
(1) Make sure you love and enjoy it
Building a business is so hard that you better love it or you’ll quit when the going gets tough. If you don’t love it, you’ll also be unwilling to put in the long ground work. Find something you would do for free because you love it that much.(2) Be nice
Being nice is free and being nice will increase the chances of people wanting to work with and for you. Anything that is free and has huge positive effects should be used frequently and abundantly.(3) Work hard and smart
Hard work is vital, but hard work alone doesn’t guarantee success; there are a lot of people out there working a lot harder than I am and if how hard you worked was the only deterministic factor of success, then there would be a lot of millionaire tea leaf pickers in Africa.(4) Focus and saying no
As your success increases and your business grows, there will be a lot of distractions and a lot of people offering you opportunities that will distract you from doing whatever it is that got you to where you are now. You need to learn to say no, and sometimes you have to say no to things you really want to do.(5) Never stop hunting
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(6) Believe you can
I’ve found that a belief that you can do something, is a required factor in actually being able to do it.(7) Progress wisely
Take direction from people who arrived at the destination you want to get to. Try not to take too much direction from people who aren’t where you want to go.(8) Don’t fear the bottom
(9) There’s never a perfect time to start
You will always be too busy and you will always have something else taking up your calendar. So no matter what you keep telling yourself, there will never be a perfect time, so you have no choice but to pick an imperfect one; how about now?(10) A quote from Geroge Elliot
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” However, despite its basic meaning, growth is actually rather complicated – after all, what it means to you could be different to board members. That’s precisely why business leaders should be careful they do not to start running before the company can walk. Stave Bartlett is the co-founder of Social Chain.Share this story