Hello! Welcome to the first entry in my Entrepreneur’s Diary.
The goal of this series is simple. I’ve noticed that it’s incredibly important to take a step back every so often to reflect on everything that has happened in my business, MindValley. It’s good for me to zoom out to get some perspective.
So, I’m actually going to turn these reflections into a diary, which I will share with you. Hopefully you’ll glean something from my insights and learnings. Perhaps I’ll even inspire you to pursue your dreams, as I’m doing. Make sure you share what you’re going through too. Learning is a two-way street!
Thoughts for this week…
A Bad Sales Day Doesn’t Equal A Bad Mood
In the past, my mood used to be completely contingent upon how well the business was doing. My wife could read how the company was doing based on my voice when I said “hello,” as I came through the door after work. While this may be understandable – I can almost feel the empathy from the other business owners out there – I’ve only recently become aware of just how damaging this is. I used to check the sales stats every single morning. If the sales looked good, I’d be happy. If the sales looked bad, I’d be negative and stressed. Not only was this hard on me, but also on the other people in my life, including my wife and my team.
It was only when I really learned about the importance of focusing on all the great things that are happening in the business, instead of the small nuisances (such as a bad sales day), that I realized how much this way of being had impacted me. In theory, of course, I knew to focus on the positive, but to actually LIVE IT, is a different experience. I realized my blue moods were not serving me in any way, shape or form.
I now have this unwavering belief that MindValley will have an incredible 2009. We have a lot of things going for us: we have a fantastic team comprised of 21 of the smartest, most creative young people from over 12 countries around the world; an inspiring vision; and we’re working on exciting projects and initiatives that will move the business forward by leaps and bounds. A bad sales day doesn’t matter.
We will absolutely still hunker down and try to fix things the moment we see the numbers slipping, but I have a choice: I can either do it with a positive attitude or a negative attitude. Again, it’s my choice. The last few weeks, I’ve felt like a different person. (Perhaps the yoga has been helping too – I started going to yoga regularly a few weeks ago). Anyway, even if we have a bad sales day, it’s not the end of the world.
Celebrate Every Small Victory, No Matter What
Everyone knows the global economic climate is not looking very upbeat right now. It’s all quite a challenge, especially for those of us in business for ourselves. For myself, I’m framing it as a chance to get creative and generate products and applications that will get us out of this panic spiral. This economic situation is not something that has happened to us. To a large degree, it’s something we’re doing to ourselves. And the mainstream media isn’t helping here.
In MindValley, to keep things positive, we ensure we celebrate all our victories every week. When we have our weekly team meetings, we even have a weekly report called the “Awesomeness Report” that celebrates the highlights of the week, which my business partner Vishen came up with.
There were a few weeks in there where I didn’t feel like celebrating because revenues and profits were down, but I’ve learned that no matter what happens, it’s very important to keep celebrating the small victories. If you don’t take the time out to celebrate the small victories along the way, then it is A LOT harder to take that next big step towards success. And it is even harder to motivate a team, as a leader, if you don’t make celebration a part of your company routine. T. Harv Eker says it’s incredibly important to celebrate your accomplishments, so we’ve made it a part of our company DNA, and it seems to being working splendidly.
And speaking of celebration, our company has created a new website application that will allow anyone to write down and share their gratitude. MindValley’s goal is to turn this gratitude website into “The Happiest Place on The Internet,” but more about that later…
FinerMinds is hosted by 
My husband just lost his job, with mixed feelings. This clearly was not the boss for him but being fired, when he was very qualified and good at the job, was an ego blow.
So we are both sending out resumes and I am pursuing work online as well.
But my comment is this: I have a really good attitude. I am thankful for having a roof over my head today and for my health and the health of my family.
I can see my attitude rubs off on my husband. Friends and family call and say “How’s he doing?” and I have to say that both of us are optimistic about the future.
Obtaining capital in this market is easier said than done. Banks are going belly up, lenders are increasingly making it more difficult to obtain capital. If you have an existing business, the easiest way to increase your operating capital isn’t to go get more loans. Business finance should be your last option because Commercial banks are lending, but are very picky.
Dan from http:/jumplanet.com the Get a Business Loan site
I write on the gratitude-blog almost everyday! There where day’s I felt down and not in the mood for writing or thinking about something to be grateful for. Couldn’t feel it, I thought. Because I got ‘reminders’ of the gratitude-blog I felt stimulated to feel my gratefulness and write it/them down. It is a daily reminder now which makes me focus on the grateful things that happen in my life every day. Gratitude is (it took/takes practice) changing myself and my life into more and more gratefulness. Not that I didn’t ‘know’ the importance of gratitude before. I practice it more and more. And on the days I feel not so grateful. I didn’t want to feel down anymore so I made a decision and the gratitude-log helps me to stay focused!
Thank you!
In business or not looking at the things which went well for the day, week, minute or year(s) is rising life to well.
In gratitude, anita.
An “Attitude of gratitude” is invaluable, even more so today than ever. It is so easy to sink into depression with all the bad news, but there is so much in life to be grateful for. I have had to live as a bag lady for the last month and a half, and although it has been frustrating, stressful and at times a little frightening, I have found blessings and angels in some unexpected places. I know this too shall pass and I will be the stronger for it.
How great would it be to be happy all the time!
Most of my life has been happy and I am truly grateful for that. Hearing recent messages of world doom and economic disaster can create a temporary state of sadness if you are not willing to change your thinking and look around you. See for yourself the beautiful world we live in. Take in a sunrise or quiet evening just before sunset and really look at the world. Not the people. Having all of the necessities makes me realize that I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am.
This is the first time that I have reviewed your site. Thank you. Yes, it is a choice and so very important to keep one’s sites set high and choose a healthy attitude vs. a negative attitude.
My goodness, yes, life does bring forth some change doesn’t it? And that too, is a choice. It is by our thinking, our mind, that brings forth our future and what we create it to be.
Recession? Only if we create one for ourselves.
I am involved with an EXCEPTIONAL group of individuals that I am currently working with, as well as creating and developing my own exceptional TEAM of people to help to continue to create the winners in us ALL!
IF *YOU* or *someone you know* are seeking A HIGHER SENSE OF SELF; to include High Personal Values, Honesty, Loyalty, Respect, Dependability and Absolute Integrity and you’d like to join me and/or you have an interest or a curiosity, feel free to review my website and send me an e-mail to: Karen@DrinkLIveShare.com and I am happy to work with you to help you to create YOUR Why and YOUR Dreams to assist and support you, ALL THE WAY, in gaining your own financial freedom.
We will rise, together to the TOP! Thank you,
K