Alone

alone I felt isolated when I started my
business my friends all had corporate
jobs nobody in my family was an
entrepreneur the people around me would
listen to me but couldn’t give me any
real advice most of the time I was too
embarrassed to share anyway because it
wasn’t doing well when people asked
about how my business was doing I would
lie and say great and then quickly
change the topic I didn’t have a network
of people to call on who could really
help me I was alone shift I realized
that if I was going to build a great
business I’d need to work on my network
I needed to shift my thinking but I had
to start from the ground up I’d
literally had zero connections and I
went from a place of feeling totally on
my own to have an amazing group of
people who I can count on any time I
have a problem I took a while but today
I’m going to shoot the three things I
made all the difference and you can get
there to number one aspirational
entrepreneurs I had no contacts a call
on so I started learning from people I
respected that would never meet I looked
at people like Steve Jobs Oprah Winfrey
Richard Branson Bill Gates and how they
got started I looked at what they did
when they were in pure start-up mode and
learn from their success they were my
first mentors if I had a marketing
problem i would ask myself how would
steve jobs market this if i was in
negotiating a deal I would ask myself
how would Donald chump think bigger
their stories and early failures gave me
specific ideas to model and the
confidence to keep going mentors finding
aspirational mentors and learning from
their success is easy powerful and you
can do it today right now find out a
mentor is a lot more work especially if
you want the right one my first real
mentor was John he had built and sold
technology companies before
understanding how the game worked and
gave me great insights and knowledge
that I would have taken years to learn
on my own but how did I find John
as I said I had no connections so I did
the only thing I could think of I went
to my bank yep true story my bank I
didn’t even know anyone there but
figured they would talk to me since I
had an account I spoke with the manager
and told him I didn’t meet money well I
wasn’t sure if I needed money I just
wanted to grow this business and wasn’t
sure what to do next so much my
confidence start luckily he liked my
business idea he couldn’t give me money
but said I should meet this consultant
who might help I had my first lead to
expand my network the consultant had a
fancy downtown office and talked a big
game but he didn’t understand my product
so he brought in a friend of his who
also barely understood what I did so he
brought in a friend of his own John John
got what i did and became an immediate
help for me in my business he took me
places I would never have been able to
get on my own I owe a lot of my really
success to him even though the first
three people I spoke with couldn’t help
me and I was starting to feel like
nobody would get what I was trying to do
I kept at it and eventually found John
start reaching out even if you have
nobody to connect with if you keep at it
your network will grow and your mentors
will find you mastermind groups i also
created to mastermind groups to help
myself and other local entrepreneurs we
meet once a month to talk about our
businesses give each other ideas and
cover off the weaknesses of what you’re
not good at in your business some
members call it entrepreneurs anonymous
because it’s often just nice to be
around other entrepreneurs and know that
you’re not alone does the energy you get
by hanging around other business owners
that gives you motivation to do better
and to get to work you can look for an
existing group in your area I didn’t
find anything so I created my own there
are lots of different structures and
formats but the core function of these
kinds of groups is to support the
members and help everyone grow alone you
can’t do this alone if you try your idea
will die with you you’ll never realize
your potential
you need to leverage what other people
know to help you get to where you want
to be use aspirational entrepreneurs use
mentors use mastermind groups their
advice wisdom and encouragement will
make all the difference in the world to
helping you achieve your dreams I
promise you believe