Business development

5 Ways Millionaires Approach Their Careers

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imagesHey, it’s 3:43am in Nigeria and I am excited because I just stumbled on this great piece written by Ken Sundheim on the entrepreneur webpage and I just know you will love it! Enjoy this read:

In the majority of cases, it’s not luck that makes people money, nor is it who they know. Rather, the people who make the most money in their careers are the ones who display discipline, and who have a definitive sense of purpose and heavy duty resiliency.

The positive news is that even if you don’t possess these skills now, it is very possible to obtain them. The first step in doing so is to analyze how millionaires approach their careers and begin to alter your thought processes, practices and overall professional approach.

To get you started, here are five ways the highly successful approach their careers:

Related: 5 Ways to Get More Respect at Work

1. Maintain an Open Mind and Active Imagination – Effective job seekers and entrepreneurs understand that tolerance and maintaining an open mind are necessities for anyone seeking wealth and prosperity from their job. They are not afraid of new ideas and understand that closed minds do not inspire faith, courage or belief.

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MOST ENTREPRENEURS DON’T PLAN TO FAIL, THEY FAIL TO PLAN

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I periodically read research reports about business failures. I always find them interesting, although often they are depressing.

Such as what I recently read. Which was research from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. This research found that 70% to 80% of new businesses fail within their first year.

And while this was frustrating enough to read, the research further stated that half of those companies which do survive the first year will fail within the next four years.

Now, let’s turn to the cause of this failure. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the number one cause of this failure is lack of business planning.

What this essentially means is this: entrepreneurs and business owners don’t plan to fail; rather, they fail to plan (which causes them to fail).

In my view, there are two types of business plans. The first is the business plan you must create when you start your company. The purpose of this plan is to ensure you have fully thought through your venture.

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What makes a good plan?

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image001What factors are involved in creating a good business plan? Is it the length of the plan? The information it covers? How well it’s written, or the brilliance of its strategy. No.

The following illustration shows a business plan as part of a process. You can think about the good or bad of a plan as the plan itself, measuring its value by its contents. There are some qualities in a plan that make it more likely to create results, and these are important. However, it is even better to see the plan as part of the whole process of results, because even a great plan is wasted if nobody follows it.

Planning is a process, not just a plan

A business plan will be hard to implement unless it is simple, specific, realistic and complete. Even if it is all these things, a good plan will need someone to follow up and check on it. The plan depends on the human elements around it, particularly the process of commitment and involvement, and the tracking and follow-up that comes afterward.

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Give Angels These Six and the rest is History

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by Dave Lavinsky

In your business experiences, you may have noticed that “selling” is not particularly hard when you have the right product positioned correctly, in front of the right person who wants it NOW. But, when one of these factors are “out of whack,” it can be a much tougher sale to make.

Getting funding from angel investors is the same way. It’s not so much about how good of a presenter or salesperson you are (though those qualities help). Because the most important time you spend influencing potential investors is done long before you present to them, even long before you even contact them; it’s done when you prepare your company for funding.

You’ve probably heard the quote from Abe Lincoln, “If I had 8 hours to spend cutting down a tree, I would spend 6 hours sharpening my saw.” The point — you can get a job done with a lot less effort when you are fully prepared.

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