Entrepreneurship
How I stayed as an Entrepreneur : – Cesar R. Espino
Were you told as you were growing up that you had to go to school, get a good education, get good grades, and land a good job? And were told to do a great job, move up the latter, stay in that job or industry forever, retire, and live happily ever after? Perhaps you were or were not told, I can tell you for a fact that as I was growing up this is exactly what I was told. It was not until after my high school years that I had learned that there was another option, one that I never knew about nor did I ever think I will pursuit, and that is the life of an entrepreneur.
If you are reading this, that means that you have chosen to take the leap of faith to become or became an entrepreneur, and I must commend you for taking that step as this does not come easy. For many, becoming an entrepreneur meant to be okay with being uncomfortable to one day be comfortable, means that if you are to stay in this space you must have a thick skin, be able to fall down time after time and get up and keep moving and doing it even if you do not necessarily see the desire results immediately.
For me as it is for many, the biggest thing was to decide and leave my “secure job”. Making this decision was not easy, yet it was and is the first step to entering a new space that often is unfamiliar.
“The choices and decisions we make today will impact the quality of life we have tomorrow.”
― Cesar R. Espino
My intention is to help you with your own journey of entrepreneurship through my own experience and the experiences of many entrepreneurs I have come across within networking events, joint ventures, and people who have come to my own podcast You Can Overcome Anything! Podcast Show on Apple Podcasts.
The minute I had decided to become an entrepreneur, I knew it was a commitment, a commitment in which it was a do or die type of situation, because there was no way I was going back, especially after quitting my job and not having a “secure job” to fall back on.
When I finally took this leap, I was scared because this is when the real work began, and while the business idea was real estate investing, I knew I had to also make other changes to my persona and how I handled myself throughout my life. I am glad I did, as this became of high importance down the line of my entrepreneurial journey. Even up to this date this self-development journey has kept me going and has helped me stay in business.
I want to share with you the things I had to do that helped me begin and faced the many challenges throughout my entrepreneurial journey. As I have stepped into entrepreneurship, I had the idea that all I had to worry about was to have a sound business idea and just focus on that idea. This has been shortened from reality, yes do not get me wrong as having a sound business idea is critical and it is one of the pillars to be a successful entrepreneur. However, this is a shortcoming if this is the only thing that you focus upon. Perhaps one of my biggest challenges was the idea that to become an entrepreneur, I just had to leave my 9-5 corporate job and solely focus on making money and growing financially. Well, this for sure is not the case, and living under this idea will sooner or later come to an end.
“If you are making money, you are doing it wrong. Stop making money and start earning money!”
― Cesar R. Espino
I learned that there are other critical pillars to this journey, and more critical to the success of reaching a level of satisfaction, growth, and stability. Some of the things that you must embrace to stay in business and continue to grow.
• Business strategy
• Become a servant
• A healthy mindset
• Network, network, network
• Continual Education
• Live a healthy lifestyle
I also like to refer to business strategy as strategy planning or action planning.
Napoleon Hill said it very eloquently, “Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.”
When looking at an action plan, there are several key factors to consider.
• The closer the more precise (create a clear vision).
• Think about it then put it out into the universe.
• Write it down.
• List Actions.
• Set a specific date.
• Break the actions into the smaller tasks (Chunk it down, list actions for each of the high-level actions, and ensure to add a completion date).
• Begin at once and act by executing your plan (take immediate action).
“What you believe to be true for you is true for you, so do not create any limitations, no matter how hard it can be.”
― Cesar R. Espino
The next thing to consider as an entrepreneur is to become a servant, and this can come in different forms. Yes, it is important to make profits and to focus on the business strategy, and this should not be just the focus, you need to be a servant.
“You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.” Zig Ziglar
What are some things you can do to be a servant?
• Volunteer time to help others achieve higher levels in their business career and or personal life.
• Give back to the community through philanthropy service.
• If you are offering a service, give away your service at a ridiculous discount and or offer a teaser as a free added value offer. This will allow you to engage with people, earn their trust, and ultimately offer your higher pricing services.
• As part of the business model, have, create, and provide a service to where the business model has a way to impact many in the world.
• Create win-win solutions, never a one-sided solution.
“If you are working for profits, you are doing it wrong. Work for purpose”
― Cesar R. Espino
Now, this next thing is something I really had to learn, and even to this date I am still working on its management, and that is having a healthy mindset. See, it does not matter how much you learn about your profession, how many lessons and tools you get, how much help you get from experts, if you do not have a healthy mindset and or exercise the mind, sooner or later you will break and you will allow your thoughts to take over you.
In my real estate mentoring program, the very first module I have with my students is working on the mind and understanding the power of the mind. We as human beings have on a daily average anywhere between 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day, of those 80% of them are negative, and 95% of them are repetitive from previous days. This means that if you are not working on your mind, you can only imagine how much negativity, garbage, and unwanted thoughts are going through your mind. Having mental health will either make you or break you.
Here are some of the habits I have incorporated in the last couple of years to help me keep a healthy mindset.
• I have literally cut off the TV, and or negative programming, I’ve cut out programs that do not serve me.
• I have eliminated listening to radio music (for the most part) 90% of my time spend on my car is listening to motivational audios, listening to audiobooks, listening to empowering podcasts like You Can Overcome Anything! Podcast Show.
• I do daily affirmations once I get up from bed and once before I go to sleep.
• I go out for walks/runs and listen to motivational content.
• I download thoughts and ideas from my head into my journal.
“It does not cost you any money to use the power of your mind! Don’t waste it…”
― Cesar R. Espino
Have you heard that saying that your Net-worth is based on your Network? I cannot stress this enough, you have to network, network, network. I did not see the benefits from this in the past, and In my own experience, I have found this particularly useful for my professional development and has even taught me other areas of interest I was not even aware I had possessed and or even knew I will explore.
• I have created JV’s (joint ventures) with other individuals who have similar interests.
• I have found capital to help me expand my business.
• I have learned new tactics at no cost to me to do things better in my field of interest.
• I have the opportunity to be around like-minded individuals or the so call average five, which only edifies me to do better and keep marching forward.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
― African Proverb
I highly recommend that you go out and focus on continual education. And to be clear I am not referring for you to go back to college and get a degree. Of course, only if your field of interest requires you to go back to traditional schools, such as a lawyer, accountant, or some sort of required certification to support your work.
The continual education I am referring to comes in different forms and flavors. Such as:
• Getting a mentor, someone that will help you get further in your journey.
• Reading books, those that will inspire you, give you business ideas, self-help books in your field of interest. Like my many books, some include my series of You Can Overcome Anything or the Series of Follow Our Leads. Can be found by going to Amazon.com: Cesar R Espino: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
• Watching YouTube trade content
• Listening to Podcasts.
“Everyone here can be super successful, no doubt about it, the challenge is that only a few are willing to keep going after failing and falling time after time..”
― Cesar R. Espino
And to bring all this into a full circle, you MUST live a healthy lifestyle. And this is one area that we always tend to forget, I know I did, especially when I was working for corporate America and at the same time, I was working my side business (those were some long hours). While doing this, I disregarded my health, and I was not only eating junk food, but I was also drinking my life away, I was partying, and I was plain and simple overweight.
I have decided to make a drastic change to my eating habits and my overall health. Let me put it to you this way, we have one vehicle that carries us through a journey, the vehicle being your body, and the journey is your life. If we do not take care of that vehicle, no matter how successful we might be, that journey can come to an end rather sooner than later. It can also bring so many problems throughout the journey.
My advice to you is that if you put into practice the few pillars I’ve talked to you about, your entrepreneurial journey will be that much easier and that much more fulfilling. Remember that it is not so much about the destination, is much more about enjoying the journey that will lead you to the destination.
And as you continue your journey, my last piece of advice and “My best relationship advice for you…Do not cheat on your future with your past.”
― Cesar R. Espino
