I still remember when I finally decided to take the leap of faith and become a full-time entrepreneur. Let me tell you, that was a really scary thought, yet I was so excited to embark on my new journey. Specially because in my mind I had an idea and or vision of what I thought it was to be an entrepreneur.
And wow! Let me tell you, I was wrong.
I was wrong not because of what I thought it was but for what it was not. It turned out to be much different than what I had in mind and had imagined. It turned out to be scary, yet scary in a good way. Because it was different, new, and not secured, which meant to survive this I had to act (more on those habits that were adapted throughout this book)
Now, do know that being an entrepreneur is not as easy and by no means, it requires so much dedication, persistence, a positive state of mind, and a direction (end in mind).
To take on this journey it will require a whole lot of you, and it will test you in many different forms, in ways you might not even imagined. And if you choose to be on this journey, you must not look back and push forward.
I still remember telling myself right when I’ve started my entrepreneurial journey that, “I will do what it takes to make it happen before dying! And I will not die not doing what it takes to make it happen!”
This was not just a phrase or quote with no real meaning to me, I came up with this quote as my way of staying committed to my entrepreneurial decision. And just as this quote reads, I will do whatever it takes to make it happen, to create the highest intention in my life before dying.
This is exactly what I’ve mentioned earlier, and that is to be committed, to have persistence, to keep pushing forward, to be dedicated, to have a positive state of mind when things are going a different direction then what you’ve expected, and to have the end in mind.
I will share some habits, ideas, processes with you that I’ve implemented and adopted throughout my journey. I want you to see my journey as a vehicle of ideas that you can use in your own journey.
My end in mind was to be a full-time entrepreneur as a real estate investor, and that is how I’ve started. And believe me, this is perhaps the most critical thing to know, otherwise you will be going in circles and never get nowhere. I believe that many new entrepreneurs do not succeed because they have not defined their purpose, their mission, and do not have a clear picture of where they are going.
A simple comment of saying, I want to be financially free, or I want more money, or I dislike working for others, or etc. Is not a clear define purpose in life, and it will not yield the result you want. Even if you have already chosen this path, yet you find yourself stuck, my suggestion is to go back and review and see If you have a clear and define purpose.
For example, I will share my defined purpose, what I also consider to be my highest intention and purpose in life, as well as my mission statement.
Highest Intention
To empower, motivate, and assist others who are going through some challenges, by educating them, creating opportunities, and give them ideas and a path to make a change, whereas they can create their own legacy.
Mission Statement
To create relationships by providing others with win win solutions through my books, mentoring programs, real estate solutions, and public speaking message that will further motivate, inspire, empower, and educate both those relationships and my own.
In case you are wondering, are you able to change your highest intention and mission statement? the answer is “yes”. As a matter of fact, I encourage for that and you need to adjust it as you get more clarity, more knowledge, and keep working on yourself.
You will also notice that I did say, I’ve started as a real estate investor, and in my mission, I’ve share other things I now do. Well, as I continued to work on myself, I found interest in many other things, and as I got much more clarity on my life purpose (highest intention), I adopted more ideas and traits, let’s call this multiple streams of income, and therefore had adjusted my highest intention/mission statement.
A while back somebody asked me, when do you take vacation or time off? My response to this, was all the time, just like my answer to when do I work, and the answer is all the time. Let me explain what I mean by this.
It is my believe that you must enjoy what you are doing for it not to feel like work, and when you enjoy what you are doing the outcome is much more rewarding. At the same time, as an entrepreneur, if you do not hustle (or engage in massive action) your entrepreneurial journey will not last too long and will not get ahead nor see any results.
Having that said, here are some things that I do and encourage anyone to do even if becoming an entrepreneur is not your thing, as this will serve multiple purposes.
First and foremost, you must take massive action, and here are some simple steps to create an action or target plan, and not just a simple goal(s). In my opinion goals are not met and have much lower weight then an actual target or plan.
When creating an action plan, do as follow:
- Start with the end in mind
- Have a clear picture of what you are looking to achieve, the closer the more precise
- Write it down and chunk it down, create a smaller tasks list
- Set a specific due date for all task
- Put it into the universe, read your action plan out loud (I suggested you do this as soon as you wake up, and as soon as you are going to rest)
- Begin at once, and act by executing your plan (Take immediate, and massive action)
I’ve used this action planning to do many things in my professional and personal life and can be used for anything in your life.
As an entrepreneur, you must have discipline, otherwise you will end up eating up all the time of the day, and you will find yourself questioning as to what happened to the hours in the day. Which leads me to another important point in your daily planning, and that is management.
Many people talk about priority management, as a matter of fact, it did the same when I used to work for corporate America, I was always worried about having a discipline on my priority management. And to be honest with you, although this might seem right, I’ve learned now as an entrepreneur that I was doing it wrong. It is not so much about priority management, as it is much more about time management.
We all have 24 hours in the day, and how we used those 24 hours is what differentiate us from others. Therefore, during those 24 hours we must manage our time and ensure that it is not depleting away without any real outcome and or any progress to show for. For instance, as an entrepreneur the only real thing you have is time, and with that time we must protect it by:
- Not giving it away to others that are not contributing to your growth
- Not giving it away on unnecessary meetings. In a meeting you must accomplish what you must accomplish and fast, get out as quickly as you got in
Within time management, all the other things fall into place. Such things as:
- Task management (the things you must get done today, tomorrow, etc.)
- Creativity
- Planning
- Self-development
- Health planning
Another critical factor about being an entrepreneur, is that it is not an easy assignment, and there have been times that I wanted to throw in the towel. This is a constant profession that for it to continue to grow it must never stop (directly or indirectly). And sometimes things may not be going or coming out the way you want them, and on the subconscious level it seems much easier to go back to what we are comfortable with, secured, and less risky.
I had many of those moments, where there is this little voice in my head questioning me what I am doing, sometimes it is not just in my head, is also around me with friends, or even sometimes family members. At the end of the day, my recommendation is that you go back to your highest intention, your purpose, and remember the reason why you’ve started this journey. Get refocus and align yourself with your purpose, and change those thoughts in your head, focus on the desire outcome, and take action.
“What you think of, should become your reality… feed your thoughts with positivity”
― Cesar R. Espino
Here are some of the disciplines I’ve adopted as part of my daily routine. To begin with, I create daily task that I want to work on for the following day.
I write down on a notebook the action, in front of it I create a square, so that when I am finish with that task, I can physically go back and check it off. Yes, I know, you must be thinking that I am old fashion (specially now a day and its technology). And there is a science behind writing things down, some of the most successful people carry around a little notepad to write down tasks. The mind will remember better those actions that need to be taken when you physically write out the words, on top of that it creates a sense of accomplishment. When you can go back and checkoff the task, it creates a satisfaction in your mind (again re-enforcing positivity, and accomplishments on the subconscious level).
I also do other things to re-enforce my actions and re-enforce my highest intension.
- I journal every day (this is an opportunity to write down why and what I am grateful for during the day, my “aha” moments, my wins, my losses, and my general thoughts.
- I read; my plan is to do a minimum of two books per month (so far so good). And not just any book, either self-help, industry books in field of interest, development books, etc.
- I say out loud and in front of a mirror a list of affirmations, affirmations that re-enforced my entrepreneurial journey. For example, and enforcing things like; I am a successful investor, a great book author, a great public speaker, a healthy person, a people and money magnet, etc.
In addition, and because I believe time is so valuable, I’ve adopted a scheduling system (through Calendly) to help me keep my meetings organized with my clients. In here I keep my mentoring students, podcast interviewers, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programing) Clients, and discovery calls organized, and based on the schedule I’ve given each task.
The last two things I want to share with you is to ensure that your future is stronger than your past, and that at the same time you work harder on yourself than you do on anybody else.
Do not be a victim that lives on the past, doing so is anxiety, instead utilized your past as a lesson, a learning experience, yet do not give and dedicate your living to the past.
Make today and every second count as today will create and make for a stronger future. I carry myself with this type of discipline, because is not a maybe, or an I’ll do it when I feel like it, is a necessity and a must for me to be able to achieve all that which I want.
In terms of making sure you are working harder on yourself then you do on anybody else, I’ve given you some ideas that empower you to do just that. Other things you can do, which I highly recommend are continuous non-traditional education, and projected talking either towards you or others.
Ideas on non-traditional education are:
- Books in your field
- Seminars
- Mentoring
- Virtual events
- Joint Venture associations
Which I have done all the above to help me in my own journey.
Projected words or projected speaking. This can be seeing in two forms, and I cannot stress this enough how important this is to your own success. Why is this so critical? Well because you have to have a strong, healthy, powerful, and positive state of mind to be able to handle the rejection, the constant “no’s”, the temporary defeats, and the inside voices in your head.
So, what is projected words/speaking, those are the words that you say to yourself and or the words that people say to you, and or the words you say to others. It comes down to utilizing and choosing the right type of words. On a subconscious level, it is important that we constantly feed it with the right type of programs. Instead of I can’t, say I am, instead of a problem or issue, say is a challenge, instead of a failure, say is a lesson. This also means that you should not take in negative programs when people are speaking to you.
I have to tell you, being an entrepreneur is a wild ride, is one that has its ups and downs, is like a roller coaster, and your either enjoy the ride and the journey or you will not succeed. I’ve also learned so much about my life, my potential, and more importantly my capabilities.
There are many successful entrepreneurs that will tell you this, and I am certainly not the last one. I have learned so much, and I have grown so much, and at the end the reward is much greater than the temporary defeats, and I will not change it for the world.
“I am not perfect, and I’ve been handed down so many lessons except I’ve learned, I’ve grown, and the rest of my life I will live becoming the best version of me each and every day”
― Cesar R. Espino
Until next time…