Starting down a New Career Path

Sometimes I wonder, “Have I ever considered striking out without anyone else? All things considered, working for yourself can be an energizing prospect. Most people think that owning a business is a piece of cake. But in reality, it isn’t for everyone. To become a successful entrepreneur, one must have or develop certain personality traits. I believe there are some psychological characteristics that I should ideally possess to start and run my own business. I think I am a very enthusiastic, optimistic and future-oriented person. I also believe in myself and do what needs to be done on time. According to Katz (2018), “Passion is an intense positive feeling the entrepreneur has toward the business or even the idea behind the business.” (P. 30). It's commonly assumed that successful entrepreneurs are driven by money. But most will tell you they are pushed by a passion for their product or service, by the opportunity to solve a problem and make life easier, better, cheaper. Optimism brings positive energy to my life. It allows me to learn from failures, pick up the pieces and move on to something greater. From my experience and the things that I have learned in past, I believe that the greatest business ideas, and times in life, can be born from failure.

Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to stick with their activity even when it takes a long time and its outcome is not immediately known. This behavior is the attitude of learned optimism (Katz, 2018). According to the article Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese, “Best New Restaurant” lists across the country, and his dual successes earned Bowien a James Beard “Rising Star Chef” award in 2013.” It was his passion to cook and followed his dream that made him successful. I also have a special type of psychological trait that deals with adaptability. I am vastly adaptable, and it gives me the ability to respond quickly in any situation. This allows me to make decisions that navigates me out of trouble and allow me to thrive in environments that would sink those that aren’t adaptable. A successful entrepreneur is also a good planner. Planning every aspect of your business is not only a must, but also builds habits that every business owner should develop, implement, and maintain. The act of business planning is so important because it requires you to analyze each business situation, research and compile data, and make conclusions based mainly on the facts as revealed through the research.

To live a life of high achievement, you must fully believe in yourself and the ability that you have. Believing in myself boosts my confidence and enables me to think about turning my visions into reality from a unique perspective that influence my ability to navigate the entrepreneurial decision-making process. Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King, Jr., Michael Jordan, Anthony Joiner and Valerie Daniels are some of the few examples of highly successful individuals who benefited greatly from this confidence. However, it’s not their levels of success that one should be obligated to pursue. It’s their willingness to get up again and again when they failed or experienced a setback while in pursuit of creating the life of their dreams. The only reason why they were able to continue their hard work and achieve success is because of the level of belief in themselves despite the enormous amount of failures they had experienced for years leading up to their big breakthroughs. Their belief is what created a dream so humongous that they didn’t worry about how many times they failed at something. They were eventually going to get to where they wanted to go. Especially as a business owner and entrepreneur, one will undoubtedly fail and experience a loss or setback at one point in their life. If it hasn’t occurred already, it eventually will. And when it happens, if the belief is strong, no failure or setback will have the power to completely wipe them out. Those who do not believe in themselves typically suffer from plenty of negative thoughts, which then leads to negative actions. A person who lacks confidence, for example, will never take the risks necessary to start a new business or to start down a new career path. A lack of belief in yourself may also keep you from trying out new hobbies, traveling or otherwise getting the most out of life. In short, those who don’t believe in themselves are missing out on all that life has to offer, simply because they don’t believe in their own ability to succeed.

However, there is a trait that I tend to view negatively, that is risk-taking, often regarding it as dangerous and even unwise. I know risk-taking is very important to be a successful entrepreneur and most entrepreneurs have this trait. This is why I created some fundamentals that will increase my ability to risk-taking and benefit me in every aspect of my life. First of all, I have to understand that failure is going to happen a lot. All successful people have stories of massive failure in their lives. Secondly, I need to trust the muse, focus my attention on my risk, let the ideas and path develop themselves, and leave the distractions aside so that it has no chance to divert my mind. Thirdly, in order to be a good risk taker, I have to be original and authentic. Taking a risk and then turning into something I ’m not, is only going to lead to a disaster, which will not only affect me but also affect the people around me. Whether I am risking a new relationship or new opportunity, I must be myself throughout the entire process. I know if I practice risk management in my life I’ll be able to handle any difficult situation with ease. Risk-taking won’t only potentially benefit the career-path I’m already on it may actually open me up to a world of possibilities I have yet to consider. Because risk is usually an expression of your own ideas, it can teach you a lot about yourself. The more comfortable you are with exploring new abilities within yourself, the more aware you will become of just what lies inside you. And the more success you experience within those areas, the more confident you will become.

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