3 Steps to Go From Idea to Entrepreneur
The best ideas are the ones that force you to level up and execute quickly.
The title of entrepreneur is often misunderstood. Although the majority of the world wants to believe that owning a business or working on an idea means you are an entrepreneur, the reality is that entrepreneurship is so much more than just these two things. It is about the ability to innovate by helping society progress.
That title could take a decade to be earned by those who follow through to the very end and see their change come to life. But every one of them started with a simple idea. For those who aspire to become real entrepreneurs, the path to go from idea to entrepreneurship is one that requires a bit of self-analysis and self-awareness. Because not all ideas are worth pursuing, and not all individuals are ready to take on the next big idea.
To identify the perfect crossroad between an idea and the right idea is the place where vision meets the visionary or the place where the idea meets execution.
1. Identify your skills and allow your talents to manifest themselves.
Everybody wants money. But many fail to realize that money is the extension of your skills, so the most important aspect of learning to make money starts by identifying what skillful attributes you possess. Make a list of your talents. Then add a small star to each talent that you seem to excel at, even compared to your peers.
Take a look at those skills labeled with a star and you should see a pattern; that’s where your aptitude lies. The goal with this exercise is to recognize what skills you excel in naturally and capitalize on them. It is much more engaging to participate in businesses that leverage your real talents rather than random businesses that seem to have an upside to them. Continue fostering such aptitudes until you eventually convert more of your skills into useable abilities for your business.
2. Tap into your confidence to create belief.
Confidence is a byproduct of repetition. The more you practice doing something, the more confident you become in the process needed to see it to the end. Starting a business requires confidence, thus most individuals who have zero sureness in the process fail to get started because it is an unknown realm. That is why it is important to have self-assurance in your expressed skills.
There is a level of confidence needed in the process, and when it is not existent, self-assurance in your control is the next best thing; it is needed for the vision to turn into execution. You have to believe in the idea, the process and the ability within yourself to bring your business project to life. Without confidence, belief doesn’t exist; and without belief, the chances of giving up are high.
3. Allow your love to evolve to state of passion.
The last ingredient outside of your skills and confidence is the capacity to focus on ideas that you feel passionate about. Having passion will push you to pursue something you love and transform that urge into action.
You might love politics, but your desire to be involved in politics makes you passionate about it. You might love cars, but your need to be involved in a function like racing, mechanics, design, etc., makes you passionate about it. The goal is to identify topics of interest so that you can start manifesting some aspects of passion as you start your project. The closer a project is to your heart, the less discouraged you will become from giving up when results don’t go your way.
The perfect and powerful ideas are not the ones with the most monetary potential, but rather the ideas that are within your capacity to execute. Any idea that taps into in your skills and focuses on solving a problem you feel passionate about only requires a hint of confidence to get started. And the best ideas are the ones that force you to level up and execute quickly.
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I was working a valet job less than four years ago. I worked every major holiday, including Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and worked regular graveyard shifts. It was the first time I was employed by someone else and by far the worst experience I’ve had. The fear of ever having to go back to that keeps my ego in check and keeps me motivated. When you’re overly confident, you’re actually the most vulnerable.
Setting goals that are often extremely difficult or impossible to reach reminds me that there is constant room for improvement. I have friends who set similar goals and achieve better outcomes, and keeping in touch with them to learn from their successes help me stay grounded.
As an entrepreneur, I feel that it’s important to have a lot of confidence in my ideas, fearlessly putting new ones out there for feedback from my business partner and mentors, as well as from consumer market testing. Probably only about 15 percent of the ideas I put out there actually get executed in their original form. Having something I might feel is absolutely brilliant get nixed or drastically edited (always for good reason!) is a great way to keep any hint of an ego in check.
I think being a mom to two young kids definitely helps keep my ego in check. It doesn't matter to my children if we generated $20M in annual revenue; they care more about that the ball they threw at me landed squarely on my head. They are constant reminders of my priorities and that there are far more important things than my career accomplishments.
Everyone has their own particular brand of ego; how it thinks, operates, and what riles it up. If you know yourself and your personal brand, you can easily recognize when it gets triggered, stop it, and talk yourself off the ledge.
By reminding myself of the impermanence of it all. It is important to stop and celebrate the victories as well as stop and examine the failures. Neither is permanent and both make you a better person.