The Path of the Life Entrepreneur

1. Discovering Core Identity
2. Awakening To Opportunity
   
3. Envisioning The Future
   
4. Developing Goals and Strategies
   
5. Building Healthy Support Systems
   
6. Taking Action and Making a Difference
   
7. Embracing Renewal and Reinvention
   

Discovering Core Identity
This is our compass. At its heart are our values and purpose. These are informed by external factors such as our personal history, current circumstances, and relationships as well as internal factors such as our needs, strengths, and passions. Establishing an authentic orientation (a “true north”) is a lifelong project. Without a strong core identity, the steps that follow are likely to lead us astray.

Awakening to Opportunity
With deep self-awareness, we become more aware of opportunities around us that resonate with our core identity. This includes being “switched on” to the world around us, being able to assess opportunities as they arise, and figuring out how to translate these promising ideas into attractive and actionable opportunities.

Envisioning the Future
The notion of vision is commonly applied to an organization, but it can also be applied to our lives: What do we envision we will be and what we will do with our lives? This is best imagined in long increments, such as a decade or even an entire lifetime. Our vision is unearthed from within even as it is informed by opportunity.

Developing Goals and Strategies
Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that without a well-informed game plan, as enterprise is likely to fall flat. The same can be true in life. Developing goals and strategies provides needed clarity and focus. Goals should be purposeful and prioritized, clear, and measureable, and challenging but achievable. Once our goals are established, we can identify the gaps between our current reality and envisioned future and start planning to fill those gaps by leveraging existing resources and attracting new ones.

Building Healthy Support Systems
None of us can create a life of significance on our own. Having a robust support system infused with healthy, diverse relationships helps us achieve our life goals. It can also provide shelter from the inevitable storms that roll in. If we are doing right by others, this web of support can create what we call positive network effect, enhancing our ability to make a difference in the world.

Taking Action and Making a Difference
The preceding steps are academic unless we assume risks and take action. The essential elements of taking action are having the courage to try, leaping through windows of opportunity, entering the arena, creatively finding new ways to serve, adapting and persisting, and erasing limits.  What’s more, we must avoid the common pitfalls that trap many entrepreneurs and recognize the cost of not taking action.

Embracing Renewal and Reinvention
Sometimes renew is necessary. At times we must step back and take a look around, assessing where we have come from and where we are going. It is vital to find regular times to reconnect with out core identity and prepare to initiate a new set of adventures. We must be careful not to push ourselves back into a “superhero” action mode before we are replenished and ready. And when renewal is insufficient, we turn to reinvention-making wholesale changes in the fabric of our lives, stitching them together with new material better suited to the days ahead.

By: Life Entrepreneurs – Christopher Gergen & Gregg Vanourek

Comparing yourself to others from the beginning is a mistake. It’s unfortunately a compulsion that we can’t seem to escape. First, we latch onto our idealistic role models–success stories, if you may. Inspiration turns to obsession, which then turns into envy, frustration, and an es-capable dissatisfaction with our own capabilities.  Then, we ignore the discrepancies between what what we would hope to accomplish and what we’re capable of accomplishing.  Eventually, this leads to the fatal act of Emulation.  Imitating the best, but blindly with no sense of realism. Imagine starting your own business in order to follow the footsteps of an icon like Donald Trump. Now that’s a slightly large gap of achievements between you and your famed demi-god. Don’t get me wrong. Inspiration is often key to fuel the fire within, but every business mogul himself knows that you have to set a campaign out for yourself and your talents.

By a sad attempt to emulate the great, you set yourself up for failure from the beginning. Your actions become based around what this individual has done, disregarding the uniqueness and differences that make you you. Outcomes will be rendered negatively. You lose sight of your own talents and capabilities. You create a unhealthy brain chatter that nags, “Well, he did it. Why can’t I? Maybe if I attend one of Trump’s seminars, he can teach me how to be rich. He’s more competent to run as president than those incompetent imbeciles, Obama and McCain…”  See the tragedy in this all-or-nothing train of thought?

1. Trump was born rich. His story goes like this: the rich just get richer.
2. By attending his seminars and giving him all the attention, you only make him richer and yourself poorer.
3. You give yourself false hopes, and by comparing yourself, you set the goal so high that you will feel miserable when you haven’t achieved it.

The 4 Sneaky Traps of Having Heroes:

1. They might not live up to your image of them.
2. It can make you feel like you are not worthy.
3. It can make it harder to connect to people.
4. You may develop tunnel vision.

Only after extreme pressure and extended duration do the most sought-after, most cherished diamonds emerge. It’s wild that they even come from something so common and ordinary as basic carbon. This happens in nature… and in sales. It’s the fundamental thinking behind my Drill & Grill process for mastering the art of objection handling. The Drill & Grill will make you a better, more fluid and capable salesperson when it comes to handling any and all objections.

Most everyone who practices the Drill & Grill can, within a few minutes, effortlessly flow through objection after objection. You get hit with an objection, then you need to Acknowledge it and follow-up with a Question so you get to the root of what their real issue is.

OBJECTION: “I need to think about it.”
ACKNOWLEDGE: That’s awesome.
QUESTION: What particular questions or issues do you need to
think over?

Now, you’re about to learn the Drill & Grill process so the next time you’re hit with an objection, you can handle it flawlessly… like a diamond.

Fair warning: this process, while simple, can be very intense. Do this regularly, though, and you’ll be a master.

You’re going to want a partner for this. Have them hit you with an objection. You’re going to Acknowledge and then ask a Question. At any moment you stumble, pause, or “umm…uhh…” they will yell “Stop!” and immediately hit you with the objection again.

The name of the game here is speed. Don’t try and answer conversationally. This isn’t about that. It’s about being quick and smooth. The Drill & Grill is about creating rapid-fire stress and pressure and you overcoming it with ease and confidence.Once you overcome the objection, your partner will fire another one at you. Keep this up for as long as you can. The best salespeople I know do this every day. If you’re average in sales now, even if you’re a pro, the Drill & Grill is proven to make you even better.

This is a guest post by Steven Missimer of Potomac Enterprises