5 Qualities of an Entrepreneur

Transcript: from Elon Musk to Mark Cuban Tim Ferriss Arianna Huffington Gary Vaynerchuk Bill Gates if you know any of these names congratulations you’re an entrepreneur at heart it’s been said that success leaves Clues so what are those top entrepreneurs all have in common so we can learn from them we’re going over the six traits all top entrepreneurs have now and you don’t want to miss any one of these especially the last ones because they’re super important trait number one the past does not equal the future now let me tell you a story see one day Evan Williams got the great idea to make a podcasting platform when it was all said and done oh do was live so you can imagine Evan was pretty crushed when literally months after Apple announced they had a new podcasting section of iTunes and his company OTO was crushed now maybe know the name Evan Williams or maybe not but you definitely know that he hit it big when he founded Twitter see what Evan Williams knew that just because his past had failure didn’t mean his future couldn’t hold success just because one app failed didn’t mean another one couldn’t succeed before launching the Huffington Post her second book was rejected by over 36 publishers that’s the story of Arianna Huffington similarly Tim Ferriss had a similar story with the 4-hour workweek have you heard of this book maybe even read it Tim had the belief that the past does not equal the future Tim got rejected by over 25 publishers before the 26 actually accepted his book now to put that in perspective how many of you would approach 26 people and ask them on a date after hearing no for 25 times would we even make it past 10 but it’s that tenacity to keep going and not listen to the past because all top entrepreneurs know that the past does not equal the future the second trait all successful entrepreneurs have this is that it’s never too late you see one major trap people fall into is thinking I’m too old I see it time and time again on the YouTube comments people thinking that ship has sailed it’s too late it’ll never happen for me yadda yadda yadda well listen to this at age 24 Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer at age 28 JK rowling was depressed and a single mom living on welfare Morgan Freeman didn’t get his first major movie role until age 52 Samuel Jackson at 46 you see it’s never too late to start there’s no telling when you’re going to be successful it might happen tomorrow it might happen a year from now it might happen at age 52 but the only sure way that you’re gonna fail is if you quit trait number three all successful entrepreneurs have they use what Brian Tracy calls zero based thinking now this is the concept that says one question it’s a powerful one that you can ask whenever you’re feeling stuck that is if I started over today how would I do blank if everything stopped today and you had to reset how would you approach it how would you approach your business if you had to start over today how would you approach your relationship if you had to start over today your health your finances this is how you avoid past failures holding you back at age 37 Vincent van Gogh failed as a missionary and he decided to go to art school can you imagine that van Gogh the famous painter see his paintings everywhere it getting sold for tens of millions of dollars he uses euro based thinking he feel that one thing he said okay this isn’t working what would I start over today let me go to art school and it was a success when you do this you avoid the thing called sunk cost that psychological principle that is the feeling that because you invested so much time or energy or money you can’t walk away that’s a trap that’s a psychological trap that keeps us stuck how would that work in gambling I already put too much in you know I can’t get it back I just got to go all-in not very well and it doesn’t work well with entrepreneurs all entrepreneurs use some form of zero based thinking and you and I should too the fourth trait all successful entrepreneurs do they build on their past failures no it’s not truly zero based thinking since we learn from all the previous lessons right I love the story of Reed Hoffman he started an online dating social network sites social nets ultimately failed so hoffman though what did he do he used all the experiences he gained building that social net dating site and he put it into a new platform that you probably heard of called linked in it eventually sold to Microsoft for 26.2 billion with a B dollars okay imagine dr. evil coming out with the pinky 26 over 26 billion dollars okay and I can’t live on that but that’s a good starter hey so great entrepreneurs they build and they compound past failures they don’t get crushed by them in your life I know you’ve had failures they’re not truly failures if you take the lessons from them the only real failure is if you don’t learn from it and you repeat it in the future that’s how you get ahead the fifth trait all successful entrepreneurs have it’s been said that readers are leaders it’s also been said that the more I learned the more I earn famous quotes by some successful entrepreneurs in fact Bill Gates has reported to read over 50 full books per year Warren Buffett reported reading between 600 and a thousand pages a day no matter who you look at time and time again the top entrepreneurs know that the more they learn the more they’ll earn they feed their mind they know that knowledge is the fuel for their ideas their creativity and their energy one of the biggest complaints though most people make and you know I’ve made it myself in the past and I know you’ve probably made it too is what I don’t have the time okay it’s not the money because books are dirt cheap you can get them on Amazon for 50 cents it’s I don’t have the time sitting down in one place is hard it’s hard to get yourself with all this passion and energy to really sit and you know do nothing for hours and hours on end that’s where this excuse falls short because audible is one of the coolest tools I’ve used the past couple years it takes your audiobooks and it hands down my favorite tool you can devour top audiobooks while doing other things literally learning as you’re working out or cleaning the house or in the shower something like that someone’s reading to you you can put it at one point five-speed easily find yourself consuming one to two books a week watch out Bill Gates coming for you there today’s sponsor and if you’re into this I’ll put a link below and you get a free audiobook with your trial of audible some of my favorites if you’re in entrepreneurship and you haven’t read any of these these are phenomenal places to start I’d recommend the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People the 4-hour workweek or unlimited power if you haven’t read any of those don’t read them have someone read it to you go down there click that link it’s free the top entrepreneurs they all feed their minds knowing that knowledge is the fuel for success the last point number six the treat that all entrepreneurs have this is the concept that they’re a purple cow let’s just say we’re driving down a road trip okay and we’re taking a long long road trip down i-5 over here and we see all these farms on the farms you see cows there’s a brown cow there’s a black cow there’s a white cow thousands and thousands of cows brown white black brown brown black black white brown black purple black white book what which one do we look at the purple cow which one do we stop at the purple cow which one do we make remarks about the purple cat why because it’s contrasting its different it stands out you see how that works so I got a question for you when you think of soap do you connect emotionally does it make you feel good about yourself if you’re like most you couldn’t care less let’s talk about the Purple Cow and soap now that’s where Dov stepped in with their real beauty campaign featuring non photoshopped women being comfortable in their own skin promoting natural self-acceptance sales for their soap skyrocketed as a results see it wasn’t because their soap made people emotional it wasn’t because their soap made people feel good it was their purple cow positioning it was the story behind it in this case the clean purple cow this concept really made their sales move it last one I promise if you want to be successful all the best companies have some way of being that purple cow of not being forgotten of standing out in the crowd when everyone else Ziggs you got a Zac stand out to succeed don’t be lost in the crowd and own your uniqueness those are the six traits of all entrepreneurs have now I’m curious which one was your favorite idea today do you have anything to add post it down in the comments below and please share this if you have an entrepreneur friend family member Facebook group that you’re in please share this video so we can reach more entrepreneurs and inspire them be sure you hit that subscribe button and the bell so you never miss a single upload thanks so much for being here I’m Clark from refusing to settle and until next time stop settling start living see ya