Brian Chernett
Over time, I given a lot of thought as to whether positive action or beliefs come first – especially since writing my book, The Entrepreneur Within. If you want to achieve, you cannot do so unless you take positive action for change. However, to take the right actions requires belief. As qualities for Entrepreneurs, the ability to take positive action and having supportive beliefs are interdependent.
There are many things that stop us taking action. We may lack the motivation, we may be unsure of the direction to take or it may simply have been built into our culture – into the beliefs that were installed and instilled as we grew up and took our first steps in business. For some people, these may never be overcome. If, however, you want to be an entrepreneur, they have to be.
Counteracting these blocks may need a new set of beliefs that allow you to stop telling negative stories about your skills, abilities and knowledge. You will need to approach action in a positive frame of mind, and be prepared to trust yourself. This may involve rewriting the past or simply ditching parts of it as useless to the journey at hand.
What is the journey? Like a railway journey, it involves a starting point and a destination and a perception of movement and progress between them. If your journey is a long one (and building a business is likely to be a long journey), there may need to be intermediate stations and maybe changes of service in order to reach your destination. Finally, you will need to know that the destination is the right one and that what awaits you there is aligned with your purpose and beliefs.
The railway journey is your business journey and the destination is the ultimate goal for the business – maybe your exit from it. The intermediate stop and train changes represent sub goals that can be achieved safe in the knowledge that they will be congruent with the final destination.
I encourage people to set up to 5 goals in each of the following categories, Business; Personal and Charitable. To ensure those goals are in alignment with your vision and that they are challenging yet achievable, use the SMART approach. In this approach, each goal will be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based. The more you work on each aspect of the goal, especially on being realistic and setting target dates for each goal, the more you will begin to develop a winning habit of making and delivering goals.
Goals are useful as an internal device for motivating yourself, but they are so much more powerful when shared. Once you have set goals, tell people about them. You will be surprised how people will react once they know what your goals are and how they will often help you, how they will want you to succeed.
Now to our beliefs. Our thoughts become beliefs, beliefs become actions and actions become habits. So to change the outcomes you receive, consider changing different thoughts to generate new, better habits. If your goals are aligned with your beliefs, you will make more right decisions and hence make more progress.
Switching our thoughts from negative to positive can be as simple as recognising the negative thought, challenging it and turning it into a positive thought. Practising this will turn it into a habit, until, eventually, you think the positive thought first. If your beliefs are limiting you, unlimit them.
Qualities such as determination, passion and courage come from beliefs and are sustained by goals which are ‘well formed’, that is, they take you to a destination that is aligned to your core values and, where possible, to the values of those around you.
Entrepreneurs need drive to succeed in a competitive market. Drive comes when your beliefs meet well formed goals and you have enough fitness (mental and physical) to make them happen. Once you know your destination, you can apply energy to your purpose and direction. Being fit to run a business is not about running marathons or climbing Everest (though both have been done by entrepreneurs) but about having sufficient fitness so that you can make clear-headed decisions and be able to carry them through. Running a business, especially in the early stages, involves the focused application of much energy and determination. It is where action, beliefs and fitness come together to make things happen.
Brian Chernett is founder of The Academy for Chief Executives (ACE) – He has 43 years’ experience as managing director of private and public companies, including subsidiaries of Booker Bros McConnell, the Landmark Group, and several other major companies. Find out more at www.chiefexecutive.com.
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