3 minute read
Business for Veterans
By Barbara Eldridge www.mindmasters.com
The Right Stuff
What is it inside of people that makes them willing to risk everything they have to be in business? Is it to join the league of greats like Ford, Carnegie, Hearst, Jobs, Gates or just to have the freedom of being in a business of their own?
Perhaps it is the spirit passed down by parents or grandparents who ran the butcher shops, bakeries and small service businesses from the beginning of time. Some say it is a burning desire that hits like a flash of lightening or an idea that begs to be developed.
At the height of it all, entrepreneurship screams freedom – freedom to direct one’s own life, freedom to earn as much as one can, freedom to set one’s own hours, freedom to be in control.
In the thick of it, entrepreneurship demands risk, it demands new skills, it demands financial liquidity and demands the effective use of time and life. Over the past 30 years, my experience facilitating hundreds of business owners in Mind Masters groups, highlights the struggle they have, wearing all of the “hats” of running a business and still maintaining some balance.
Many things happen when you go into business for yourself. You face tremendous obstacles, significant opportunities for growth and the personal fulfillment of achievement. There are essential factors that come together to make it happen.
You might remember the day you first entered high school; where are your classes, how do you get to your home room? Then you entered your first biology class and realized you found your life direction. Or maybe it was English class, or mathematics, something that pointed you in a direction. As you mastered the science, the language, the equations, you started to feel the sense of having a path to follow that carried you into a career.
Sometimes the sense of direction wasn’t all that obvious, it might have taken a few years in the military to recognize where you wanted to direct your career. And just like serving in the military, personal achievement in any area of life requires commitment and consistency, and perhaps, as a business owner, it requires it even more.
You must maintain the right mindset and the ACTION that goes with it, to produce the success you want. Your dream may not have included the amount of work necessary to live it. You may not have realized how much on-going learning is required to run a business and sell successfully. Both work and learning take patience while consistently going beyond your limits. The rewards of personal, professional and financial growth far out-weigh the struggles to get there, take time to enjoy the path you have chosen
The Challenge: It is the last quarter, take time to work on yourself and your business, the road ahead will be easier.
Many things happen when you go into business for yourself. You face tremendous obstacles, significant opportunities for growth and the personal fulfillment of achievement.
Entrepreneurship demands risk!
Maintain the right mindset and the ACTION that goes with it, to produce the success you want.
Barbara Eldridge has built a solid reputation as a Results strategies specialist, within industry and business over the past 40 years. Her unique message, since starting Mind Masters 30 years ago for entrepreneurs and small business owners, continually stresses vision, purpose and values as the key elements of business philosophy. Her undying compassion for the entrepreneur’s journey, her tireless capacity to listen, and her sincere enthusiasm for other’s success have insured her growing influence and her own mastery with MIND MASTERS.
