I’ve been guided to write about the unwritten laws that I have experienced on my journey as an entrepreneur. These laws – whilst not mainstream legal, religious or business laws are laws of the heart, mind and soul and bear a remarkable impact on your growth as a person and as a business owner. These laws are not included in any curriculum of any scholarly institution nor do they carry much weight in the western world.
In fact, I will go as far as to say that there are plenty of self-help books written around entrepreneurship – how to; where to; when to; why to; and who to… none of them are of much practical use to the regular man on the street. No, indeed, you could have all the degrees in the world, have all the experience in the corporate world and have a really excellent budget to start out with – what entrepreneurship doesn’t prepare you for is the self-development journey it takes you on as you traverse the hills, sail the seas, scale the tops of the mountains, run through the valleys and swim the lakes as you journey on the road less travelled called entrepreneurship. It’s convoluted, variegated and sometimes a boiling hot mess – but wow – it is undoubtfully the most you grow in your life-time!
Having closely worked, networked, associated with and socialised with more than about 500 entrepreneurs over the last 9 years, I have come to firmly believe in the unspoken spiritual laws of entrepreneurship and I would like to share them here with you today. This is my personal take on things – based on my personal journey. It might be different for you – and that’s ok-I would appreciate your input by way of means of a comment at then of this ramble.
Know yourself
It is good to start off with knowing yourself. Granted – you are a work in progress – but know who you are, what you want and what your purpose here on earth is. What is your gift and how can you contribute to the world that we live in? Who do you admire in this world – and why? Get clear on what your strengths, challenges, threats and opportunities are and make a firm commitment to work on what you can now.
Choose a mentor, guru, coach or teacher
All successful entrepreneurs have mentors, guru’s, coaches or teachers that they have learned from – we all need someone to learn from – if you don’t have a real live example available in your life – look to the internet for examples and closely follow these people for the free content that they make available to their audiences – there is a ton of free content available to us all. Take the time to research who you resonate within your industry and learn from them.
Define your why?
Entrepreneurship is difficult so make sure you are clear why you’re embarking on this journey of entrepreneurship. Why are you doing this? Is it for happiness, freedom, joy, fame, recognition, fulfilment, fortune, satisfaction, make a difference, leave a legacy? Defining your why will go a long way in giving you a reason for getting up every morning – especially for those tough days.
Ethics and Values
Get very clear from the start on what you will and won’t do – ethics are vital in business. Ethical personal behaviour, ethical decision making, ethical leadership and ethical communications are all vital in showing up authentically. Ethical businesses thrive in the long term – they are based on sound principles that won’t unwittingly let you down: integrity, sustainability, mindfulness, conscious thinking, transparency, fairness and honesty. People love doing business with ethical people – word gets around and you will flourish from the publicity of the good word on the street.
Core values are so important to me – it’s important for you as an entrepreneur to know what your core values are – for example – if the family are important then you need to plan and organize your life to ensure that you make time for your family in your working week and that they potentially get involved in your business. Your business can also have their own core values – strong core values – make for strong companies with strong leadership. Get clear on the core values that you want to build your business and life on.
Empower yourself
Every single person in this world is empowered to achieve absolutely anything that they set their mind to. And therein lays the gift – you have to set your mind to it and intend it to be so in order for it to be achieved. If you don’t know how to do something – find out. If you need help – ask for it. If you need to read a book, do a course or attend a talk – do that… You have the power to live a glorious, victorious and enriched life – at any given moment.
Creativity and ideation are the backbones of entrepreneurship
I will call on one of my favourite authors – Dr Seuss to inspire you for this section:
“Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! A person’s a person, no matter how small. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more than you learn, the more places you’ll go. You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So … get on your way!
Have you heard of the saying, “Never bomb an idea in a brainstorm”? You can access creativity, ideas, out of the box thinking and concepts just as well as the next man or woman – what matters is that you believe in your thinking, ideas, creativity and concepts. Self-belief takes the thought, idea or concept and turns it into a wonderful opportunity to create a success story. So – what this ultimately means is that we as entrepreneurs need to adopt a ‘can-do’ attitude – a ‘growth mindset’ or ‘yes-life-is-good-psychology’ Because you can and it is!
So let go of the fear, embrace the opportunities, take the risks. Catch yourself thinking positive thoughts and celebrate. Notice negative thinking and course correct.
You have to see it to believe it.
What the mind can conceive it can achieve. In other words – if you can see it you will believe it. Visualization, vision boards, mindmaps and storyboards – all work well in helping you see your dreams becoming are le. Constantly update your vision boards and affirm them daily. Don’t dream small – dream big. Keeping dreams small is designed to keep you small. Say no to small and yes to unlimited potential.
Flexible planning
The investment into strategic planning is designed to increase one’s return on personal energy, mental thinking, physical time, spiritual contemplation, and financial capital outlay into one’s business. It gives us a roadmap, direction and a course of action to work towards on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual basis. If done correctly it should improve efficiency, productivity, effectiveness and ultimately our all communications into and out of our business.
Plans do however need to flexible and I caution entrepreneurs to review, realign and regroup at least every three months – reviewing internal factors as well as external factors before going along your merry way. The science and art of business is above all a fluid subject and a fixed outcome should never be taken for granted.
Action
The definition of an entrepreneur is – a person who sets up a business or businesses, undertaking financial risks in the hope of a profit. The word ‘undertake’ is a verb. It requires action. Many entrepreneurs think that if they start their business – the people will come! This is not the case at all. You must take action to get what you desire. This means taking inspired, strategically aligned steps to get yourself, your business and your brand out there getting out there, talking to the right people, in the right place about how your business can answer their needs. No matter if you hire teams to support you in business – you still need to be the head that turns the body – you still need to take a key leadership role in shifting your world forward towards success and happiness. Take action entrepreneur – it’s your dream!
The Law of Attraction Works
This one is very important – what you focus on you’ll attract into your life and the energy you’re putting out there – is the energy you’ll receive back. If you’re in a constant state of stress, anxiety and fear – you’ll be scaring the customers, associates and networkers away with that vibe – true story. No amount of marketing and professional communication will change that energy exchange – you just won’t be getting any business. It’s vital that you keep your thoughts positive and to open yourself up to the energy exchange of giving and receiving.
Law of Abundance is true
Learn from your competitors by all means, but don’t sit and worry about the business that they might or might not be taking away from you – it’s negative energy and will affect your ability to receive. Open your heart and know that there’s enough business for everyone – and people resonate with different people and as such you will attract your tribe. There IS and always has been enough to go around. Scarcity comes from poverty consciousness and will increase if the lack of mentality remains.
Giving and receiving
I often tell my entrepreneurs that they need to give before they can receive – and they, in turn, look at me with wide eyes and say that I am undermining their worth! BS! If your worth is not good enough to give of yourself you need a rethink. Giving of yourself, your service or your product is like a sampler to you your potential client or audience – it introduces them to your greatness – your brand, your concept, your taste, your modality your offering and your bedside manner. It is designed to share of yourself, your talents and your brand – investing into your future – because if the experience is wonderful not only will you have your first brand disciple, but you will have one less person to spend money on to advertise your offer. Giving also energetically opens you up to receive – and what better way to receive in one’s business than to sign up a loyal customer! You might not receive back today – or tomorrow or the next day – but you will have opened the gates to receiving gifts of some nature in your life – it’s the nature of the universe and has never failed me. It doesn’t mean we give to receive – no – I have come to love giving of myself, my time, my knowledge and my thinking – it fills me with great love and great joy to share my knowledge and truly makes me a happier person. I am sure you too will feel the same.
Authenticity above Publicity
Be real… in everything that you do from day one, that way you won’t have to pretend, fake it or make-believe for anyone ever! Own your mistakes and apologise when necessary. Show up honest, real and vulnerable every day – so that tomorrow there’s no question about who you are. The best result of authenticity is approachability and relatability and that alone is worth a kings riches.
Spirituality
I am not being specific here for a very important reason – the practice of being spiritual is a very personal journey and will mean very different things to different people. What I can advocate is that you embrace a practice where you are taught to love yourself as you love others. A spiritual being will understand and embrace the concept of oneness, unity and that the rising tide raises all boats on the shore. Having a spiritual practice will bring discipline, peace and love into your space which in turn embraces flow and growth – all aspects that have benefitted me and my life’s journey and can be highly recommended. Granted I am by no means a spiritual master not by a long shot – but I do believe in the unity of people and that we are here to learn to love ourselves as we love others and this concept alone as allowed me to learn so much about the needs of others as well as myself.
I am sure – as I grow in my business – I will add to this list of unwritten laws of an entrepreneur’s journey – but for now – these are the ones that have played an integral part in my personal growth and development and will be my gift to all startup entrepreneurs. Be sure to be clear on who you show up as otherwise you could get lost in the flamboyant and often maverick nature of other entrepreneurs living a bright and shiny life out there.
Robyn Lambrick – Marketing Maven and CEO of Word on the Street Media. Contact me for a virtual coffee date and a chat about how we can assist with your marketing.
- Law of Serving, Sharing and Giving: The Law of giving says that the more you give of yourself without expectation of return, the more that will come back to you. That is equally true for serving your community or humanity at large, and sharing the resources and knowledge that you possess.