What does it take to build your career as an entrepreneur?
Discovery. Courage. Risk Taking. Sacrifice.
“Create a vision and make it so absolutely attractive that people want to kill to achieve that particular vision.” – Ipelang Mkhari
Moving Your Business from Version 1.0 – 2.0
- Realize that you cannot do everything.
- Be willing to let go.
- Surround yourself with great people, hopefully people much smarter than you. That is critical.
- Ensure the business has a corporate structure and foundation from HR, to IT, to finance.
- Allow others to become strong leaders in your business or organization.
- Make the people who work with you central to your business.
- Create a culture of performance.
- Treat individuals as individuals, while urging them on the journey of your vision.
Core to leadership is understanding what it is that you care for and being confident in pursuing that.
“It's a continual process to understand what it means to lead. Because you're not leading robots, you're leading individuals, you're leading human beings. They are feeling, thinking people. They have aspirations and goals. And so being able to impart or at least articulate and represent that which they want to become is critical.”
Top Three Pieces of Insight
- Recognize Your Confidence.
- Recognize the Importance of Training.
- Recognize the Need for Sacrifice.
“We tend to believe that the people that we see on the cover of these magazines or women we see on television have not gone through difficulties, although we continue to go through difficulties … It couldn't be further from the truth. The reality is all of those women have had to really go through huge obstacles, they had to face their own fears, and they’ve had to take on challenges that are far larger than they are and with possibly a lot of trepidation.” – Ipelang Mkhari
Practices to Cultivate Courage
- Establish a spiritual connection and tap into that source.
- Surround yourself with advisors.
- Find people travelling a similar journey and communicate openly and regularly with them.
“It's good to celebrate our successes but it's more important to celebrate the difficulties that we've encountered along the way because they're the ones that we learn from.” – Ipelang Mkhari
Two Most Important Steps to “Go Big” with Your Business
- Get Great Consultants.
- Get Great Sponsors – both financially and people who understand your industry.