Starting your own company is undoubtedly one of the most exciting things you can do, but it is also one of the most challenging. From destructive personal habits to a lack of knowledge about how to properly run a business, there are many roadblocks that can keep you from achieving the success you so greatly desire.

The problem is, many people don’t have the time to enroll in additional business classes at school to learn these new skills. This is especially true of those who have already launched their startup and are now discovering that their skill set is somewhat lacking.

So how do you keep your lack of knowledge from bringing about a premature end to your entrepreneurial dreams? To achieve lasting success, you’ll have to develop the ability to learn these important skills “on the fly” as you simultaneously manage your company.

Here are 7 ways you can make this happen:

1. Leverage Failure

Failure is an unavoidable aspect of the business world. Even when you seem to have a great product and great team, failure is always a possibility. In fact, industries with the highest startup success rates still see 42 percent of new companies fail within their first four years of operation.

Though failure is hard, it is essential that you take a step back and assess why you failed. This allows you to gain key insights that will help you perform better in the future. As serial entrepreneur and investor Steve Tan recalls, “I’ve been involved in e-commerce since 2005. During that time, I’ve had four startups that went under. It was very hard — depressing, even, but I didn’t give up. By evaluating the reasons why my past efforts had failed, I was able to use these lessons to launch a company with my brother that now has an eight-figure annual revenue.”

2. Become a Self-Starter

Successful learners need to be self-motivated. As Jack Canfield explains, “World-class achievers don’t wait until external influences – such as a teacher, manager or boss, or new developments within an industry – force them to gain new skills or knowledge. They are self-motivated learners who are constantly looking for new ways to improve their performance and deepen their understanding of the world around them.”

To learn on the fly as an entrepreneur, you need to develop a desire to make active learning a key part of everything you do. This requires humility and self-awareness. An inner drive for improvement will help you be a more successful learner than if you were forced into change by external forces.

“Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” – Will Smith

3. Set Goals

Even if you’re self-motivated, it can be hard to maintain focus on learning activities when you have so many other entrepreneurial duties on your plate. Smart goal-setting is essential for keeping on track. If you want to learn more about social media marketing, creating a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goal will be far more effective than having a vague desire to learn.

Goal-setting gives you the tools to track your progress toward learning milestones. As you use smart goals to remain focused and committed to on the fly learning, you’ll be better positioned to achieve actual results.

4. Find the ‘Why’

If you don’t feel as motivated to learn, it can help to focus on the why. Why do you need to understand Facebook and other social media platforms? Why should you learn about supply chain management?

As you more closely examine how such issues impact your company’s bottom line, you can find the motivation you need to make learning a priority. When this happens, you’ll be more likely to constantly search for new learning opportunities, making it far easier to learn in a hectic environment.

5. Set Aside Time Every Day

When you have a busy schedule, it can be easy for certain activities to fall by the wayside. More often than not, if you don’t carve out some “learning time” in your calendar, there’s a good chance you’ll end the day without taking any time to learn at all.

While it’s true that many of the best entrepreneurial learning opportunities are entirely unstructured, setting aside a period of structured “study time” demonstrates a level of commitment that will help you keep on track with your learning goals. Even using as little as 15 minutes to read a how-to article or work on a learning project will pay big dividends over time.

6. Look for Structured Opportunities

You don’t have to sign up for a class at your local community college to gain access to expert knowledge. It’s easier than ever to find knowledgable, authoritative resources that will help you develop the skills necessary to keep your business on track. From articles published by other entrepreneurs to online courses, there are countless resources you can use — and many of them are completely free.

Professional conferences can be especially valuable. Industry-specific conferences often focus on the trends and skills that will have a direct impact on your startup’s success. Better yet, conferences also create valuable networking opportunities that can help you foster new growth opportunities.

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

7. Get Hands-On

To become a successful learner, you need to put aside any fears about “not knowing enough” and start practicing. Studies have found that students who learn by doing perform better than their peers. The same is true in the business world.

At the end of the day, nothing beats hands-on learning. If you’re trying to learn a new language so you can better communicate with your customers, you’ll learn much quicker as you practice speaking, rather than simply reading from a textbook. Personal engagement in the activity you are trying to master is the best bet for mastery.

As Jim Rohn famously said, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” To achieve lasting success, you have to become a learner. This requires that you examine what factors could keep you from reaching your ultimate goals and then take action to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow you to address these issues. As you strive to become a continual learner, you’ll cultivate the tools you need to become successful.

What new skill are you currently working on? Share with me in the comment section below!

We all have “lightbulb” moments from time to time. As an entrepreneur, you’ve made your living off of turning these moments into business practices. Whatever the case, every idea has a lifespan. At some point, it’ll either work for you or it won’t. If it’s not working, then you need to know the right time to move on. Otherwise, you’ll pour your time and resources into a bottomless pit.

Sure, there’s something to be said for persistence, but sometimes persistence can just lead you further down the wrong path and cause you to bang your head against the wall. We’d like to help you prevent that!

Here are 4 signs that you should move on from a business idea:

1. You’ve Completely Lost Your Passion for It

You no longer have the fire you used to have for the idea. What started out as a passion has quickly dwindled to the point where everything about it feels like a chore. You can’t see yourself working in the industry or on the idea for much longer – and certainly not for the amount of time it’ll take for it to become a lasting success.

You can keep plowing forward and ignore this lost passion, but it’ll chip away at your happiness and start to sap your energy, even if it has the potential to become profitable.

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.” – Henry David Thoreau

2. The Profit Margin is Too Low

Low profit margins create low margins for error. This becomes even more problematic when you’re dealing with tough competition in a potential “race to the bottom” of pricing. If the profit margin will be too low and you can’t figure out a way to increase it, perhaps through negotiation with potential vendors or cutting out some other part of the cost, then the idea may no longer be worth pursuing.

When calculating profit margin, make sure to calculate the net profit margin. This takes total sales and subtracts it by business expenses. Keep in mind that profit margins will vary from industry to industry.

3. You Can’t Validate It

If you struggle to validate your idea, it’s a sign that people probably don’t want or need it. For example, if you run Facebook ads to a landing page with an email opt-in to learn more about your idea, and it generates hardly any clicks, then people may not be interested.

You can try other mediums for testing and validating your idea. You can even try to “pre-sell” it, so that you get sales before you even move forward with creating it. But if all of your attempts see lackluster results, then listen to what the market is telling you. They don’t want your idea in its current state. You can either pivot and tweak your idea, or move on to something else. Because if you start pouring your resources into an idea like this, you’re bound to lose on that investment.

4. It’s Confusing

Can you easily explain your idea to potential customers and others in few sentences? If not, then it’s probably a little too confusing. Confusing ideas struggle to achieve large customer bases, because they struggle to invoke desire in customers. How can somebody want a product or service if they don’t understand what problem it solves, or what it actually does?

If your idea is confusing, you should work to simplify it and create an “elevator pitch”, then test it out by explaining it to people. If that still doesn’t work, then it may be time to move on to something else.

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – David Ogilvy

You shouldn’t take every idea and use it. Instead, you should realize when it’s time to move on from one idea so you can devote more resources to your next endeavor.  It’s hard to move on, especially if you’ve invested a lot into your idea. But if you see any of the signs we’ve listed here, then it’s time to move forward.

Have you ever had an idea you thought would be successful but you had to move on from it? Let us know in the comments below so we can all help each other push forward and succeed.

I know you just read the title and might be chomping at the bit to give me a piece of your mind, but hold on. Before you get offended and tell me all the reasons why this doesn’t apply to you, let me start by explaining what I mean by the word “business.”

I consider “business” to be a commercial means of operations. This is about setting up processes and systems that consider the sustainability of the venture. Is there a supply chain? How much overhead is involved? What kind of consistency and regularity can you guarantee? These are all crucial factors.

A conventional business involves stakeholders, both internal and external. There is an assumed responsibility to not only keeping the bottom line healthy, but taking care of the varied factors (e.g., humans, machines, and cash flow) that directly impact its health. At the same time, there is the responsibility to be transparent and mindful with the external stakeholders such as clients and the community.

In short: Business = Sustainability and Responsibility. Take the bank for example. It has a variety of systems and processes in place to ensure that it will be there tomorrow, next week, next month, and so on. It has short-term targets with a long-term vision and a plan to get there.

It also takes responsibility for all of its moving parts (clients, employees, money) by having boundaries in place such as hourly work week limits. By not running its employees ragged, not only do they enjoy a better work-life balance but they are also less likely to accidentally make critical mistakes in client accounts.

Myth vs. Reality

On the surface, having your own business seems glamorous and prestigious. You work for yourself, you can determine your own business hours, and you reap most of the monetary benefits. However, it seems like everyone wants to open a business with the rewards in mind, ignoring the responsibilities and behind-the-scenes work involved.

This is why only 10% of startups succeed and the rest either barely break even or end up exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially. But if everyone isn’t meant for business, does this mean that the rest of us should live our lives working for others? No way!

Although not everyone may be “meant for business,” but everyone can conduct business… so long as they are crystal clear about what they want out of it. If you’d like the monetary rewards of a business but not all the responsibilities of operating one, then consider selling your expertise!

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” – Steve Jobs

Alternatives

Consulting is the perfect way around the conventional business setup. A consultant helps other people with their businesses. They get paid to understand the ins and outs, and to tell others what to do to make operations run more efficiently. What are you an expert in? What are you passionate about? Consultants find work in areas from weddings to wine and also business!Another great route to take is to become an agent. The agent functions as a bridge between the demand and the supply: the clients looking for work and the businesses looking to hire. Their key responsibility is to facilitate or finalize the completion of a sale and, depending on the remunerative agreement, they can receive payment from one or even both parties.

The agent is in business, conducts a business, and does business. However, the agent doesn’t have the conventional form of a business, and they probably don’t want one.

Knowing What You Want

Take note of your strengths and weaknesses, and choose the path that works best for you. It may actually feel liberating to not start a conventional business when you know that the responsibilities involved are more than you can (or want to) handle.

So before jumping into business, determine the type of business model you want. Do you want to set-up a conventional one or one where you do more of a consultative role? With a full awareness of these things, you will be better able to create a career that you truly love and which loves you right back.

“When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.” – Jim Rohn

To help you get clear on whether or not a conventional business is for you, I’ve created this short questionnaire (Rate from 1-5. 1 as a strong NO, 5 as a strong YES):

• I prefer working alone to working in a team.
• I prefer having my own hours and going away when I want to, sometimes disappearing for a month or so.
• I dislike having a long-term vision for myself and breaking it down to short-term goals.
• I enjoy doing several things at a time but I don’t like hustling all the time.
• I hate structures, systems and strategies. I prefer to be in the flow.

If you score between 5-12, you may be defining “business” in the conventional form. Either you are suitable for being employed in a very stable and secure position, or you like having a business that takes sustainability into consideration.

If you score between 13-18, you are likely able to focus on both the short-term and long-term goals. It’s important for you to clearly define your “next level” goals, right down to the details of how much involvement you want to have in your career.

If you score between 19-25, you are probably more suited for a project-based platform rather than a conventional form of business. Instead of ongoing work you can consider launching programs or taking on projects on a singular basis, and efficiently capitalize on those endeavors.

Do you think you are made to start a business? Let us know your thoughts below!

The story of Iron man and Elon Musk starts when Robert Downey Jr. visited SpaceX headquarters miles away from the setting of the first Iron Man movie back in 2007. The actor was inspired to base his character on Elon Musk’s personality. Ashlee Vance writes in Elon’s biography “both Musk and Stark were the type of men, according to Downey, who ‘had seized an idea to live by and something to dedicate themselves to’ and were not going to waste a moment.”

What blew Robert Downey Jr.’s mind about Elon Musk are the characteristics that make him an extraordinary business man. Follow along if you’re interested to know these characteristics and how they would affect your business.

Here are four things Musk would probably do if he were to run your business:

1. He would be more approachable

No matter how important and larger-than-life he gets, Elon Musk would still be approachable as a friend you’ve known for ages. For one thing, when one of his Twitter followers asked him whether he is bipolar, he responded “yeah” and then explained “Maybe not medically tho”, a level of humbleness you wouldn’t expect from the CEO of two million-dollar companies.  

His openness with the painful reality of his success is also what makes him a regular Joe who is there to “just take the pain” and make sure he really cares about what he’s doing. He is a man of unlimited success who reaches down to elevate his fellow human beings by sharing his uncertainties. You just have the feeling that his success is even accessible to you.

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk

2. He would be more authentic

Musk’s approachability is more authentic than you might think. Even in his public speeches he rarely gets the know-it-all presumptuous perspective. He gets nervous, makes some awkward moves and jokes, gets lost in details, and frequently interrupts himself, yet as Justin Bario writes for Inc. magazine, these only show his authentic passion about his vision.

“When you truly believe in an idea, and you focus on sharing that passion with others, you tend to forget about the mechanics of speaking and presenting. Instead of focusing on being nervous, you become focused on your belief. This leads you to speak more naturally, and makes it difficult for listeners to turn away.”

Also his authentic visions for social betterment beat the self-serving goals of many other billionaires. Whereas most entrepreneurs tend to see their work as revolutionary and disruptive, Elon actually moves away from such bold claims and replaces them with the question “How can we make things better?”

In an interview with the Telegraph, he explains that “a lot of my motivation comes from me personally looking at things that don’t work well and feeling a bit sad about how it would manifest in the future. And if that would result in an unhappy future, then it makes me unhappy. And so I want to fix it. That really is the motivation for me. I certainly don’t believe in disrupting things for the sake of it.”

3. He would be a tougher business rival

The fact that 8 out of 10 businesses fail might be a good reason to believe that the remaining 2 should really be tough.  Elon’s businesses were never exceptional. Although he had netted $180 million from selling his online payments start up (later PayPal) to Ebay, he invested much of that money in Tesla and SpaceX, and he was constantly faced with financial issues to keep his companies up and running. In one case, when the news leaked that Tesla was left with its last $9 million, Musk promised to personally refund Tesla’s customers if the company couldn’t deliver the promised cars.

Even in SpaceX, things were not in full control. In August 2008, the third launch of SpaceX’s rocket, Falcon 1, failed and along with it three government satellites and the ashes of 208 people it carried were destroyed. This was already super costly for a privately held company.

Yet, such failure could never stop Musk from pursuing his dreams. In an interview with Wired just after the failed launch, Musk declared that he planned to do more launches: “We must get to orbit eventually, and we will. It might take us one, two or three more tries, but we will. We will make it work.”

Nearly a month later, Falcon 1 was successfully launched into space, and on December 23, SpaceX could seal a $1.2 billion contract with NASA to deliver its cargo to the space station in 12 rocket flights.

“Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk

4. He would spend more on innovation

The $30 billion market cap in 2016 could be the jackpot for many business owners. Although Musk could have enjoyed a bit of risk-free stability, in the same year he made another decision that left the business world in a shock.

In late 2016 he acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion. This of course puts Musk in a better position to implement his master plan to “move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy”, as he had declared in 2006.  But just when Tesla was beginning to gain some serious traction among people and when many CEOs would have decided to focus on their current products, Elon Musk decided to move forward and offer a big upgrade to his products.

The merger of the two companies is “logical” and “quite obvious” from Musk’s point of view. Tesla should be able to offer an autonomous sustainable-energy solution: electric cars, solar roofs that produce electric energy, and Powerwalls that store the electric energy produced in the day to be used at nights. It seems that for Musk, the need for more innovation is on the forefront of his business goals.

There is never a better way to learn effective leadership than by looking at the successful examples. Elon Musk is such an example. His approachability, authenticity, toughness and geekiness make him an iconic figure in the business world.

What do you think of Elon Musk? Comment below!

Starting your own company is undoubtedly one of the most exciting things you can do, but it is also one of the most challenging. From destructive personal habits to a lack of knowledge about how to properly run a business, there are many roadblocks that can keep you from achieving the success you so greatly desire.

The problem is, many people don’t have the time to enroll in additional business classes at school to learn these new skills. This is especially true of those who have already launched their startup and are now discovering that their skill set is somewhat lacking.

So how do you keep your lack of knowledge from bringing about a premature end to your entrepreneurial dreams? To achieve lasting success, you’ll have to develop the ability to learn these important skills “on the fly” as you simultaneously manage your company.

Here are 7 ways you can make this happen:

1. Leverage Failure

Failure is an unavoidable aspect of the business world. Even when you seem to have a great product and great team, failure is always a possibility. In fact, industries with the highest startup success rates still see 42 percent of new companies fail within their first four years of operation.

Though failure is hard, it is essential that you take a step back and assess why you failed. This allows you to gain key insights that will help you perform better in the future. As serial entrepreneur and investor Steve Tan recalls, “I’ve been involved in e-commerce since 2005. During that time, I’ve had four startups that went under. It was very hard — depressing, even, but I didn’t give up. By evaluating the reasons why my past efforts had failed, I was able to use these lessons to launch a company with my brother that now has an eight-figure annual revenue.”

2. Become a Self-Starter

Successful learners need to be self-motivated. As Jack Canfield explains, “World-class achievers don’t wait until external influences – such as a teacher, manager or boss, or new developments within an industry – force them to gain new skills or knowledge. They are self-motivated learners who are constantly looking for new ways to improve their performance and deepen their understanding of the world around them.”

To learn on the fly as an entrepreneur, you need to develop a desire to make active learning a key part of everything you do. This requires humility and self-awareness. An inner drive for improvement will help you be a more successful learner than if you were forced into change by external forces.

“Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” – Will Smith

3. Set Goals

Even if you’re self-motivated, it can be hard to maintain focus on learning activities when you have so many other entrepreneurial duties on your plate. Smart goal-setting is essential for keeping on track. If you want to learn more about social media marketing, creating a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goal will be far more effective than having a vague desire to learn.

Goal-setting gives you the tools to track your progress toward learning milestones. As you use smart goals to remain focused and committed to on the fly learning, you’ll be better positioned to achieve actual results.

4. Find the ‘Why’

If you don’t feel as motivated to learn, it can help to focus on the why. Why do you need to understand Facebook and other social media platforms? Why should you learn about supply chain management?

As you more closely examine how such issues impact your company’s bottom line, you can find the motivation you need to make learning a priority. When this happens, you’ll be more likely to constantly search for new learning opportunities, making it far easier to learn in a hectic environment.

5. Set Aside Time Every Day

When you have a busy schedule, it can be easy for certain activities to fall by the wayside. More often than not, if you don’t carve out some “learning time” in your calendar, there’s a good chance you’ll end the day without taking any time to learn at all.

While it’s true that many of the best entrepreneurial learning opportunities are entirely unstructured, setting aside a period of structured “study time” demonstrates a level of commitment that will help you keep on track with your learning goals. Even using as little as 15 minutes to read a how-to article or work on a learning project will pay big dividends over time.

6. Look for Structured Opportunities

You don’t have to sign up for a class at your local community college to gain access to expert knowledge. It’s easier than ever to find knowledgable, authoritative resources that will help you develop the skills necessary to keep your business on track. From articles published by other entrepreneurs to online courses, there are countless resources you can use — and many of them are completely free.

Professional conferences can be especially valuable. Industry-specific conferences often focus on the trends and skills that will have a direct impact on your startup’s success. Better yet, conferences also create valuable networking opportunities that can help you foster new growth opportunities.

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

7. Get Hands-On

To become a successful learner, you need to put aside any fears about “not knowing enough” and start practicing. Studies have found that students who learn by doing perform better than their peers. The same is true in the business world.

At the end of the day, nothing beats hands-on learning. If you’re trying to learn a new language so you can better communicate with your customers, you’ll learn much quicker as you practice speaking, rather than simply reading from a textbook. Personal engagement in the activity you are trying to master is the best bet for mastery.

As Jim Rohn famously said, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” To achieve lasting success, you have to become a learner. This requires that you examine what factors could keep you from reaching your ultimate goals and then take action to gain the skills and knowledge that will allow you to address these issues. As you strive to become a continual learner, you’ll cultivate the tools you need to become successful.

What new skill are you currently working on? Share with me in the comment section below!

We all have “lightbulb” moments from time to time. As an entrepreneur, you’ve made your living off of turning these moments into business practices. Whatever the case, every idea has a lifespan. At some point, it’ll either work for you or it won’t. If it’s not working, then you need to know the right time to move on. Otherwise, you’ll pour your time and resources into a bottomless pit.

Sure, there’s something to be said for persistence, but sometimes persistence can just lead you further down the wrong path and cause you to bang your head against the wall. We’d like to help you prevent that!

Here are 4 signs that you should move on from a business idea:

1. You’ve Completely Lost Your Passion for It

You no longer have the fire you used to have for the idea. What started out as a passion has quickly dwindled to the point where everything about it feels like a chore. You can’t see yourself working in the industry or on the idea for much longer – and certainly not for the amount of time it’ll take for it to become a lasting success.

You can keep plowing forward and ignore this lost passion, but it’ll chip away at your happiness and start to sap your energy, even if it has the potential to become profitable.

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.” – Henry David Thoreau

2. The Profit Margin is Too Low

Low profit margins create low margins for error. This becomes even more problematic when you’re dealing with tough competition in a potential “race to the bottom” of pricing. If the profit margin will be too low and you can’t figure out a way to increase it, perhaps through negotiation with potential vendors or cutting out some other part of the cost, then the idea may no longer be worth pursuing.

When calculating profit margin, make sure to calculate the net profit margin. This takes total sales and subtracts it by business expenses. Keep in mind that profit margins will vary from industry to industry.

3. You Can’t Validate It

If you struggle to validate your idea, it’s a sign that people probably don’t want or need it. For example, if you run Facebook ads to a landing page with an email opt-in to learn more about your idea, and it generates hardly any clicks, then people may not be interested.

You can try other mediums for testing and validating your idea. You can even try to “pre-sell” it, so that you get sales before you even move forward with creating it. But if all of your attempts see lackluster results, then listen to what the market is telling you. They don’t want your idea in its current state. You can either pivot and tweak your idea, or move on to something else. Because if you start pouring your resources into an idea like this, you’re bound to lose on that investment.

4. It’s Confusing

Can you easily explain your idea to potential customers and others in few sentences? If not, then it’s probably a little too confusing. Confusing ideas struggle to achieve large customer bases, because they struggle to invoke desire in customers. How can somebody want a product or service if they don’t understand what problem it solves, or what it actually does?

If your idea is confusing, you should work to simplify it and create an “elevator pitch”, then test it out by explaining it to people. If that still doesn’t work, then it may be time to move on to something else.

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” – David Ogilvy

You shouldn’t take every idea and use it. Instead, you should realize when it’s time to move on from one idea so you can devote more resources to your next endeavor.  It’s hard to move on, especially if you’ve invested a lot into your idea. But if you see any of the signs we’ve listed here, then it’s time to move forward.

Have you ever had an idea you thought would be successful but you had to move on from it? Let us know in the comments below so we can all help each other push forward and succeed.

I know you just read the title and might be chomping at the bit to give me a piece of your mind, but hold on. Before you get offended and tell me all the reasons why this doesn’t apply to you, let me start by explaining what I mean by the word “business.”

I consider “business” to be a commercial means of operations. This is about setting up processes and systems that consider the sustainability of the venture. Is there a supply chain? How much overhead is involved? What kind of consistency and regularity can you guarantee? These are all crucial factors.

A conventional business involves stakeholders, both internal and external. There is an assumed responsibility to not only keeping the bottom line healthy, but taking care of the varied factors (e.g., humans, machines, and cash flow) that directly impact its health. At the same time, there is the responsibility to be transparent and mindful with the external stakeholders such as clients and the community.

In short: Business = Sustainability and Responsibility. Take the bank for example. It has a variety of systems and processes in place to ensure that it will be there tomorrow, next week, next month, and so on. It has short-term targets with a long-term vision and a plan to get there.

It also takes responsibility for all of its moving parts (clients, employees, money) by having boundaries in place such as hourly work week limits. By not running its employees ragged, not only do they enjoy a better work-life balance but they are also less likely to accidentally make critical mistakes in client accounts.

Myth vs. Reality

On the surface, having your own business seems glamorous and prestigious. You work for yourself, you can determine your own business hours, and you reap most of the monetary benefits. However, it seems like everyone wants to open a business with the rewards in mind, ignoring the responsibilities and behind-the-scenes work involved.

This is why only 10% of startups succeed and the rest either barely break even or end up exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially. But if everyone isn’t meant for business, does this mean that the rest of us should live our lives working for others? No way!

Although not everyone may be “meant for business,” but everyone can conduct business… so long as they are crystal clear about what they want out of it. If you’d like the monetary rewards of a business but not all the responsibilities of operating one, then consider selling your expertise!

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” – Steve Jobs

Alternatives

Consulting is the perfect way around the conventional business setup. A consultant helps other people with their businesses. They get paid to understand the ins and outs, and to tell others what to do to make operations run more efficiently. What are you an expert in? What are you passionate about? Consultants find work in areas from weddings to wine and also business!Another great route to take is to become an agent. The agent functions as a bridge between the demand and the supply: the clients looking for work and the businesses looking to hire. Their key responsibility is to facilitate or finalize the completion of a sale and, depending on the remunerative agreement, they can receive payment from one or even both parties.

The agent is in business, conducts a business, and does business. However, the agent doesn’t have the conventional form of a business, and they probably don’t want one.

Knowing What You Want

Take note of your strengths and weaknesses, and choose the path that works best for you. It may actually feel liberating to not start a conventional business when you know that the responsibilities involved are more than you can (or want to) handle.

So before jumping into business, determine the type of business model you want. Do you want to set-up a conventional one or one where you do more of a consultative role? With a full awareness of these things, you will be better able to create a career that you truly love and which loves you right back.

“When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.” – Jim Rohn

To help you get clear on whether or not a conventional business is for you, I’ve created this short questionnaire (Rate from 1-5. 1 as a strong NO, 5 as a strong YES):

• I prefer working alone to working in a team.
• I prefer having my own hours and going away when I want to, sometimes disappearing for a month or so.
• I dislike having a long-term vision for myself and breaking it down to short-term goals.
• I enjoy doing several things at a time but I don’t like hustling all the time.
• I hate structures, systems and strategies. I prefer to be in the flow.

If you score between 5-12, you may be defining “business” in the conventional form. Either you are suitable for being employed in a very stable and secure position, or you like having a business that takes sustainability into consideration.

If you score between 13-18, you are likely able to focus on both the short-term and long-term goals. It’s important for you to clearly define your “next level” goals, right down to the details of how much involvement you want to have in your career.

If you score between 19-25, you are probably more suited for a project-based platform rather than a conventional form of business. Instead of ongoing work you can consider launching programs or taking on projects on a singular basis, and efficiently capitalize on those endeavors.

Do you think you are made to start a business? Let us know your thoughts below!

The story of Iron man and Elon Musk starts when Robert Downey Jr. visited SpaceX headquarters miles away from the setting of the first Iron Man movie back in 2007. The actor was inspired to base his character on Elon Musk’s personality. Ashlee Vance writes in Elon’s biography “both Musk and Stark were the type of men, according to Downey, who ‘had seized an idea to live by and something to dedicate themselves to’ and were not going to waste a moment.”

What blew Robert Downey Jr.’s mind about Elon Musk are the characteristics that make him an extraordinary business man. Follow along if you’re interested to know these characteristics and how they would affect your business.

Here are four things Musk would probably do if he were to run your business:

1. He would be more approachable

No matter how important and larger-than-life he gets, Elon Musk would still be approachable as a friend you’ve known for ages. For one thing, when one of his Twitter followers asked him whether he is bipolar, he responded “yeah” and then explained “Maybe not medically tho”, a level of humbleness you wouldn’t expect from the CEO of two million-dollar companies.  

His openness with the painful reality of his success is also what makes him a regular Joe who is there to “just take the pain” and make sure he really cares about what he’s doing. He is a man of unlimited success who reaches down to elevate his fellow human beings by sharing his uncertainties. You just have the feeling that his success is even accessible to you.

“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” – Elon Musk

2. He would be more authentic

Musk’s approachability is more authentic than you might think. Even in his public speeches he rarely gets the know-it-all presumptuous perspective. He gets nervous, makes some awkward moves and jokes, gets lost in details, and frequently interrupts himself, yet as Justin Bario writes for Inc. magazine, these only show his authentic passion about his vision.

“When you truly believe in an idea, and you focus on sharing that passion with others, you tend to forget about the mechanics of speaking and presenting. Instead of focusing on being nervous, you become focused on your belief. This leads you to speak more naturally, and makes it difficult for listeners to turn away.”

Also his authentic visions for social betterment beat the self-serving goals of many other billionaires. Whereas most entrepreneurs tend to see their work as revolutionary and disruptive, Elon actually moves away from such bold claims and replaces them with the question “How can we make things better?”

In an interview with the Telegraph, he explains that “a lot of my motivation comes from me personally looking at things that don’t work well and feeling a bit sad about how it would manifest in the future. And if that would result in an unhappy future, then it makes me unhappy. And so I want to fix it. That really is the motivation for me. I certainly don’t believe in disrupting things for the sake of it.”

3. He would be a tougher business rival

The fact that 8 out of 10 businesses fail might be a good reason to believe that the remaining 2 should really be tough.  Elon’s businesses were never exceptional. Although he had netted $180 million from selling his online payments start up (later PayPal) to Ebay, he invested much of that money in Tesla and SpaceX, and he was constantly faced with financial issues to keep his companies up and running. In one case, when the news leaked that Tesla was left with its last $9 million, Musk promised to personally refund Tesla’s customers if the company couldn’t deliver the promised cars.

Even in SpaceX, things were not in full control. In August 2008, the third launch of SpaceX’s rocket, Falcon 1, failed and along with it three government satellites and the ashes of 208 people it carried were destroyed. This was already super costly for a privately held company.

Yet, such failure could never stop Musk from pursuing his dreams. In an interview with Wired just after the failed launch, Musk declared that he planned to do more launches: “We must get to orbit eventually, and we will. It might take us one, two or three more tries, but we will. We will make it work.”

Nearly a month later, Falcon 1 was successfully launched into space, and on December 23, SpaceX could seal a $1.2 billion contract with NASA to deliver its cargo to the space station in 12 rocket flights.

“Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up.” – Elon Musk

4. He would spend more on innovation

The $30 billion market cap in 2016 could be the jackpot for many business owners. Although Musk could have enjoyed a bit of risk-free stability, in the same year he made another decision that left the business world in a shock.

In late 2016 he acquired SolarCity for $2.6 billion. This of course puts Musk in a better position to implement his master plan to “move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy”, as he had declared in 2006.  But just when Tesla was beginning to gain some serious traction among people and when many CEOs would have decided to focus on their current products, Elon Musk decided to move forward and offer a big upgrade to his products.

The merger of the two companies is “logical” and “quite obvious” from Musk’s point of view. Tesla should be able to offer an autonomous sustainable-energy solution: electric cars, solar roofs that produce electric energy, and Powerwalls that store the electric energy produced in the day to be used at nights. It seems that for Musk, the need for more innovation is on the forefront of his business goals.

There is never a better way to learn effective leadership than by looking at the successful examples. Elon Musk is such an example. His approachability, authenticity, toughness and geekiness make him an iconic figure in the business world.

What do you think of Elon Musk? Comment below!