Before you even get started in business, you begin to experience things that really excite you and fuel you forward. Things that you think about constantly, and things that help you immediately JUMP out of bed in the mornings, dying to just get the day started.
If you listen closely to those thoughts and feelings, you’ll notice that your intuition is telling you something….
These things that you can’t get out of your head are the things that you should be actively pursuing. LISTEN to that intuition, don’t shove it down or tell yourself that there’s no chance of you succeeding at whatever you’ve been tossing around in your mind.
If you trust your intuition, it will lead you to the career or business of your dreams. The career or business that LIGHTS YOU UP, and puts FIRE IN YOUR BELLY.
You will never regret listening to your intuition!
Fire in the Belly
Before I go any further, I should probably take a moment and make sure that you’re familiar with what I mean by the term “fire in the belly.”
When I talk about having fire in the belly, I am using it to describe a powerful sense of excitement and determination towards something. In our case, it’s having a powerful sense of determination towards the career / business of your dreams.
When you create a business that you love you never have to force yourself to do the work or put in the long hours because you are naturally motivated and driven to build the business from scratch. Working long days, or pulling all-nighters don’t phase you because your are working on creating a legacy that you are deliriously excited to be a part of.
How to Avoid Hearing NO
I know I talk about hearing NO a lot around here, but that’s because it is a normal occurrence when you’re an entrepreneur. However, you need to reframe what you’re hearing, which is easy to do when you’re excited about the work you’re trying to accomplish.
If you know how you’re driven it can be very helpful in trying to figure out how to avoid “NO.” How to get into situations where you may pitch a client, and they may say NO, but you take that and learn from it.
You take the time to study what the client is looking for and how you can then use that to turn their NO into a YES.
The reality is, you’ll never stop hearing NO, but you can learn how to turn it into a YES, and you can learn how to use it as motivation to fuel you even further along in your business.
As a child, Larry Marcus, a guest on Success Unfiltered, knew that if he wanted things he’d better get a job. He started working at the age of 12 or 13 delivering newspapers. Pushing hard, delivering even in the worst weather because he knew his customers were relying on him for the news (this was before the internet).
At that age Larry may not have known exactly what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, but he did know that keeping his customers happy was the most important. So, he did all that he could to accomplish his goal.
In the end, Larry did start working in the media. So, our intuition, even at a young age, knows what it’s talking about. Listen to it!
Know What Drives You
There are going to be struggles no matter the business or career you’re a part of. Even if you start a business that lights you up grander than the Rockefeller Christmas tree, there will still be struggles. What’s important is knowing exactly what drives you to move from one NO to the next.
Larry has a drive to succeed. Every time he’d go into a meeting with a potential client he’d plan for what the purpose of the meeting was. If he’d end up getting a NO, he would dig into why they told him NO. He’d want to learn and grow from every experience. Larry looked at every NO as an opportunity to go onto the next place. No matter how many he heard!
Knowing what is driving you is an absolute necessity. Take the time to think it through and plan accordingly.
Learning is Required
This is SO important, you must never stop learning. There will always be new and updated information coming out, and you don’t want to grow stagnant. People can sense that and don’t want someone who is bored by their business and isn’t putting in the necessary leg work.
With that said, considering you’re dedicating yourself to the business or career of your dreams, you’ll desire to learn more and more.
Larry paid his dues in terms of working with and learning from other people. He took the time to learn his business, learn the skills needed, learn to communicate and learn how to get things done. He never took for granted that he had all the information, he knew it could change at any time.
I want to say one other thing on this topic, there are going to be parts of your business that you don’t enjoy or just aren’t fun. For example, maybe you’re not someone who is great at the keeping track of the nitty gritty details, that’s OK. Your job is to then hire someone who is amazing at the details, and trust them to do the necessary work and just support them.
In the beginning you may need to bootstrap, but over time, don’t hesitate to hire the skilled team members who will help take your business to the next level.
In Conclusion
Dig in and listen to your intuition, what is it telling you? Have you discovered it?
Once you’ve discovered what you can’t wait to do, get started and don’t stop. Don’t allow a single thing to slow you down. If you don’t know something, learn it (or hire someone who does). If you’re nervous about pitching or putting yourself out there, practice ahead of time, and then do it anyway.
Having fire in your belly for your business or career will allow you to do all the tough and scary things, without backing down!
I can’t wait to hear what you’ve been working on! Please share in the comments!
