I recently discovered this blog, Small Biz Survival, and added it to my increasingly long reading list. You do not want to know how long my reading list is. After the rise of Facebook and many other upstart start-ups, many a dreamer dreamed of starting his/her own business that could potentially grow into millions. What most people don't know is that, the path to success is long and winding. Maybe it is Mark Zuckerberg or even Bill Gates or Steve Jobs' fault that they made it look "easy".
But building a successful company takes a lot tweaking and tweaking and improvements until you get it right. That means making lots of mistakes. Mistakes are inevitable, and can occasionally require a tremendous amount of creativity to overcome. Creativity is the key to innovation and entrepreneurship. Here is Small Biz Survival on the stop signs on the road to creativity:
Stop sign 1. No moola. Money doesn't make you more creative or guarantee success.Money is usually attracted. What are you doing to be more attractive? It's not all about inner beauty. There is a reason we have an outer side. Money is valuable, but so is time.
When you get down to it, what I'm about is love.
Go sign 1. Keep love at the center of your circle.
Stop sign 2. No time. We all have the exact same amount of time.When you say you have not time, you mean you have no time for this. Not all action is equal. Neither is all time.Pleasure does not equal wasted time.Caution: don't go fast in the wrong direction.
Go sign 2. Persist. In the confrontation between the rock and the stream, the stream wins not by strength but by persistence.Piece by piece. Step by step. Baby steps.
Stop sign 3. Don't have the education. An education doesn't make you creative or successful.No one majors in common sense.Caution: cockiness in what you know can lead to you not knowing much. You have to be open minded past your judgment.
Go sign 3. Be educated where and how you can.
Stop sign 4. It has to be perfect. You don't achieve perfection by being a perfectionist.The process of being creative is messy and imperfect.Don't do the BEST you can. Do WHAT you can. You can't always give 100%.Go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. It's what's in between the failures that counts.
Go sign 4. Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.
Stop sign 5. I had bad stuff happen.Your problems are real and valid. Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.Don't compare your bad stuff with other people's bad stuff.Your bad habits may help you to cope. But don't hold on to those bad habits past the reason you needed to cope.Unless you change direction (attitude), you'll get where you are going.
Go sign 5. Rise to your problems.The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise high with the occasion. A. Lincoln
Stop sign 6. I'm a chicken. Reality is, you will fail. Yes, someone is better than you. But don't give them power over you.Better than you or not, they aren't thinking about you.
Go sign 6. "Life is much more unexpected than I expected," Marty said.Kudos: Small Biz Survival, The Napkin Dad
