Week 14- Last Lecture

Find Your Calling, Your Niche, Your People, and a Grateful Heart!

Becoming an entrepreneur for the sake of becoming an entrepreneur is a path that many take, but I believe the more worthwhile path is becoming an entrepreneur because you simply must! You MUST do this because it’s your passion, it’s your calling, it’s your drive, it’s something that doesn’t exist and you must make it so! In order to devote so much of your time and energy to a new business you have to have a huge amount of excitement for it. Therefore it cannot be a business you are starting just for the sake of starting. You must believe in it.
      The best question I answered for myself from this class was “What do you love doing so much that you lose yourself in it?” It was from a wonderful book called Hero’s Journey; but the question really got me thinking. What do I love doing so much that I wouldn’t mind doing it for my whole life? That I would have the kind of desire necessary to start a business doing? And along that line, what do I want to be remembered for doing? You must ask yourself this question and then ask yourself how to make a career out of that.
     I also believe that a fair amount of successful entrepreneurs are successful simply because they found a niche that needed filling. Find your niche! Look at what you love doing and how readily available that is in the market. Find a place to plant your flag and set yourself apart from the competition! Look at it from different angles and find a way to bring your passion and skill set to new customers.
     Find the right people. Also from the book Hero’s Journey, I learned that the most important thing you can have on your journey is good people walking with you. You need the RIGHT people, not the available people. You need people with skill sets that you lack and that can help to push you in ways you can’t push yourself.
     And lastly, find a grateful heart. Gratitude is a skill that’s too often overlooked. In your quest to start a successful company, there will be heartache, there will be loss, and there will be pain. But if you choose to look at life and circumstance through the eyes of gratitude you will find that you have had much success and have the ability to carry on further. You can pick your head up and move forward knowing you have accomplished much.
     If you have those four things, you will be successful! You will find joy in your journey!