How to Let Go of Your Ego, to Ensure Success as an Entrepreneur
There were three reasons I wasn’t improving in my journey as an entrepreneur and they all had to do with me protecting my ego! Once I learned that it was ok to drop the resistance, a flood of growth and opportunities came my way. The three mistakes I made were – firstly trying to do everything on my own. Secondly, I believed that I had to be the originator of all ideas, otherwise I was useless (harsh I know) and finally actually allowing myself to admit that sometimes others actually did know better than me on certain things.
What were the thoughts going through my mind? That if I was wrong, it meant I couldn’t be successful. I mean – how far from the truth is that! You look at all successful entrepreneurs – each have made many mistakes along their journey, and that is what makes them who they are today. Thomas Edison made over 1000 mistakes before he came across the right way to create a light bulb, and look how successful he was!
So, I wanted to give permission to all you budding entrepreneurs to let go of the ego – because as soon as you do, success soon follows and it is the most freeing thing you can do. Here are 3 things to think about:
1. DIY (DO IT YOURSELF) – For some reason, I had it in my head that the truly successful entrepreneurs did everything on their own. I believe I thought this because when you hear about their successes, you just hear their names not a list of helpers. What I realised, after much research, they have teams that help them out. Delegation is the key – do the things you want and find the best people for the rest. A great book to read is “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber.
LESSON ONE: Learn to delegate and do the 1-2 things you enjoy doing the most. Richard Branson, a successful entrepreneur, stuck to what he was good at and got others to do everything else.
2. Idea’s were all mine, or not at all – Umm… yeah, was I stubborn or what! That little ego would pop up it’s head, anytime someone suggested an improvement on my ideas and I would become defensive. Once I realised my ideas and growth wouldn’t get anywhere until I embraced other people’s ideas – the growth was exponential. Anytime I heard suggestions or criticisms, I thought – how could this make my business better? With that attitude – you only have one direction for success, and that is up!
LESSON TWO: Open up, allow for other ideas to be suggested. Use the information to better your idea, or business system.
3. If my original idea doesn’t work, then it will never work, and I won’t be successful. – Having a mindset, whereby you give up when it doesn’t turn out how you planned, will always end in feeling deflated. However if you learn from what didn’t work, adapt it to your idea and think outside the square – often, with commitment and persistence, you may find a bigger and better idea than you originally thought. And this idea would have never come around until the mistakes were made. The Popsicle, along with the Slinky and Silly putty – all began as ideas for something else that didn’t work!
LESSON THREE: Commitment to a goal of success is key – allow your idea to evolve through failures and obstacles. The journey is the key, as long as you are persistent and allow your idea to change, sometimes many times, on its way to success.
Don’t worry about how you are going to get there, just be determined to reach your goal of success, whatever that means to you. I was able to let go of the way I was going to get to my destination, and it was amazing what opportunities turned up. When you let go of the resistance of the ego, there will be a flood of ideas, suggestions and money making vehicles that will take you to where you want to go. Just know where it is you want to head, research your ‘vehicles’ that will take you there and enjoy the scenery on the way!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment