The Entrepreneurial Questions

1. What do I have the resources, ability, interest and contacts to do?

2. Do I have the necessary commitment needed to succeed in a business undertaking?

3. Am I prepared to work extremely hard, to devote long hours of labour to my business?

 4. Do I have the mental stamina and concentration to meet the demands my project will impose on me?

5. Do I accept new ideas easily? Do I treat other people with respect? Am I able to make decisions right away?

6. How do I deal with problem solving: Am I prepared to spend time analyzing a problem and find a solution? Or am I the type who just closes his eyes and hope for the best?

7. Am I ready to commit to the long term, knowing that a company’s success is never an overnight miracle?

8. What back-up resources do I have? Will my family members or friends invest in my company or tide me over during a rough patch?

9. Am I good at concentrating on details?

10. Am I ready to sit down and write a careful analysis of my business prospects?

11. Am I by nature an optimist? Knowing that mistakes and setbacks are bound to occur, am I able to learn from my mistakes without getting derailed or discouraged?

Wrong Concepts Of Success

• Having money, riches and wealth
• Having many properties and assets
• Being popular and in the news at all times
• Having fleet of cars
• Having many children
• Marrying many wives
• Having many admirers
• Being a public figure
• Being the envy of everyone around etc

What Is The Character Of Success?

Success is fulfilling an identified personal life purpose with:

• The fear of God
• Integrity
• Sound Ethical Values
• A Sense of Mission
• Compassion
• Character

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure. - Jim Rohn

If you develop the habits of success, you will make success a habit. - Michael E. Angier

The common denominator of success lies in forming the habit of doing things that failure don’t like to do. - Albert Gray

About Ideas

No one can replicate your original idea as uniquely as you, because a lot of intangible personal mix goes into the execution of ideas that the other person cannot grasp. In most cases, the idea thief will struggle to express it. It's only in rare cases that s/he would execute it better than you; and s/he must be a super intelligent person to do that.

So, don't just sit and bemoan the theft of your idea, get up and pursue it. And let's believe your personal mix would prove superior to your counterparts in process, execution and package.

To your success!

- Babatunde Oladele

FEAR IS UNIVERSAL: EXAMPLES OF HISTORICAL FIGURES WITH FEARS

We all have fears. 9 out of 10 people are terrified by the thought of speaking before groups. Some don’t like insects. Others fear heights, deep water, financial problems, aging, or loneliness. 

• Julius Caesar, a powerful military general and Roman emperor, feared thunder. 
• Peter the Great, the czar of Russia and an imposing figure at six five feet tall, was afraid of bridges. He crossed them only when there was no other alternative, and when he did, he trembled and cried like a child. 
• Dr. Samuel Johnson, a British writer and literary critic, had a phobia about entering a room with any foot other than his left foot. Anytime he accidentally entered a room wrong-footed, he backed out and entered again with his right foot. He took wanting to put his best foot forward to a ridiculous extreme!

Quotes On Fear

Nothing is terrible except for fear itself. - Sir Francis Bacon

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. - J.F. Kennedy

The bottom line is that if you can overcome your fear, you can break the cycle and live to see the death of your ignorance and the birth of your success. Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed. - Michael Pritchard

Fear causes people to draw back from situations; it brings on mediocrity; it dulls creativity; it sets one up to be a loser in life. - Fran Tarkenton

Fear is interest paid on a debt you may not owe. - John Maxwell

As long as I continue to stretch my capabilities, as long as I continue to take risks in making my dreams come true, I am going to experience fear. - Dr. Susan Jeffries

The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire. - Cus D’Amato (Professional boxing manager)

The irony is that the successful person who keeps growing, taking risks, and moving forward feels the same feelings of fear as the one who allows fear to stop him. The difference comes because one doesn’t let fear dominate him while the other does. - John Maxwell

To take the plunge, to start your own company, to shed the comforts of the corporate world, takes guts… It also takes more than a bold decision. - Peter Krass

Ignorance is bliss. If an entrepreneur knew all the pitfalls he might stumble upon, he’d never get started. - Warren Avis

I discovered the secret of success: Plunge into the uncomfortable; push… beyond your fears and your sense of limitations. And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since, overcoming my discomfort as I go along. - Barry Diller

The largest obstacle between you and your goal is a lack of total commitment. Often we use phrases like, “I’ll try’, “I guess I can”, “I hope I can”. But commitment is expressed in two words: I WILL. - Barry Diller

Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. - John McCain

Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody. - Longfellow

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:6-7

The Fear Factor In Life

ANTIDOTES
Dream: Your dream is one of the most effective antidotes for fear. It can fuel the flames of desire within you until you are willing to confront and overcome your fear. Your dream can help you go where you are afraid to go and do what you are afraid to do. Your dream can provide the spark that will turn your fear to fire.

Action: Action is the only antidote for fear. Act in spite of fear, and the death of fear is certain. When it comes to dealing with fear, you have 3 choices:

1. Try to avoid it altogether. But that means staying away from every known or potential fear-producing person, place thing, or situation.

2. Hope that it will go away. But that’s like hoping for a fairy godmother to rescue you.

3. Face it and overcome it Discover the foundation of fear. Most of the fears we face every day are not based on facts. They are generated by our feelings. For example, a study conducted by the University of Michigan showed the following: 

• 60 percent of our fears are totally unwarranted; they never come to pass 
• 20 percent of our fears are focused on our past, which is completely out of our control 
• 10 percent of our fears are based on things so petty that they make no difference in our lives 
• Of the remaining 10 percent, only 4 to 5 percent could be considered justifiable.

These statistics show that any time or energy you give to fear is totally wasted and counterproductive 95 percent of the time.