There are no secrets about what it takes to prosper and work harder than everyone else. Innovate, change the game to your advantage.
I come from a basic middle-class worker family. At the age of 18, I was a complete nobody with no grand ambitions and no vision of my future.
Fortunately, my mood changed because of my dad’s behaviour. He was a terrible businessman. He struggled all his life with money, but he had balls if I can say one tremendous and positive thing about him!
He had the guts to try, which encouraged me to be my boss.
Looking at all the mistakes he made helps me not follow his steps and avoid lousy money management issues. I am genuinely grateful for those lessons learned.
It was not always easy as you can imagine. Being a self-entrepreneur is a hard choice, impacting all the people around you. Many entrepreneurs have encountered a divorce, and I did too.
The secret is effortless: Never stop believing in yourself. If you deeply know that you are at the right place, work harder when you are in adversity.
Sometimes, having a big shock in our life rushes us into work and pays off in the end!
How to build a strong business which will last?
Find a niche where you can help fill other people’s needs or create a new need.
I am in the recruitment business, so I help people find jobs opportunities and companies find workers. I help to fill both their needs. The real goal is there!
Apple, Samsung and others created tablets a few years ago. Did we genuinely need those? Not really. They created a new need for our consumer’s avidity.
You must find your niche. The one that will fill you inside, and if it becomes a passion, who knows where you will be in a few years!
You must be willing to work long hours and become a loner. Fun and parties will be after the job is done.
I have been working seven days a week for about 75 hours per week for many months. My clients are a priority for me. They are confidents that I will help them, and for this, I must deliver.
I do not feel bad about it. I even don’t see it as work at all. It was once a choice, and now, it is a way of living.
I love what I do because I know why I do it!
The timing
There are so many reasons why some succeed and not others, but I will say that in my opinion, timing is most of the time the most significant issue; money, cash flow, comes after.
Everyone I knew who started a business and failed was hardworking, passionate, and determined. The timing was just not there.
They had great ideas but not at the right time.
For example, one of them left everything to open his garage at the end of 2019. You can easily imagine what happened when the COVID Lockdown strikes! Bad timing.
Another one bought a restaurant at the beginning of 2019 and started making prepared meals ready to cook, and when the COVID struck, everything shut down, and so did their business. You see, most of their biggest clients were gyms! Bad timing.
Unfortunately, sometimes the planets are just not aligned for some of us. We have to find another way to make it work.
That is what makes the difference between successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful ones.
Sometimes you may have to redefine your business plan entirely. You must be prepared to adapt to every unpredicted situation. That is when the “cash flow” might be crucial.
The right fit
I had businesses with employees in the past, and I can say now that it was great until it wasn’t anymore. Let me explain.
Employees need you to be there all the time. The more people you have, the more problems you have too.
You have to motivate them constantly, and it is so hard to have them work not just for their wages but also to understand what they have to do as recruiters to make it work and deliver.
Most of them never want to work in the evening to reach people even if they have no children and a promise of commissions.
In 2002 I joined the company of a partner of min. At the time, she asked me to help her open new markets and make a little clean-up with her staff.
The first thing I found was that most of them practically wasted the company’s time. They were doing presenteeism and surfing over the old gain without pushing ahead much.
Soon as we started to make some changes, they began to argue, of course, made excuses and, in the end, some of them left the company.
After a few years, we took the best decision ever; no employees, no more — all self-entrepreneurs. You want to have a big pay; you will have to work for it as the owners do.
That decision was the best decision I ever took. Five years after that episode, I was alone in my company as a specialized recruiter and was never to go back with employees again. Not in recruiting anyway.
Most of the recruiters who are actual performers are self-entrepreneurs. There are no ways any recruitment companies will be able to pay enough money to retain them.
I make more money today alone than in the past whit all the employees I had.
They were not bad people at all. Jut not a good fit for a business like mine.
The same thing happens with companies like real estate brokerage or insurance and investments companies. These jobs are not for everyone.
Your entourage has to understand what you have to do to prosper in those businesses. Otherwise, it will never work. You and your life partner will struggle a lot.
