10 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs (part 2 of 2)
You can read part 1 of our article here.
6. Reading
Bill Gates said in an interview in The New York Times he reads 50 books a year (check Bill’s reading list on his personal blog).
Elon Musk said he was raised by books, reading 10 hours a day when he was a kid (read about his favourite books).
Mark Cuban credits his early success to reading and learning everything he could:
“A guy with little computer background could compete with far more experienced guys, just because I put in the time to learn all I could.” (cnbc.com)
Warren Buffett says he reads five or six hours a day and once gave advice to students to read 500 pages a day:
“That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” (cnbc.com)
We read a lot in school because the curricula compel us, but do you keep reading books as grown-ups?
Reading is the old-fashioned way to expand your knowledge. As an entrepreneur, you need to keep growing, developing leadership skills, finding inspiration and overall, keep yourself updated with the latest trends and information. Here, at Brand Minds, we hold reading in the highest regard. If you follow our social media accounts, you know we recommend one book a week.
Here are 3 of our latest #bookoftheweek recommendations:
- The Startup Way by Eric Ries
- When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
- Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
7. Efficient time and attention management
Time management or attention management?
Do you feel your attention is being hijacked during your day by various sources: your social media feed, emails, advertising etc.?
What you give your attention to is what determines your experiences.
Attentionmanagement.com
Productivity experts have found that besides time management, entrepreneurs need to develop a new skill: attention management. Attention management means acquiring the ability to control distractions, single-task for higher-quality results, and engage in sustained (focused) attention when necessary, which should be a part of almost every day.
Time is not only an important resource on an individual level. When we are talking about your team working on a project, wasting time means losing money.
Here are 3 tools you can use to track time and control your project’s profitability:
Stop losing money with these 3 project management tools.
8. Taking risks
Taking risks is one of the top 3 skills great leaders acquire and master according to Rosalinde Torres, leadership expert.
Mrs Torres says great leaders are courageous enough to abandon the past and the path well travelled. But successful entrepreneurs don’t take reckless decisions concerning their business, they take calculated risks to achieve their goals.
What are the risks worth taking?
Find out in our article 3 top skills of great leaders.
9. Keep going through failures and setbacks
What does it take to keep going through failures and setbacks?
Grit.
Grit is the one personal quality shared by the most prominent leaders. It is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working with great effort and determination toward challenges. Another feature of grit is the ability to maintain effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity and plateaus in progress.
Find out more about grit in our article:
This is the no 1 trait that predicts entrepreneurial success.
10. Doing what you love
To be effective and successful first and foremost you need to love what you do.
You need to be passionate and fully committed. You need to be prepared to give 110% to your project, idea or full-fledged business company. Most entrepreneurs feel all alone in their endeavours and often they will find few supportive voices around them. That’s why entrepreneurs become great leaders when they share their passion and actively look for other people with the same passion for their craft or skill. Remember: one cannot do everything, you need a team!
Sometimes your project comes to an end for various reasons. Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, the founders of Instagram are leaving their Facebook-acquired company because they were no longer doing what they loved (read the story).
We’re planning on leaving Instagram to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.
Kevin Systrom
The beauty of doing what you love is that no one can take away your passion or ability to translate that passion into reality.
So even when your project has come to an end, you can always begin again.
