7 Essential Steps to Leap into Entrepreneurship

Starting a business can be a scary thing. You give up the stability (albeit perceived) of a steady income with benefits. You put your career on hold. You sacrifice significant time and energy for the first several years just to get up to your former corporate salary. You enter a risky area where most people fail within five years.

So the real question should be, “Is it worth it?”

I am here to say yes! Do you really want your life time legacy to be ‘Working for someone else = building someone else’s assets’? Let’s start with the why you need to make it happen.

THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS NEEDED TO BE A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR

Being an entrepreneur is no joke… especially if you’re going to be successful at it. Yes, you may be able to glide through a make a little bit of money, but if you want to make it big, it takes discipline.

Your thoughts and actions are going to need to guide you in the direction you want to go, this is why it’s so important to hang around the right people and keep a positive attitude. Commit to yourself right not to be a successful entrepreneur, and then back it up with action.

9 Signs You Are Headed Straight For Success

As much as we all desire success, when do we know we are getting there? What are the yardsticks we can use to measure our direction and determine that we are not simply average anymore.

The truth is that you need to start paying attention to certain signs to be clear about where you are now, and where you should be. When success starts knocking on your door, a lot of visitors start coming in.

Here are 9 signs you’re headed towards success:

A bad decision is better than no decision

As the saying goes: “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Far too many great ideas have fallen flat or lost momentum, because the options that were open disappeared during the decision making process.

Almost all entrepreneurs will acknowledge that success in business comes from timing. So, when you get an opportunity, you've got to go for it wholeheartedly, not wait in the wings for some imaginary perfect time to materialise.

Why Christopher Columbus was the preeminent entrepreneur

For everyone giving European entrepreneurs a hard time, consider this: Christopher Columbus created a model for the modern entrepreneur to follow.

Think about it.

Why True Entrepreneurs View Setbacks As Opportunities

Experiencing success as an entrepreneur is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world. Once you and your team have been directly responsible for building something that provides value to customers and stakeholders alike, you want to stay in that place forever. And that's understandable.

However, anyone who has ever started his or her own company knows that setbacks will inevitably happen. Here’s why you shouldn’t let those stumbles block your path to getting things back on track for the continued prosperity of your business.

Associate with people you want to be like

I have based my life on surrounding myself with people better than me. I have always looked up to my parents and siblings, and wanted to spend as much time around them as possible, learning from them and laughing with them. The same goes for my wife, children, grandchildren and family. The principle also applies in the working world.

The Books Every Startup CEO Should Read

Since I’m always talking about the books I’ve read, I often get asked for book recommendations, especially by fellow Startup founders.

This morning Nick Rellas the CEO of Drizly asked me for a list of must-readbooks, so I quickly put together this list.

I think every Startup CEO & Founder would benefit from reading the books on this list.

Sorted by books I’ve re-read the most:

BEING AN ENTREPRENEUR TAKES THESE FIVE THINGS

Being an entrepreneur is a no nonsense gig, especially if you’re looking to make a lot of money.

If you think you’re going to be a slacker and do well, don’t bother, because you’re not… but if you’re willing to put the time in, you can really live an incredible life.

So here’s what it takes…

7 QUICK WAYS TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE ENTREPRENEUR

If you want to become the ultimate entrepreneur, follow the below seven simple steps, and be sure to practice them in all your affairs moving forward. None of the steps are that difficult, you just need to learn to embody them in everything that you do.

Whether you’ve started your own company already, or you’re an entrepreneur at heart but are still working at an enterprise level corporation, it really doesn’t matter… what matters most is that you’re starting to take steps to better yourself.

Why succesful entrepreneurs live in the present

This article is part of DBA, a series on Mashable about running a business that features insights from leaders in entrepreneurship, venture capital and management.

The journey matters as much as the destination.

Well-intentioned people like to drop this pearl of wisdom on entrepreneurs who are single-minded in their determination to reach their goals. But the adage doesn't sit well with destination-oriented people. In business, partnerships or parenthood, they like to know where they’re going and how they're getting there. The rest is just scenery, right?

Not true.

9 Entrepreneur Habits That Lead to Long-Term Success

Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle that requires staying power, because starting a new business is a long-term process with many tough challenges. As an angel investor, I look diligently for signs that an aspiring startup founder has what it takes to thrive and prosper for the long haul ahead. Passion and vision are necessary, but not sufficient, to really change the world.

Many of the best-known entrepreneurs who achieved long-term successes, including Howard Schultz (Starbucks) and Steve Jobs (Apple), shared a common set of attributes and habits, including the following:

La llave de la creatividad

Un día de 1855 el pequeño Thomas, de apenas ocho años, regresó a su casa llorando y descorazonado. Entre sollozos le contó a su madre que su maestro le había dicho en la escuela que era un alumno “estéril e improductivo”. Veintidós años después el alumno estéril patentaba el fonógrafo y tres años más tarde fundaba General Electric.

Su apellido era Edison y, aunque suene extraño, la razón de que haya alcanzado el éxito fue probablemente ese día que llegó a casa llorando.

El propio Edison contaría años después que su madre reaccionó a su historia llevando al niño de vuelta a la escuela donde enfrentó al profesor. Hecha una furia le dijo que no tenía idea de lo que estaba diciendo.

What My Three Years At Netflix Taught Me About Scaling A Startup

Ariel Tseitlin began working on Netflix's cloud platform in 2011. Here's what it taught him about culture and high-speed innovation.

I joined Netflix at the beginning of 2011, just as the company was making the transition from operating in the data center to the public cloud. My job was to help build out Netflix's cloud platform and manage streaming operations. It was an incredible three-year experience seeing the company scale its people, culture, and technology.

In my life since then as an investor, I still apply what I learned in my time at Netflix to companies big and small. These lessons I picked up there might not save your life, but they might save your business.

A CFO's Perspective on Scaling Startup Growth

By David Stack

As the chief financial officer of a startup, driving continual growth is a critical component of the job. In addition to managing accounting, finance and other areas, focusing on scale is just as important. One of my early mentors said it best when he asked, “If you don’t think about scale, who will?”

From optimizing your resources to figuring out how to grow revenue while keeping operating costs low, scale is something that any entrepreneur must carefully consider while launching and growing a startup. As a CFO, a big part of my role is helping to guide the constant questions that arise when thinking about scale. Here are five factors to keep in mind as you embark upon scaling your business into the best version it can be.

Why Talent-Centric Entrepreneurs Should Treat Their Business Like a Fashion House

We are all endowed with unique talents. Some of us are lucky enough to helm businesses that rely on these gifts and abilities. If you’re a solopreneur or a small business owner with a company that owes its success, largely, to your personal talent or skillset, consider modeling your business like a fashion house.

What does that mean? Well, imagine Diane Von Furstenburg or Tom Ford or Valentino. Their brands exist to nurture the extraordinary talent of one individual -- the visionary, the designer, the creative force. Without these creative titans, their companies would not exist. Therefore, their businesses are structured entirely and necessarily around them.

7 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Invest in Themselves

Startup entrepreneurs often go it alone or almost alone, serving every function in their new companies. They are the idea people, the passionate leaders, the team builders, engineers, marketing experts, logistics officers, bookkeepers and strategists all in one.

The reality is that often this phase is necessary. That means that one of the most challenging things for the startup-minded to do is to keep investing, keep building their own personal skills and abilities. Time and focus-wise, it’s a monumental challenge. Most entrepreneurs skip the personal investments because those investments seem disconnected from their businesses and products. If an entrepreneur has an extra hour, for example, many prefer to invest in their company over investing in themselves.

The problem with that approach is that most entrepreneurs are their brands and products.

14 Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Start Out in Sales

A surprising number of entrepreneurs I've met over the years got their first taste of business while working in Sales. Here's why, based on some observations from Doug Camplejohn, the CEO of the sales technology vendor Fliptop.

1. You'll gain business expertise.
As you work with customers, you'll gain an intimate familiarity with their most critical business challenges and how they measure success.

This is useful because you'll inevitably find areas where a startup could add value and thereby make money.

2. You'll gain technical expertise.
As you help your customers, you'll learn about your product and product category and how your own industry works.

25 Inspirational Startup Quotes

Whether you need motivation to transform that idea of yours into a functioning business or just need a little boost when you're down in the dumps, it's never a bad idea to seek wisdom from bright and successful minds who've experienced it all before. Fortunately, from Steve Jobs to Thomas Edison to Richard Branson, there's no shortage of sources to turn to when you need it most.

So if you're looking for serious inspiration to combat the daily struggles of startup life, here are 25 uplifting quotes to get you through.

1. "Diligence is the mother of good luck."--Benjamin Franklin

2. "Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." --Steve Jobs, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Apple

3. "Whether you think you can, or think you can't--you're right."--Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company

4. "Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you."--Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

The Two Traits Every Entrepreneur Needs

What are the most important attributes you need if you want to successfully launch a new business?

Narrowing it down to just a handful of characteristics and behaviors is difficult — there are so many one needs to succeed as an entrepreneur.

But if I had to choose just two, the ones that nearly every successful entrepreneur I’ve encountered has exemplified, I’d pick focus and tenacity.

I learned the importance and challenge of focus early, when I served as CEO of a startup called Intralinks. The company makes digital workspaces for large financial transactions. When I took over for the founders, it had $3 million in annual revenues and was losing $18 million a year. At that point it had seven different products, and it was on the verge of going out of business.

The lack of focus was one reason why.