Posts Tagged ‘working at home’
How Do You Define Success?
How do you define success?
The website http://dictionary.reference.com defines success as:
the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors
- the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
Successful people don’t always “terminate” their attempts or endeavors, and success doesn’t always mean wealth or honors. How else could this word be defined?
Your belief about whether or not you are successful may influence your future plans. For example, if you have been in business for yourself a couple of years and have not made as much money as you think you should have, it may make you want to give up. You may start to doubt yourself and question why you ever thought you could succeed. You may suddenly think you’re not going to be able to reach the goals you set for yourself.
There are many levels of success. Those who start a home business while working full-time and are able to quit their jobs in six months can definitely be thought of as successful. Likewise, someone who makes six figures after a year or two in business could also be thought of as successful.
But someone who put up a website with no knowledge of HTML is also a success. Someone who knocks on hundreds of doors and picks themselves up upon receiving one rejection after another is also successful. Someone who puts in an hour or two a day while working full-time is successful just because they are staying in the game.
Success is about the journey, not the destination. It’s about hanging in there when you want to quit. It’s about believing in yourself when all those around you start telling you to go back to your day job. It’s giving yourself a pat on the back for each small accomplishment, and getting up the next day to try again.
Persistence in Your Home Business
Many people have the desire to start their own business, but become discouraged when faced with obstacles. The answer to discouragement is persistence.
As Dale Carnegie said, “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept trying when there was no hope at all.”
Starting a home business requires determination to see your goals through. The first sign of trouble doesn’t mean you’ve been defeated. It means you have to try different tactics.
Success doesn’t come overnight to most people. There is no such thing as getting rich quick. Starting your first business means you have to learn new skills. The learning curve always results in some mistakes, and mistakes are necessary to learn certain lessons. Mastering skills requires time and experience. There is no way around that.
As a new business owner, when success doesn’t come as quickly as you think it should, you may begin to doubt yourself and your ability to make your dreams come true. When you’re in that frame of mind, listen to the words of Harriet Beecher Stowe:
“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
If you believed in yourself enough to start your own business, don’t give up on yourself when you make mistakes while you are inexperienced. Remember that every successful person has a history of early failures. We aren’t born knowing how to run our own business, and chances are we didn’t learn what we need to know in school. We can only learn by trial and error, by jumping in and participating, and by trusting that with persistence, we will not only rise above our mistakes but benefit from them.
Why You Need A Mentor
One of the most important requirements to succeed in network marketing or any other type of entrepreneurship is a mentor. The word mentor is defined by http://dictionary.reference.com/ as “a wise and trusted counselor or teacher”. One of the most significant words in that definition is trusted. When you are learning a new skill, whether it is network marketing or any form of home business marketing, it is important to put your trust in those who are already successful.
If you are starting an online business, it may be difficult to know who to trust. The nature of internet marketing is that everyone claims to have the answers that you are looking for – for a price.
If money is no object, you may want to hire a paid mentor, but this really isn’t necessary. Although paid coaching and mentorship programs may be helpful, the best mentors are people who are willing to pass on what they know for free.
The best place to find this type of person is by spending time in forum. Whatever your niche, there is a forum where people are discussing it. Within every forum, it is possible to find experts. Not only that, in forums people openly discuss who they look up to, who they have learned the most from. By listening to and participating in these discussions, you will most likely find someone you admire and that you want to emulate and learn from.
Having a mentor may eliminate years of trial and error. There is no wiser person than one who can learn from mistakes others have already made. You may be able to save yourself both time and money by listening to one or two people with more experience than you have.
Truthfully, there is a very fine line between success and failure. Finding a trusted mentor may make all the difference.
Are You Really The Boss?
The desire to work from home usually goes hand in hand with the desire not to have to report to anyone else. People envision a life free of alarm clocks and rush hour traffic, free of pointless meetings and time cards.
Still, many people begin their work at home careers with a telecommute job. They may get started by talking their current boss into allowing them to work from home, or they may secure a telecommute job such as customer service rep or telemarketing job that entails putting in a certain number of hours, possibly at specific times.
There is nothing wrong with that if that is really what you want. But a telecommute job is just that – a job. You still have a boss, you still have to put in a certain number of hours and your worth is often perceived based on how many hours you put in, not the quality of your work or how productive you can be.
A home business on the other hand is a way for you to really be the boss. This can have both good and bad aspects to it. You are in charge of what hours you work. If you don’t work, you don’t make money. At least, that’s how it is in the early months of your business.
The ultimate goal for a home business owner is to create an environment in which you are making money whether you are working or not. You may have employees that are able to carry the ball for you. Or you may be able to set up a business that brings in money on auto-pilot, such as a website that sells high demand items.
The choice of a home business or a work at home job is up to you. Consider what is most important to you, and then decide which path is the right one for you to take.
The Fear of Pursuing Your Dream
What are you afraid of? Chances are fear is a factor in your life. Many people are afraid of failure. They don’t take risks at all because they’re sure they’ll fail. Or they take very cautious risks, like dipping their toe in a swimming pool, afraid to dive in. Other people are afraid of success and stand in their own way, fearing a complete change in their self-image.
Taking the leap from the corporate world to one where you are totally responsible for your own day is a pretty scary thing. Sure, it sounds great: work only when you want, report to only yourself, work in your pajamas, etc. But when faced with actually being your own boss, many people become choked with fear. What tasks should they do first? How do they prioritize which tasks are most important? How do they develop the discipline to accomplish anything at all? How can they be sure they’ll have enough money next week or next month?
The only way to get past these fears is recognize them for what they are. Pay attention to your feelings, and know that you have the power to change.
It’s important to have total faith in yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish. Many people who start their own business get negative feedback from those around them. People will imply that you’re not going to make it, that you should stay in the rat race with them. Courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s acting in spite of fear.
As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”
The key to getting past your fears is deciding you’re not going to let them defeat you. Equally important is staying focused on exactly where you’re going. I’ll talk more about staying focused in my next post.