Letter No. 25 [the entrepreneur mindset]
Dear Friend,
I actually wrote another letter to you, the second half to "creating your website," but then something happened on Squarespace and I lost it all, so now I’m going to write something else that’s been on my mind and I’ll get back to the series next week. :)
I’ve been thinking a lot about this business of being an entrepreneur, and feeling discouraged, honestly. I know it takes a long time, and you hear that from EVERYONE, but it’s taking a LONG TIME. Ha! And here I am, repeating what everyone else is saying. It just feels so long when you’re not seeing any results, or very tiny results, and I’ve been letting that get to me. I’ve been asking myself, “What are you doing?” and TELLING myself, “What you’re doing doesn’t really matter. No one is seeing it.”
Well, that’s not true, and I know it’s not. It often feels that way, but if I can reach one person, I’m doing something, and you can too.
A friend (another friend…) recently shared a video with me of Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, speaking about financial knowledge, freedom, and the entrepreneurial mindset, and I filled an entire note-card with, you guessed it, notes, just from that short clip, so I wanted to share some of my findings with you because they were very encouraging (these are all roughly paraphrased—the video is below if you’d like to watch it too!):
-Schools don’t teach you about money because they’re teaching you how to be an employee. An employee doesn’t have to think or know about money because their company or the government takes care of them.
-you become what you say, so saying, “I can’t do it, I don’t have time,” will make that come true. The opposite of that could be, “How can I do that? What would I have to do to make that happen?” It’s about asking questions instead of making statements.
-find your game—music, art, writing, photography, pottery—whatever—find what suits you best and become really good at it.
-it’s all about your fundamental attitude. Class is taught in families, and the school system will never teach you about money, so find real teachers (people who practice their skill every single day) and learn from them.
Here’s the video, posted by motivationhub and well worth the ten minutes!
I just wanted to finish by saying to you and myself: YOU’RE DOING IT. You’ve started your business. You love what you’re doing and you’re working for yourself; you have wonderful things to share with the world, things that only you can share. And eventually, little by little, people will find you and become loyal to you. Look at the steps you’ve taken to get where you are right now—you’ve come this far, you’re going to be fine. More than fine, actually. This is really happening, so don’t get discouraged. You’re an entrepreneur!
Your friend,
Tara