Starting and running a new business can be frustrating. There are times when you wish round pegs would fit into square holes. And occasionally you wonder why round pegs don't fit into round holes. Things don't always go as planned.
More often than not the problem lies with neither the pegs nor the holes. As my father used to say, "You're not holding your tongue right." In other words, you need to look at things from a different angle - get the pegs straight up and down so they fall right into place.
Here are five key ingredients to building your business with a determined, purposeful, and successful attitude... an attitude of increase.
1. Release Your Old Attitudes About Money
Money, in and of itself, has no value. You can't float on it, you can't shower with it, you can't eat it, and you can't drive it. If you tell it to roll over, it just ignores you.
Starting a business with the goal of making money is meaningless. Your business is more likely to do what money is good at doing by itself: Playing dead.
Okay, this is obvious stuff, right? You already knew that. You want money to buy a boat that floats, a shower head that pulsates, and a fast car to get the really good Chinese food.
Unfortunately, wanting money for those reasons still isn't good enough.
We can agree that money is a tool by which you purchase or provide something of value, but now we need to go a step further. We need to get in sync with the golden calf of economics: Growth.
Growth comes from giving without receiving, and if you're selling, giving more use value than you receive in cash value. But, wait a minute? Whom are we talking about? Your growth or the other guy's?
Yours, of course. Well, both actually. You see, what this does is create in your mind an attitude of increase. Hoarding money or providing minimal use value creates a mindset of stagnation and decrease.
Some of the wealthiest people the world has known understood this principle well. Andrew Carnegie gave tens of millions in money, gifts, and services during his lifetime. Early in his life, John D. Rockefeller was gifting more than half his paycheck while making less than five dollars per week. An attitude of increase was firmly set in their minds. The more you give the more you get.
2. Practice an Attitude of Gratitude
What's really going on when you thank someone? What is the attitude you are expressing? It's an attitude of receiving with appreciation. Receiving. That word has a nice tone, don't you think?
Gratitude is the compliment of giving. Giving clears the path for growth, and gratitude brings the good stuff to you-- and keeps it coming. It's all part of the attitude of increase.
The great part about gratitude is you can even do it alone. Give yourself a pat on the back for everything that brought you to this exact moment. Heck, congratulate yourself on having the good fortune of finding this great lesson about being grateful. And in all modesty, might I add how grateful I am you're reading it!
Practice sincere gratitude several times throughout your day. In this way you are able to stay connected with an attitude of increase and recognize abundance as it comes your way.
3. Create An Attitude of Daily Success
When you awake each morning, decide on at least one thing you can do that day to further your business aspirations. Write it down and declare it out loud.
Next, give thanks for the opportunity to create a successful day. It's your first act of gratitude for the day and sets the tone for a winning attitude. And don't forget to implement your attitude of giving throughout the day. Give your customers an extra 10% discount, or if your business isn't off the ground yet, give the dog an extra doggy treat. The important thing is to keep the flow going.
Creating daily success takes practice and hard work. Start small to build up confidence with a series of quick successes, then keep raising the bar. But who's afraid of a little hard work? The rewards are fantastic. As the great 19th century orator Henry Ward Beecher once said, "It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top."
4. Expect The Unexpected
What happens when you practice an attitude of increase? The unexpected happens. The clarity of purpose you defined at the beginning of the day is ever-present around you. The gratitude you express regularly along with the growth value bestowed upon others screams to the world, "Winner!"
Now you are free to notice, from among the thousands of pieces of information entering your brain each day, those things which encapsulate your purpose. Opportunities appear out of nowhere. Unexpectedly, it would seem. Expect it. You are plugged into an attitude of increase.
5. Winners Start Out With Winning Attitudes
Why do some people create lives of abundance and success, while others lament about the cruel hand life dealt them?
You are what you think. You can only achieve what you believe is achievable.
By accepting as fact a success that has yet to come, you allow your future self to effectively define your present self. Successful people are successful before they become successful. This happens instantly in the moment you define and announce your focused, unwavering intent. Success is automatic.
The world delivers to those who ask. And of those who ask, it is those who expect to be answered who will receive. Do not say you want the thing you desire, for your request is already answered. To want is not to have.
Do not say you will have what you desire, because that is the same as wanting.
Instead, have the thing you desire. Make up your mind it is already yours. Believe it is so because it is so. You have an attitude of increase. There is no other outcome.
All right, do you have your attitude on? Great! Here are some hexagon shaped pegs and some trapezoid shaped holes. Let's see your stuff!
Brett Krkosska is a freelance writer and syndicated columnist. He is the owner and founder of HomeBizTools.com, an idea center for small/home-based business owners.