Goodbye 2020! The great memories and moments you have contributed to my life are just remarkable. It may have been the year of pandemic, however my business still grew. Although 2021 is now the year that I will be seeing in calendars everywhere, the lessons I’ve learned in 2020 will always remain in my mind, in my heart and in my blood.
Most of those wisdoms were production of my business activities directed by my never-ending personal conquest. This year, I’ll be a full-time entrepreneur, considering my release from employment last December 2020. The following business lessons I learned in 2020 will be my greatest tools to achieve entrepreneurial success in 2021.
Imagine you have planned to build a great workforce by adding many new employees. However, before you settle on the actuals you need to understand how employment law works. Background checks, maintenance of paperwork, and ensuring that your employees are not engaging in fraudulent means and hurting the organization is something all business owners should do. This means working with the best legal minds and experts in the industry.
Reflect
Take a short break and practice reflection. This is helpful for always keeping ourselves on the right track to our great goals in life. There are many people who are oozing with diplomas and certificates of education and have read hundreds of books however still act immature and unrighteous.
What’s wrong with them? The problem with them is that they just acquire knowledge and wisdom through reading books and copying from their mentors. They don’t practice what they know because they don’t accept and follow them.
Reflection has taught me how to discover my innermost being and uncover deeper things that the world’s greatest books and teachers will not teach me. It has also given me enlightenment to do business for the right reasons.
Laughter is a medicine, joy is a vitamin
The glory of joy is one of my greatest realizations in 2020. I know that laughter is a good medicine. I know that happiness brings good life. However I have not yet realised how good it is until I mixed it with thankfulness. In doing business, we always face hardships, insecurities, stress and desperations.
If we let these things push us into sadness, the consequence is a big disaster. Good thing I’ve chosen a business where I found my joy and my passion. No matter how difficult it is, as long as the enthusiasm, happiness and thankfulness are there, our momentum to reach success will remain.
Stick to your game plan
Many people are asking what is the secret behind the great victories of the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world, the Pacman. The key is simple, stick to the game plan. In the world of entrepreneurship, we always have that game plan. That plan is directed to our main goals.
However, there are several opportunities that come in our ways. Some of these opportunities are so attractive enough to drive us away from our original plans. The worst is… it’s already too late before we realise that we are already heading in the wrong direction, a direction that will lead us to failure.
Pacquiao, although he sees an opportunity to knockout his opponent during fight time, he maintains prudence and avoids carelessness to take the bait of his opponent. He sticks to the game plan and eventually becomes a winner. Simply in business, we should create the best plan, and then stand for it.
Stay fit
For men, I thought a great body is only beneficial for attracting women. However I was wrong because it goes beyond just being a sexy person. Aside from having a strong and enduring body to help us in doing the tiring work of entrepreneurs, it also saves us from short to lasting interruption caused by illness and over fatigue.
However of course I know all of those facts prior to 2020. However the best lesson I’ve learned with regard to fitness this year is that it puts us in the sense of discipline – a discipline that we can use not only for our health however also for everything that we do including our daily business activities.
The essence of hard work in the gym, the patience of waiting, and the resistance to unhealthy foods are virtues that will also shape us into a hardworking, patient and resistant business person.
Bury seeds not money
If you’re a wise business person who wants to be productive, you won’t let your money sleep or be buried under the ground without profiting. Entrepreneurs are just like farmers, they use money to buy seeds. Then they plant those seeds to grow and harvest. It’s true that money management for self employed people is an art and science, so get some real advice.
They take the risks that may be brought by typhoons and other calamities just to roll those dollars and get their reward of a good harvest. Besides, typhoons can be avoided by forecasting, and pests can be prevented by pest-controls. So wake up that money, invest it, and enjoy doing business.
Review first before you forecast
Sweet dreams are sweet, however too much sweetness may lead us to disasters. Before we become too excited with our new plans and ideas, let us first have a review on our resources. Resources may be tangibles like money, machines and properties.
It can also be intangibles like time, human skills, existing policies and business conditions. After assessing our current resources, conditions and their potentials, we can now use a strike of an eye to succeed in our business endeavors if our assessments permit us to do it.
Wisdom is not enough
The last however not the least and the most intriguing of all – wisdom is not enough. For all of my life I thought that wisdom is enough. However based on my observations and reflections on these observations, I found out that many people who are wise still make mistakes even though they know what is right and what is wrong.
So why is wisdom not enough? It is not enough unless we mixed it with understanding. Wisdom is knowing while understanding is accepting. In the business world, we know how to achieve our goals. We read lots of advice on managing a business and we copy it. have the wisdom and the step-by-step knowledge to succeed. However the problem is we don’t understand them – we don’t accept and follow them. Wisdom is for the mind, however understanding is for the heart and soul.
We can only practice and do all our great business ideas by accepting them with all our minds, with all our hearts and all our souls. How can you say that you’re giving your heart to your business if you can’t even keep your eyes on it? How can you say that you are giving your soul to your business if you can’t even give your hands to it?
