Professional Work Ethic & Discipline
“You don’t work, you don’t eat.” used to be the hard, unforgiving rule for those who farmed. It is still true today for entrepreneurs in the throes of establishing their enterprises.
The biggest attraction to entrepreneurship is strangely not money. If your lifestyle and satisfaction requirements are modest, it can be paid for quite easily with a suitable and stable 9-5. Want more and need more? You can appeal for a raise, seek a promotion, another company or increase your education and skill sets with an investment out of your pocket. However, the final decision to change your circumstances will rest in the hands of someone else. To get what you need, you will have to perform on someone else’s terms. This does not sit well with everyone, especially in many cases where people are treated unfairly in the bargaining process. You could wage a futile quarrel with the company with which you own nothing. You can resign and hopefully find a more fair and just company to work for or you take matters into your own hands.
The decision to take matters into your own hands is in essence your declaration of independence. Just like this nation had to, you can expect to engage in a revolutionary war in your own life in order to truly become your own boss and be able to write your own paycheck. As reminded, most who wage this warfare are defeated and return in short order to looking for a boss in someone else.
Having the freedom to work as much or as little as you choose to is not a license to not work at all or take it up with the discretion of leisure or when it is convenient. If you are going to be your own boss, be a boss. You will have to develop your will to require yourself to often do what is challenging, exhausting, uncomfortable and inconvenient. Can you ride your own back to bring out the richness that is buried with your immense potential? This will is called discipline and you will suffer defeat without it. You can bet on it.
Just like the upper body strength it takes to master a pull up, the same is true for the discipline needed to be a boss. Everyone has a lazy and scared part of themselves that for some uncanny reason is habitually and addictively drawn to activities that do not produce riches, but instead drains money, time, health and energy even though it makes us feel so good. If you want to develop the discipline muscle of a boss, you have got to be able to master the habit of independently pulling yourself to do what is going to make you money. For some, that muscle has got to be trained.
You may have some rudiments of these muscles in place if your are already a good employee. You show up for work on time every day. You get get your work done in an efficient manner and your meet or exceed quality expectations without pressure from management. That’s professional work ethic when you do all of this without complaint because you don’t believe in getting something for nothing. If you can be honest with yourself that you are falling short of this standard, this is where your training can begin. You are not ready to be your own boss if you would not hire someone just like you.
The second thing you do can do in addition to striving to be a better employee as matter of habit is to surround yourself with people who have stronger boss muscles than you and strive to keep up with them. These people tend to be athletes, military personnel and other seasoned entrepreneurs who are hungry for success. Next, distance yourself from slackers if you can not yet overcome their influences. These are those who live by excuses. They influence you or attempt to influence you to engage in their go-nowhere, dead-end activities that drain money, time, health and energy which are your most vital resources with no return on investment. You can ask them or yourself, “Is this going to make me money?” “Is this going to save me time?” “Will this be good for my health?” “Will this inspire me?” Celebrate when it is time to celebrate, but work when it is time to work so that you will have more to celebrate.
Many of the trials of the roaring 20s is in overindulging in the freedoms of being an adult and neglecting the responsibilities which comes along with those freedoms. You will have to get yourself up for work and pay your own bills to truly be grown. The same is true if you really want to be a boss. Not only that, the disciplines you can develop from being a good employee will need to be kicked up a notch to succeed as an entrepreneur. You may go from working 40 hours a week to sometimes 60, 70 or 80 hours a week. This is why it will be important to love what you do. When you love your work, you will find the energy, focus and passion to max out as it may be required of you to succeed in the beginning.
Start with something as simple as training the habit of commitment. “Let your yes be yes and no be no. Anything more is from the evil one.” -Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 5:37) After you have given your word, let it then be so, no ifs ands or buts. “You can make excuses and you can make money, but you can’t make both.” -Ziad K. Abdelnour The market does not buy excuses, only results. Write that down and put that on a wall somewhere.
The Baldwin Business Institute is another avenue by which you can begin training your professional work ethic and discipline. Much of the investment of $300 to join our mastermind class is to ensure that you take the material seriously and apply it so that your investment will be far greater by boosting the survival chances of your business idea from 4% to 60% or more if your discipline muscles increase. While planning, you will get to practice having regular work to complete directly in the development of your business idea which will pay off in the future. Because we will build together, you will benefit from having a support and accountability team. Until you have the muscle strength to pull yourself, having someone beside you and front of you to be accountable to can be a crucial element to your development. As one of your instructors, you will find me to be an encourager. I don’t beat people up. Consequences will do that if you think that you can cheat the rules of business. However, know from the outset that I do not hear excuses of any kind. When it comes to results, expect me to be as unforgiving as the customers of your market. You will have the opportunity to get ready for them through me and my partner, Steven T. Austin who will be your other instructor. It is in this that you will learn the crucial value of customer service. Great customer service is the result of professional work ethic and discipline. This is the reason the work is spread out over 12 weeks to to give you sufficient time to build your muscles. Think of it as a your runway before you take flight on your own.
Ready to get it?! Register now. www.thebaldwinbusinessinstitute.eventbrite.com
Summer class starts June 24th.
Denzel Washington: See Ya At Work!
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