10 Habits of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs (part 1 of 2)

What do all highly effective entrepreneurs have in common?

They have achieved success thanks to the good habits they exercise each and every day.

Here are 10 habits of the highly effective entrepreneurs:

1. Know your Why

Before anything else, you need to know your why, the reason behind your getting-up every morning and pushing through life’s struggles. Simon Sinek is the speaker that has drawn everyone’s attention to the Why with his famous TED speech How great leaders inspire action (currently with 40M views).

Knowing your WHY gives you a filter to make choices, at work and at home, that will help you find greater fulfilment in all that you do.

Simon Sinek

How do you find your Why?

To find your why answer to the following questions:

What are you passionate about?

What are your innate strengths, skills and abilities?

Where do you add the greatest value?

Remember, it’s all about living with purpose.

2. Set goals

Now that you know your motivation, to reach a fulfilled life you need to set goals. But not just any goals – ambitious goals.

During an interview where he talked about his professional journey towards his goal – to be the greatest sales training expert – Grant Cardone shared a personal insight: his early goals were too small. He achieved them quickly and realised he could have done ten times more.

Whatever you think you can do, just multiply it by ten because you can do more than you think.

Grant Cardone

Your goals are ambitious and because of that, you may feel they are unattainable. But you are wrong: you can reach your goals if you break them into smaller, more manageable tasks or goals.

Let’s say you have a personal goal: to run the marathon the following year. You are currently a potato couch so running the marathon in such a short time is scary. Once you break this goal into smaller goals, it will not feel scary anymore.

What do these smaller goals look like?

Your first goal is to stop browsing your Facebook, leave your couch, put on your running shoes, walk to the door and start running for 15 minutes. Do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and next week.

3. Take responsibility for your life: both achievements and failures

Do you know someone who believes their life is not what they hoped for?

They say it’s their parents’ fault or their spouse’s fault or the government’s fault? They blame everyone but themselves!

We all know this type of person. They are speaking from a victim’s perspective, not taking accountability for their own life decisions. Whether you had success or you failed, it was your decision to go down that path so take responsibility!

Your life if of your own making, it’s pointless to blame anyone else. You must acknowledge both successes and failures. It’s common for women entrepreneurs especially to take their accomplishments for granted: they are not aware of their strengths and talents; they often believe it wasn’t them, it was luck. The same is true for failures: you need to reframe them and see them for what they are – opportunities for growth.

4. Achieving great self-discipline

You cannot achieve a high level of focus if you don’t have great self-discipline abilities.

What prevents you from being disciplined?

Social media distractions, irrelevant phone calls and emails? You have only 8-10 hours of work and if you are focused you can get a lot done.

Time management goes hand in hand with self-discipline. Poor time management has various effects on entrepreneurs: missed deadlines and appointments, working late, burnout syndrome, stress, poor quality of work and financial loss because Time is Money.

Read our article on time management: 5 time management tips & tricks for entrepreneurs.

Here are 5 methods for gaining self-discipline according to forbes.com:

Remove temptations.

Eat and exercise regularly and healthily.

Break bad habits – be aware that it will take time.

Schedule breaks, treats and rewards for yourself.

Forgive yourself and move forward.

5. Obsession with self-development

It is human nature to want to know and learn new things. Look for opportunities to grow and develop yourself: take courses to develop your skills, learn how to speak in public, how to make a convincing argument, how to sale or market your products, how to attract valuable people to your professional network a.s.o.

You can listen to podcasts, find mentors or participate in webinars and workshops. What is the easiest way to self-development? Read books! Did you know that Elon Musk used to read up to 10 hours during his childhood? Discover what books have influenced him.

The more you learn the more you will earn.

This article will be continued with part II.