult decision to axe a non-productive employee or your success with a new ad campaign? Being part of the right group of progressive, creative, and tough-minded entrepreneurs can make a huge difference.

You cannot immunize yourself against the influences of the ideas in the people you associate with. There is no vaccination to protect you from limiting, unproductive, antibusiness, or antisuccess thinking. For this reason, you must immerse yourself in associations that are in harmony with your goals and aspirations.

This doesn’t mean that you must socialize only with other entrepreneurs. I have friends who are college professors, corporate executives, actors, athletes, office workers, and so on, but I choose them carefully. They do not have negative attitudes about business people; they do have interesting ambitions within their careers or tied to others’ outside interests that can be stimulating. But, frankly, there are very few of these in my life. I call them “civilians,” and I imagine that I think of them much like a career military officer thinks of civilians. They cannot possibly understand me or what I do. Because my primary interests in life are business, success philosophy, and politics and theirs are pastimes that distract from such thinking, we have little as common ground. An enjoyable evening now and then, a trek to the theater together, a Super Bowl party, fine. Regular association, mindnumbing and tedious at best, harmful at worst.

GKIC Membership

GOOD NEWS! There are Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle^™ Chapters meeting regularly in over 150 areas throughout the United States and Canada, facilitating exactly this kind of support for more than 10,000 entrepreneurs every month. You can find a Directory at DanKennedy.com, or if you take advantage of my Free Gift Offer on pages 272–273, and there is a Chapter in your area, you’ll automatically receive an invitation to a meeting.

Unfortunately, you are going to discover that the majority of nonentrepreneur civilians have a number of set-in-cement biases against and frustrations with you, the entrepreneur. Here are some of the big ones you’ll run up against.