NEW BLOG POST: My Top Twenty Lessons of 2012 for Beginning Social Entrepreneurs
1. Be ready to forego some of your creature comforts. Ain’t easy raising capital. Accumulate your cash.
2. Be ready to be disheartened and disappointed. Don’t waste too much energy on it. Depression is for the birds
3. You will alienate family and friends. Don’t worry about it. They’ll come round when your successful and rich
4. Be methodical. Build your pyramid. The base is always wider and takes more work to build than the top.
5. If its not part of the plan and doesn’t add recognizable value AVOID IT. That includes negative people, get rich quick schemes, unsolicited advise, well or ill meaning people who think they know more about how to run your life than you do and ‘deals’.
6. Remember to service your debts. You don’t want creditors making life complicated but you don’t want to spend all your money paying debt either. Find a balance you can maintain.
7. Always remember your debts. Be it a debt for a kindness, goods or services. The friend who gave you her couch for some weeks. The vendor that let’s you pay your bills a little late. You get the drift? The Favor Bank is serious business.
8. Stay in touch with positive energizing people. Its easy to retreat into your shell and sometimes its necessary but its important to stay in touch and cultivate positive progressive people who make you feel good and who you’ll want to work with in the future.
9. Don’t look down on the ‘little people’. Learn some humility. Life is tough enough. Compassion is a healthy healing feeling.
10. Persist till you breakthrough. Believe that you can. You will
11. Live within your means. Scrutinize all gifts. You might have short term gratification but you need long term sustainability. Delay gratification.
12. Entrepreneurs are risk takers. Learn to mitigate risk. I learnt to swim at 5 by jumping into the deep end of the pool and flailing around till I got a hang of it. Nowadays I pause to make sure there’s a life guard on duty and maybe ask for some basic tips.
13, Listen to your gut, your intuition your instincts. If it feels ‘wrong’ pass it on. Not every opportunity is the right one.
14. Know exactly what you want and keep your aim on the goal. Everything else is a hurdle to jump, move around or avoid. Prioritize accordingly.
15. You got only one person to please. That’s yourself. If you can go to bed at night hungry in a strange bed yet still feel you’ve done a good job you are an entrepreneur.
16. Find the eye of the storm. If it passes over you grab a rock and cling on with your finger nails. This too will pass.
17. Well minded opportunism is a great asset, the Universe is conspiring with you already. If it seems right don’t hesitate, GO FOR IT
18. Be kind to yourself. Self care and self love. Eat right. Exercise. And be happy.
19. Believe in something bigger than yourself.
20. Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. ignore the psycho babblers.
I love this. Sometimes its hard to remember to keep faith in yourself, but this was a good reminder. I especially feel #8. Thank you.
Chinelo
December 19, 2012
Thank you for this!
Akinloye
December 23, 2012
You’re both welcome!
mz_agams
December 24, 2012