Faith - A source of empowerment

For the most part, people think of faith in the religious sense. I am not writing about that... I am writing about the kind of faith we learn and need as an entrepreneur.

Faith is a critical element for entrepreneurial success. It involves believing in something without proof and evidence. Lack of faith in the entrepreneurial world leads to stress and hopelessness. Having faith as an entrepreneur gives you strength when things are tough.

A successful entrepreneur knows that in any endeavor, you will encounter barriers. At times, it feels like these barriers or obstacles will be impossible to overcome. Successful entrepreneurs keep on exploring "how could I/we proceed?", "what could be done", "what would someone else do?"... As they continue to take appropriate action and have faith in the future, we succeed.

It is no different for large projects or projects that have never been done within an existing company or within a community you may work to support. At first, that "thing" you want to accomplish looks impossible. It takes enthusiasm to get started but as a leader, it will take faith to keep going until you accomplish what you intended in the first place.

In the beginning of my career, I started a community project that did not really go anywhere at the time. The project kept changing. I kept changing the project to accommodate the circumstances or what I thought was possible or not possible. Looking back, I can see clearly that I did not confront my lack of faith.

I can see clearly that if I kept taking action towards the target vision or intended outcome, there was no reason not to succeed. It was a bad habit to keep changing the target (modifying the project to fit what I thought was possible). By changing the intended outcome, I could not even know if I succeeded or not. It masked my stops. It will certainly mask yours too. I am glad though I am able to look back and see that the root cause of my changing the target was a result of my lack of faith - my lack of faith that eventually I would succeed.

In my entrepreneurial endeavors, there are times where things seem hopeless. At those moments, I now know, I need to step back and have faith. That renews my enthusiasm and keeps me in the game full power. It is a source of empowerment. It is actually kind of fun to keep looking at a barrier or obstacle and keep asking: how could one do it? How would Mr. or Mrs. Super Successful do it? What would Warren Buffett do here? What would Bill Gates do?

Finally, as entrepreneurs, faith also comes when your venture does not take off and you need to move on. If you read Bill Gates and Paul Allen's biographies, you will see that as did many other successful people, they failed a couple of times. They did however continue to take action in the direction of their vision. The rest is history.

What about you? Are you going to continue to refine your vision, learn from the mistakes and move on with faith?

Decide - Commit - Succeed

One of the most important aspects to success is our commitment towards it, and more specifically, our decision to be successful. How we operate - how we think as well as the actions we take - is what makes us successful.

To make the difference is starting a business, we need to make a solid commitment to it. It is a choice, and it is a choice totally independent of the circumstances in life. One can decide now, today, that you are taking on a whole new level of success, even with the "recession" glaring out at us.

"Decision" doesn't mean you kind of want to do something, or you're still thinking about it, or one day you would like to. It means you're cutting off every other option. You are burning the bridge. There is no other option. You are deciding now.

"First you have to decide to be successful.
It all starts with the decision."
-Richard Giannamore

"You can't give yourself an option. There is no option. It's either do or die. That is the kind of decision you have to make." – David Neagle


Most of us operate inside of "a hope, a wish, and a dream." We think, "I would like to be start a busines," but many don't really believe they can actually suceed at it, so we don't make a conscious decision to achieve success. This is where we lose out. We typically hear people say "I will try it out"... Sorry... trying will not get anyone there.

When we are operating inside of "hope, wish, and dream," it is easy to let fears and beliefs stop us from taking the actions that would make the difference in achieving success. It is easy to have the circumstances dictate our emotions, and have the emotions dictate our actions. We think we need to wait until we learn more. We try to figure out the right course to take. We get opinions from many people before proceeding. We do not want to take any risks.

Remarkably, once we decide to succeed - while action is required - all the pieces begin to show up as we step into that decision we make. We begin to see opportunities where we did not see before. It doesn't matter what the boundary or obstacles appear to be, we do not get stopped by the circumstances.

But one cannot make the decision with a back door. There are no plans for what you will do "if this doesn't work out." You must be willing to commit 100% and operate in faith, trust and risk. We must be willing to confront the discomfort and keep taking actions consistent with "getting there".

Also, we think that what we can or cannot do is a function of our capabilities. But it is our belief system that keeps dictating what we do or don't do. When we make a serious commitment, we start to take action despite our beliefs and we keep going. When we keep going, we can only succeed. It is being in action that dictates the results.

"Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results." – Jim Rohn

That is the case at first, our beliefs determine our actions. But once we make the commitment and take action anyway, results we never thought possible get produced and all of a sudden our beliefs start to change. So our beliefs tend to shape what we do and don't do, but when you make a commitment, there is that moment of truth that you go against your belief system. Over time, your beliefs will change. Have you noticed that what you believed 10 years ago is no longer what you believe today in many cases?

Decide, commit, succeed. End of story.
So keep going... what is your commitment for 2009?