This article is a guest post by J. Nichole Smith
You want to be super productive … and also spend enough time on self-care.
You want to make money, but also feel like your work is ethical and helping the world.
You want to stand out enough to be noticed, but also fit in enough to feel safe.
So many conflicting needs, so little time! Finding a balance in these needs and values is perhaps our greatest ongoing challenge as entrepreneurs!
What Does Success Look Like?
Our reality as small business owners, at least in the beginning, is that we feel in order to be successful, we have to do and know all the things, all the time.
Our ability to multi-task, wrangle our perfectionism, and nimbly navigate the change, pressure, fear and distraction that we get dealt on a daily basis, is truly remarkable. However, it’s not long before the manic pace of doing everything in our business, and the guilt and stress of feeling like it, and we, are never enough, takes its toll.
Most businesses don’t ever really get off the ground, or survive long enough to see year two, and it’s no wonder when you look at the average to-do list of the average entrepreneur!
Over 15+ years of running my own businesses, working with entrepreneurs, earning a Masters degree in Marketing, and failing and succeeding in thousands of ways – I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to ‘entrepreneur’. I spend a LOT of time having conversations with entrepreneurs about the tug of our natural polarities, our overwhelm, and our ‘not enoughness’. As I personally move through these obstacles to achieve business success and help my clients and students do the same, one huge, glaring truth emerges again and again:
Success as an entrepreneur cannot JUST be defined by business metrics. Real success must include consideration for our success as human beings as well.
Don’t just build yourself a JOB, build yourself a LIFE
When I talk about ‘human success’ I call it ‘freedom and fulfillment’. The humans that I work with, achieve this lofty goal by choosing not just to build themselves a job, but to build themselves an ideal life (of which their business is an integral part). This requires pursuing two potentially opposite goals simultaneously, with equal attention and fervor:
- Growing your Business
- Growing your Freedom & Fulfilment
To achieve the harmony between these polarities, you must start by understanding the natural forces that control them. I call these forces the 5 Laws of Entrepreneurship.
The 5 Laws of Entrepreneurship
Much like the laws of physics, you don’t have to know or acknowledge the 5 Laws of Entrepreneurship for them to be working for and against you. The 5 Laws are:
- Mindset
- Money
- Marketing
- Mechanics
- Momentum
On your journey towards freedom and fulfillment as an entrepreneur, these are forces that you must first understand, then manage, then optimize, and then master. This journey certainly isn’t fast, and most days it doesn’t feel very easy, but if you’re confident that you’d like to fund your freedom and fulfillment as a human, by creating and building a profitable business, then these 5 Laws are your new best friends!
If you’d like to know more about these laws and how to manage them as you grow towards your version of success, then don’t miss out on this free video workshop. Learn the basics of each law, the 3 secrets that will enable you to actually get them working for you, instead of against you, and the simple steps to start with to create real growth in your life and business, fast.
WATCH THE BUSINESS GROWTH WORKSHOP HERE
This is a guest post by J. Nichole Smith. I personally recommend her programs, so if you eventually purchase something from her after watching her workshop, I may receive a commission. This does not change the price to you.
J.Nichole Smith is a branding consultant and author, who specializes in helping entrepreneurs find freedom and fulfilment by building brands instead of just businesses. Her expertise comes from a lifetime of building her own brands, helping solopreneurs and billion dollar corporations grow their impact and their revenue, and a Masters in Marketing with Distinction from one of London’s top business schools.
