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Nothing like imagining yourself on a beautiful white sandy island with palm trees as tall as sky scrappers. Oh and that beautiful blue, turquoise water surrounding you as you lay on the sands like nap mats, and bask in the sunlight. Sounds wonderful, right?! Well lets just keep that as a goal for your vacation celebration when you've reached your first financial goal (whatever that maybe). But lets now apply it to business.
One of the biggest mistakes I've made when I was pursing my entrepreneurship journey was being standoffish. I'd been in the company of some questionable people that really put a bad taste in my mouth when it came to doing business with people. So I decided that I was better of just sticking with myself and the people I knew. I went into protection mode with myself, which is natural when you've been hurt or damaged. However, I didn't heal and overcome so I allowed myself to become bitter and that doesn't work in business. Remember, you can't take it personal, even though sometimes you will, but try to pull yourself out of it. Tell yourself this isn't personal, it's just business.
When you make statements like "I'm going to only work with people who work with me", "I support those who support me" and "I don't like working with other people"; it just further makes your circle smaller and smaller. Which effects your reach and effects your business to reaching more and more people. You never want to isolate yourself where you've built and island and now you're the only one on it. Yeah, it may be peaceful and pleasant at first but what happens when you need resources that you don't have? Now you may not be perceived as someone people want to do business with because you seem standoffish and uninviting. Maybe even an opportunists because you're only engaging because you now need something or someone.
You always want to be open to opportunities because you never know where those doors open to and where it can possibly lead you. When you've dealt with some bad business relationships don't tuck your tail and have a pity party. We don't have time for that because we're trying to build this Fortune 500 business. Honor your feelings, get to the root and strategize on how to move forward. What I've learned to do is take every experience as a learning lesson. I take what I need from that experience and leave what I don't. If my mistake was taking someone for their word and they let me down, that means the lesson to learn is look closely before I leap and toss the rest to the wind.
Like anything else, you need a village. A support system because being an entrepreneur isn't light work. And in return, make sure you pay it forward and be apart of someone else's support village. Remember you can't do business without people. I know the trendy mindset is being "self made" but not in the sense of doing all by yourself. It's honestly unrealistic. Don't be motivated by saying you don't need anyone and you can do it alone. Eventually you're going to burn yourself out. Also remember you still have to live and enjoy life.