Successful Entrepreneurs Do These 5 Things Daily

Do you really want to succeed as an entrepreneur?
Follow these five steps and you’ll be well on your way to
developing the leadership qualities it takes:
Related: 50 Signs You Might Be an Entrepreneur
1. Willingly fail and reflect. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No
matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better,” goes Samuel
Beckett's line . It's not always easy, the trying again part.
Another important thing is taking time to reflect on what
went wrong. In the book The Call of Solitude , Ester
Schaler Buchholz says, “Others inspire us, information
feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we
need quiet time to figure things out.”
In his book, Fail Up , radio broadcaster Tavis Smiley
recalls lessons he has learned through reflection. He
sheds light on these so-called failures that were, in
hindsight, his best teachers.
You’ll only learn by failing over and over again. When
you do this, you’re able to grow. And in spite of life’s
inevitable setbacks, you’ll come out the victor.
Related: Why Entrepreneurs Should Plan for Failure,
Not Success
2. Embrace and confront your fears . According to
author Brendon Burchard, fear can be categorized in
three ways, which all relate to pain. The first is loss
pain, which happens when you’re afraid to move ahead
because you fear you’ll lose something valuable.
The second is process pain, which inevitably occurs
every time you try something new. You have to go
through the process of learning to deal with it.
The last is outcome pain. This involves not getting the
outcome you desired.
Burchard insists that people need to overwhelm their
fears. Just as an army invades its enemy from every
side, a person should do the same with fear, attacking it
from every side, as if going to war.
For Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran, public speaking
was her Achilles' heel. But she overcame it by going to
war. She volunteered to teach a real estate night course
in front of a small group of students to overcome her
fear.
Related: What High Performers Do When Things Get
Tough
3. Practice self- discipline . This is the ability to delay
instant gratification and the ability to work hard now to
reap benefits later. When Academy Award-winning actor
Jamie Foxx was a boy, his grandmother routinely made
him take piano lessons even though all he wanted to do
was go outside to play. He had no idea that those
lessons would lead to his eventual success. To this day,
he continues to hone his craft and disciplines himself to
practice playing the piano for two hours many a day.
No one sees the years of hard work you might put into
an endeavor. They only see the outcome. If you want to
reap the rewards of tomorrow, you must put in the work
today.
Related: How Much Sleep Do You Really Need?
4. Get some sleep. Shortly after the debut of her
eponymous news site, Arianna Huffington collapsed
from exhaustion and lack of sleep. She’d been working
18-hour days because she was so committed to growing
her company. When she collapsed, she hit her head
against a desk and found herself lying in a pool of
blood.
In her book Thrive , Huffington details the ordeal and
says it was a painful wake-up call. She knew she had
neglected sleep and took steps to correct it.
When you get the sleep you need, you’ll feel more
energized, charged and ready to tackle any problem
entrepreneurship throws your way.
Related: How to Make Giving a Part of Your Company
Culture
5. Give to others. In his book, Give and Take: Why
Helping Others Drives Our Success , Wharton Business
School professor Adam Grant teaches the idea of
generosity in a professional setting.
For centuries, people have focused on the individual
drivers of success: passion, hard work and sheer will.
But things have changed. Success is increasingly
dependent on how we interact with others and how
much we give them.
According to Grant’s research, the most successful
people are those who consistently give. Grant takes this
to heart so much that he not only puts in long hours as a
professor, but also as many and sometimes even longer
hours giving and helping others.
That ancient book, the Bible, was right all along:
Happiness comes from giving.