I was sent this video by one of my team members at NorthStar Global. Upon watching it, there were many interesting facts. Although the video is clearly slated for a US audience, many of the points can be examined by all nations and nationalities. One thing that came to the forefront of my mind was education.
Entrepreneurs need to continuously learn and stay informed. This is not optional. It is a mandatory pre-requisite. For if you are not learning, you are not growing. If you are not growing, you are stagnant or regressing. Stagnation and regression both equal death in this Information Age world.
Education, as I am using the term in this post, does not refer to conventional schooling. Although some colleges have entrepreneurial classes, I do not believe they have as much value as real world data and experience. Why? Because. much like creative, musical, physical, etc dispositions, I believe we are born with and have an innate ability to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurialism is not something to acquire. It is something you already have. Have you ever seen someone who tried to start a business, did all the right things, and still struggled no matter how much money or knowledge they had? That is because they lacked one key ingredient – entrepreneurial spirit. These same people would be excellent at buying a business and managing it quite well. But therein lies the difference between a business person and an entrepreneur.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to nurture and feed that ability. The entrepreneur inside is constantly thirsting for more knowledge, to learn how to do things faster, better, smarter, more efficient, with less effort, help more people, etc. Simply stated, the entrepreneur wants to know how to be more. In order to be more, you have to know more. I am not referring to quantity of information, but rather quality of information. An oversimplified example: Two men want to drive 20 nails into a piece of wood. One uses a rock and the other uses a hammer. Which one knows more? They will both get the job done. But the one with the hammer will get it done faster and with less effort allowing him to produce more and make more. So, when I say, “you have to know more,” I am inferring that you need to increase the quality of your information.
So, where do you start? I can’t tell you. Huh? That’s right. I can’t tell you where to start. But I can ask you a question and you will determine your own starting point rather quickly. What do you want in life? I know this is a broad question. If you have multiple answers to it, write them down and be specific. For example: I want to spend everyday with my family and live in Costa Rica with a 10,000 square foot house and $50 million USD in liquid assets. In the example you can see that I laid out specific times frames, places, and quantities.
Now that you have determined what you want in life, research and seek out people that have achieved these same goals. You do not have to know these people personally, although this would be an added bonus. Research for people that spend every day with their family, people who moved to Costa Rica and have 10,000 square foot houses, and people who have $50 million in liquid assets. Now ask yourself, what do they know that I do not? For, if you are not as successful as you want to be, there is something that you do not know.
Put your items in priority and work on the one that means the most to you, and then the second, and so on. Read about these people, talk to them if you can, mentor with them if it is possible. If they teach, attend their class or seminar. If they wrote books or created audios, read the texts and listen to the audios. Robert Kiyosaki has many, but not all, of the traits that I desire. I have read and listened to just about everything that he has written or created. Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Harv Eker, and many more possess pieces of my knowledge puzzle. Little by little I am learning what they know that I do not and little by little I am growing closer to my goal. For the record, the example above is just an example. What I want in life is much bigger and helps many more people.
Additionally, you need to self educate in the entrepreneurial world and your own industry. I subscribe to Entrepreneur, Inc, and Fast Company magazines to stay up to date in the entrepreneurial world at large. I also subscribe to MaximumPC to stay abreast of the latest technological advances (one of my industries is the tech sector). In addition, I subscribe to various blogs that assist in more specific areas of my day to day knowledge building:
- The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur – how to achieve more with less
- Networking Effectively - how to reach out and communicate more accurately and effectively
- The Rich Sage – financial web education
- John Chow – how to better monetize your blog
- The Dirty Onion – no holds barred point of view on current events
- Positivity Blog – learn and re-emphasize ideals that get lost in my day to day grind
- More Than A Housewife – Family related information and updates
- And many more.
In summary, ask yourself the questions: What do I want in life? What do the people that have what I want know that I don’t? Do not forget to prioritize your wants and remember, there are many forms of education (seminars, mentoring, apprenticing, books, videos, audios, games, magazines, blogs, and hands on experience) so do not limit yourself to the classroom mentality. Keep in mind, it is the quality of the information not the quantity. Cramming your mind with facts will not make you successful. Neither will learning useful information and falling short of practical application. So get out there, learn something and put it to use. I wish you happiness and success in your journey.
As and aside, to learn more about the various books I have read and recommend, visit our educational section. If you need recommendations on anything else, please contact me and I will be happy to point you in the right direction.
Tags: audio, blogs, books, Education, magazines, mentor, video
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