10 things I learned in my journey as an entrepreneur

1) Self-taught: No book will ever teach you how to become an entrepreneur, because you must do it yourself. A book can help and guide you, but it will only make suggestions. You must figure it out for yourself, through all of your trials and tribulations, learning what works and what doesn't. 

2) You will get your fingers burned: To grow, you must be willing to take risks and the only way to grow is to get hurt now and then. People are different and individuals want and need different solutions. The solution that works for one person may not work for another person, This means that the people you'll be working with may not appreciate your hard work even if you're giving them your best service. It helps to determine who the best people to work with are and whom you should avoid.

3) Surround yourself with motivational people: You should surround yourself with motivating people who will give you encouragement when you are down and who can help you through challenging times and who will give you a pat on the back when times are good. Find yourself a mentor. 

4) Work hard for yourself: Nobody is going to do it for you, so if you think, Oh yeah, I can just pay someone to build my business, it's not going to work. You are the only one who will build a business that will work hard for you.

5) Delegations: Delegation is important in business. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but you have to go through the learning curve in order to see and meet the right people to whom you can delegate.

6) Have determination and courage to choose your path: In business, there are ups and downs, and when you're down, you might consider just packing everything up and moving on to something else. People used to call and offer me jobs in the first few years of my business. I was on the fence, do I jump ship? But now that 5.5 years of hard work have passed, no one can take this from me. It's critical to have this mindset from the beginning, even if it's difficult because you must be completely committed.

7) Diversification: Despite the fact that you may be focused on very specific goals or industry, you should be able to diversify, especially when the market trends changes. You need to have some diversification that can hold you through those times, especially as a consultant.

8) Have conversations: You must get on the phone and have conversations with people. Unless you have conversations with people, nothing will happen. The critical thing is to pick up the phone, find the right people to speak to, and have conversations. Conversations will not go too well at first, but eventually, you will learn to build up the right rapport with the right kind of people.

9) Keep patience: Nothing happens overnight, and as they say, overnight success was ten years in the making. I realized that every single stage is a building block and you will get there eventually. Also, make sure that you have a road map and you document everything so that you can see where you're going and if things change, you can modify your plans to incorporate those changes.

10) Enjoy the journey: The sine wave is the key to life, contractions are there to help you get to the next level.