Image Source: Liverpool Street station crowd blur by victoriapeckham
In the past few days, I have been a little sick due to the sudden temperature drop. I was also busy attending some business event in Taipei. This gave me a chance to rethink about my business plan. After meeting with some success entrepreneurs, who created success business before age of 40? I have to ask myself this question on more time.
How do I stand out from the crowd?
To find out why those young entrepreneurs succeeded in their business, I need to find out the reasons of their success and the characters they are playing. There must be some reasons of their success. Are their characteristic or personality playing important pieces of their success.
I was very happy that they spent time to discuss their success story with me. That is the first reason of their success. So here are the common characteristics of those success young entrepreneurs.
- Share their experience of the mistakes they made - A great entrepreneur shares their experience and the mistakes they made. By sharing their experience, they have the chance to review what they have done and make sure they have not made the same mistake in the past. It does not just remind me what mistakes to prevent, but it also gives them a great confidence.
- Don’t make the same mistake twice – This is a very important reason of their success. All of the entrepreneurs I met with have this characteristic. They admit their mistake, but don’t make the same mistake twice.
- Be open minded - A success business man always look for a new chance and opportunities. They open their mind for new stuff even on the stuff not related to their business.
- Be unique - Chase the crowd will never make you a success entrepreneur. You need to lead the crowd. It’s all about how to differentiate your uniqueness.
- The more you give, the more you get - Public welfare activity has been the best way to drive more business than advertisement. The entrepreneurs I met are spending million dollars on helping the communities and make other people’s life easier. In many case, they don’t even talk about their business in the event. However, the whole community knows who sponsors the event. This brings a great positive image of the corporation to the public. This brings more business than the advertisement can do.
- Watch and Listen - A great entrepreneur are very sensitive about the environment around them. They watch and learn from others.
- Be a loser at least once – This is one of the reasons of their success that sock me. It makes sense to me after all. All of the entrepreneurs I met have failed at least once. Some of them failed more than three times. They got up and fight for their life again. They are now the role models for all of us. “If I have never failed, I won’t know what success taste like.“
They also don’t have misconceptions I listed in 10 “I don’t” self-misconceptions make you a no millionaire. They really know how to train themselves to look like a millionaire.
Can you stand out from the crowd?
Great post! An add-on to the fifth point might be to under promise and over deliver, which was a piece of advice a young entrepreneur gave on The Big Idea a week or two ago.
Good post there and i am so glad that you are better. i was wondering that we had not had a new post from you in a while.
@DCR:
Thank you for adding the extra point. That’s a great add-on.
@Recliners:
Thank you! I am OK now. I was also busy in building my happiest blog at http://www.smilemyday.com. Feel free to share your happiness and get some link love back to you.
Another nice post Terence. I like the last point the most – from what I have seen and heard, people who have made it in life have failed so many times but have not given up. They have moved on and tried out something else until they finally got onto to something that was a success.
Someone told me once that in Silicon Valley, it was an asset to list that you’ve ran a company…. and failed…
@Gerri:
Thank you! I agree with you. Without being a loser once in your life, you don’t really know how good the feeling is as a winner.
@Patrick:
I knew someone from Silicon Valley who has failed 6 times in his life as a startup entrepreneur. Now he is traveling around the world and teaching people how to fail. That’s was very inspirational thoughts. Thank you for stopping by!
I love this line ‘If I have never failed, I won’t know what success taste like.’. Might change the tagline of my blog to that
Ajay
It is always a great opportunity to learn from the most succesful people, thank you for sharing!
I love number 5, the more you give …
@Ajay Shroff:
Looking forward to see your new tag line.
@Mirjam:
Yea. I was surprised that he shared his success experience with me. He is now involved in more American Idol type of public event, which give their corporation a great exposure. It also gives them an opportunities to find famous celebrity to become their public face. This bring s them much more business than an advertisement on the huge TV wall in Hollywood can bring.
It’s a great idea to see what people see and hear from their angle.
Well, It’s nice to see you’re better, as for the post, you’ve hit the spot well. I’ve also had the privilege of meeting several leading entrepreneurs, most of them share the above listed characteristics, so I guess they’re more or less universal entrepreneur qualities
. As a side note, I’d like to add “remarkable social skills” and a “great business sense” to the list.
It has been four days since you posted your last blog. I hope that you are fully recovered and well and just busy with other things. Do let us know if there is anything that we could do to help, if you need.
Nice article. I like the last one “Be a loser at least once”. As Gerri said, in fact they failed many times.
@Tibi Puiu:
Thank you for adding points to the post. Those are very important as well.
@Dining Tables:
I am back to USA from Taiwan after three months travel. Thank you for your concerns. I will be even busier since my business is getting boost.
Hope you are doing well too.
@ChampDog:
I was wondering if I will make an exception. I don’t think I have failed at least.
Standing out in a crowd is a problem that I have. I tend to like to blend in to the group. It’s not helping me reach my goal of a million dollars any quicker.
Good to hear from you again and am happy that your business is getting a boost. In case you have not noticed, you may not have to unblock my comments!!
@Money Millionaire:
Thank you for visiting. I checked out your blog. I think you are doing OK, but not growing fast enough. First, you have to believe that you can be who you want to be. Second, you need to show people that you can be what you say will be. In your about page, it is not certain that you can be what you expect to be. How will people believe that you can show them a great example?
@Dining Table:
I was wondering what went GOOD with your site? Or may be you changed your IP?
You just saved my time digging into the junk and find your comments.
Hi Terence – These are great points and all are true of successful entrepreneurs. Another I would add is that they are good at knowing what advice to take and what to ignore – especially when it comes to deciding whether something can be done.
@Cath Lawson
Thank you for adding extra point. You are right. A successful entrepreneur must have some great business sense. without the sense, they will take the wrong advice and do the wrong thing. Great add-on point. Thx!
Interesting topic, but the only thing i’d like to add:
Be yourself.
@Villas:
Not sure what you mean, but thank you for stopping by!
Great post Terrance, from my first glance of your blog, I can tell that you’ve learned a lot from these people and their characteristics.
I wrote a similar post awhile ago on my blog-
“10 Characteristics of a Successful Blogger”.
I started writing that post more like a serious of goals that I wanted to accomplish – it terms of shaping a positive and productive work ethic and attitude towards blogging.
Identifying these traits, writing them down and keeping them in mind every time you post is essential!
Anyways, keep up the good work, maybe we can collaborate on a post or blog carnival in the future!
Take it easy.
@Damien:
Thank you for stopping by. Same here. I was so into make money online and lost focus on what I am suppose to do. Now I am back on track. I am sure that we can help each others in many ways!