Did you know that Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder and one of the richest men in the world, got rejected for more than 30 jobs he applied to after graduating?
Out of 24 people who applied for the job in KFC, 23 people got hired. Ma wasn’t one of them. Neither he was among the four out of five candidates who applied for a cop position. Ma even lost a job to his cousin at a four-star hotel, and got rejected from Harvard ten times!
And although he can now look at all these rejections and joke about them, we can bet they were once pretty painful. However, all those rejections prepared them for his life role, which brought him all this fortune and fame – the entrepreneurial one.
Looking back on his beginner’s failure, Ma once said: “If you can not get used to failure — just like a boxer — if you can’t get used to [being] hit, how can you win?”.
If we look at the past of any successful entrepreneur, we will see a long list of setbacks and chances for recovery. The truth is – the path to success isn’t linear, and it doesn’t always look promising. We’re all afraid of failure, but the lessons we bring from hard times determine the rest of our life.
If you’re currently in one of those moments where you lack the motivation to push forward, and you cannot seem to find the light at the end of the tunnel, hold on! We decided to provide you with some tips and tricks on how you can motivate yourself as an entrepreneur in uncertain times, and scale your small business.
Tip #1: Keep your focus on what’s important.
We usually focus on things we don’t have, and what we still miss to reach our goal. However, focusing only on what’s lacking, can be demotivating and stall our progress.
Instead, we should turn the situation another way around, and try focusing on building habits that can help us reach the goal we have in mind. Success comes when we’re mindful of our actions when we focus on the present moment. It comes when we set small milestones that push us to go even further.
That said, if we want to stay motivated, we should focus on the things we can do, instead of things we’re missing, and slowly build our way up.
Tip #2: Take risks.
Resilience is one of the most essential skills small business owners should have, However, becoming more resilient often means training ourselves to take more risks. When we intentionally expose ourselves to uncertainty, and we build our stamina for the situation we’re not in charge of.
We shouldn’t be afraid of taking calculated risks, as it is the way success happens. We should embrace change and uncertainty as a challenge that will teach us valuable lessons, teach us how to overcome hardship, and make us more resilient.
Tip #3: Map projects to immediate revenue.
Uncertainty often means decreased revenue and increased costs. To minimize the consequences, we should focus on projects that will bring short-term revenue first, and put long term plans aside.
Furthermore, we should pay attention to customers and vendors that owe us money, track our invoices, and circle back to them to ensure our money flow remains in check. Luckily, we don’t have to spend too much time checking and rechecking invoices and payments. We can instead use invoicing software to automate this process, which will help us stay organized and on top of our game.
Tip #4: Take control of the things you can.
Although we cannot influence some aspects of our life and business, we still have plenty of things we can do to stay afloat. Instead of focusing on what we cannot do, we should put our energy into things we can control and work within this frame. Making even the smallest steps can help us stay motivated and productive, and feel safer and more confident about the things we’re uncertain about.
Tip #5: Adapt your products to the new world.
Uncertainty inevitably brings change. And even though sometimes it might be hard to adapt to new situations, the speed you’re able to adapt to them will show you how resilient you are. Try not to look at change and uncertainty as something bad, but rather see it as new challenges that will help you improve.
Tip #6: Step out of negativity
Doctors usually go above and beyond to explain to us the benefits of positive thinking. For young entrepreneurs who’re just starting with their professional journey, uncertain times can just add stress to an already stressful situation of managing their own business.
To minimize the stress and free their mind of anxiety and worry, entrepreneurs should make sure to surround themselves with positive people that will positively impact their mindset that will reflect on their outputs.