A good article I read today. Share to who want to be an entrepreneur. It is really a tough but interesting road.
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You’re always looking for opportunities. This is almost the definition of an entrepreneur. Every pain point is an opportunity.
Are you prepared to work long hours, every day, for an indefinite period of time? Ahem, let’s dispel illusions. Put down "The 4-Hour Workweek"; it is a myth that the author spun to sell books (so that he could work 4 hours a week).
Good Health. You cannot answer "Yes" to item #2 unless you are blessed with good health and the discipline to maintain it in tough times.
Do you have a unique service or product? Most entrepreneurs have a pocketful of ideas, many of them viable. But they suffer from the "kid in a candy store" dilemma, not knowing which to choose. The trick is choosing the one that really is a winner and having the discipline (see item #9) to ignore all the others.
Are you willing to make short-term sacrifices for long-term success? There will be long periods of time when everyone around you questions your sanity, and on all normal metrics (hours worked and stress endured vs. material rewards gained), they would be right.
Honesty and integrity. You often have to be able to work with people without the protection of legal contracts. It is the essence of moving fast, and you often simply won’t be able to afford a lawyer. So, you have to work with people who have honesty and integrity. It is hard to do that unless you have honesty and integrity yourself.
You’re dreaming miles ahead while focused on what you’re doing right now. The entrepreneur is an odd mix: part dreamer, part brutal realist and pragmatist. You should focus first on today and, secondly, on the big picture, and ignore the rest. Today is about the immediate stuff that you have to get done to stay in business, to deliver projects to clients, to collect cash, and so on. The big picture is about looking at what the world might look like 10 years from now and then building towards that. We cannot know what will happen next week, month, or year. The medium term is totally unknown. However, many long-term trends are fairly clear, even though the timetable is unknown.
Are you self-confident? You will almost certainly be going against odds that would make most people run away.
Discipline. This relates to many of the other traits mentioned in this checklist. You will need discipline to maintain your health (item #2), so that you can work hard (item #3), so that you can focus on the one product or service you have chosen and ignore all temptations (item #4).
You’re prepared to say, "I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out." Entrepreneurs have to be generalists. They may know one thing very, very well. But they also have to know enough about almost everything else to occasionally do those things themselves, and have the judgment to eventually hire the right people to do those things.
Jim Bakker牧师曾是美国一个非常有名的传道人、电视布道家及大型福音机构的负责人,但因卷入一桩性丑闻案及被控贪污、诈欺等罪名,他最后不但失去了自己亲手所建立的媒体王国而榔铛入狱,也几乎毁他的一生。80年代末,他在美国南卡州创办了“美国传承会”,并担任该会总裁。当时的事工,包括了一占地四平方英里的退修中心,当中有500个房间的豪华旅馆、餐厅、地下街、号称全国第三大的主题游乐园,每年吸引了近几十万人到该中心造访。此外,他与太太Tammy所主持的电视节目“PTL俱乐部”,不但在美国,也在世界各地播放。吸引了一千四百万户的家庭收看该节目。对Jim而言,这应该是人生事业颠峰,功成名就的一刻,但就在这时候,诱惑、试探与攻击也随之临到。
首先是他的太太Tammy与一位福音歌手有暧昧关系,让他戴上绿帽,他在报复太太不忠的心态下,透过朋友的安排,与一位21岁的女人发生一夜情,但不幸的是,这件丑闻在五年后被那女人揭发,终究纸包不住火,无法隐藏。而在同时,他的机构内部也发生权力斗争,他被控诉在担任机构总裁期间,从该会股东中,非法集资一亿五千八百多万美元。1988年8月他被正式判服刑四十五年,后减刑为十八年,关入了监狱。他成了身败名裂、妻离子散、一无所有的人。 Read more »
My name is Nick Vujicic and I give God the Glory for how He has used my testimony to touch thousands of hearts around the world! I was born without limbs and doctors have no medical explanation for this birth “defect”. As you can imagine, I was faced with many challenges and obstacles.
“Consider it pure joy, my Brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”
….To count our hurt, pain and struggle as nothing but pure joy? As my parents were Christians, and my Dad even a Pastor of our church, they knew that verse very well. However, on the morning of the 4th of December 1982 in Melbourne (Australia), the last two words on the minds of my parents was “Praise God!”. Their firstborn son had been born without limbs! There were no warnings or time to prepare themselves for it. The doctors we shocked and had no answers at all! There is still no medical reason why this had happened and Nick now has a Brother and Sister who were born just like any other baby.
The whole church mourned over my birth and my parents were absolutely devastated. Everyone asked, “if God is a God of Love, then why would God let something this bad happen to not just anyone, but dedicated Christians?” My Dad thought I wouldn’t survive for very long, but tests proved that I was a healthy baby boy just with a few limbs missing. Read more »