Ryan Lim

4 Ways to Be a More Collaborative Leader

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There are two types of leadership—“me” and “we.” Where do you fall? Do you like your office door closed, no distractions allowed? Or do you prefer your door open, interruptions welcome?

Beware that by tucking yourself away in the corner office, you are isolating yourself… and successful leadership requires collaboration, the opposite of isolation. So if you’re about to lock the door behind you, think instead about leaving it open, literally and figuratively—shift from that detrimental “me” space to the more effective “we” space.

Effectively connecting with your team is more than paying lip service or showing your face on your way in or out of the building. Working in a truly collaborative way means understanding why you need to be a part of your team, rather than being apart from it.

If you are used to operating from a place of “This is my idea, my project, outcome, my result and my credit,” it can be incredibly difficult to switch your mindset. But the business landscape has, and will, continue to change at a rapid rate—and you are only one person. You would need to be superhuman to be able to grasp every aspect of what is necessary to survive. Your team is absolutely essential to continuing success. As a team, you have the complete skillset to turn average work into expert work—to turn threats into opportunities.

Try taking these small steps to make the transition:

 

1. Fix the working environment.

Don’t set yourself up in a cushy corner office with closed walls. Studies have shown that working within a collaborative physical environment actually improves team engagement and drives results. Why? Because collaborative workspaces engender a sense of belonging and a feeling that nobody is excluded from the big decisions that will affect the whole team.

(This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a need for thoughtful “outspaces,” which allow for privacy and quiet and the chance to create and reflect.)

 

2. Be vulnerable.

Allowing yourself to show weakness in front of your team is not weak—it is strong. It can and will lead to reconnection.

If you are able to admit when you have made a less-than-stellar decision or that you are having trouble reaching a successful solution to a problem and need assistance, you will create trust. Opening up gives your team an assumed “permission” to speak up and admit if they need assistance, too. It also opens the opportunity for them to showcase skills you might not have recognized or acknowledged in the past.

 

3. Give credit where it’s due.

Too often, it is easy for a leader to stand solo in the spotlight, leaving the team in the shadows. That attitude creates an internal disconnect—and therefore a lack of trust and an unwillingness to give 100 percent to future projects.

Make sure that you are adequately acknowledging when your team members are the ones responsible for a result, whether that is an idea or a product. When someone adds value, it is essential to acknowledge that contribution—and to do it publicly.

 

4. Be brave.

Be willing to take risks for the benefit of your team—even if they may not necessarily benefit you in the short-term. Your team will see not just a leader but someone who has their collective interests at heart.

This requires a degree of business bravery. Think about this: How does your team currently view you? As someone who stands up for their best interests, or as someone who pushes everyone out of the way for the lifeboats?

Take a leap—not for those lifeboats, but for your team.

Resources: success.net

10 Things Successful People Never Do Again | SUCCESS

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“Never go back.” What does that mean? From observations of successful people, clinical psychologist and author of Never Go Back: 10 Things You’ll Never Do Again (Howard Books, June 2014), Dr. Henry Cloud has discovered certain “awakenings” that people have—in life and in business—that once they have them, they never go back to the old way of doing things. And when that happens, they are never the same. In short, they got it.

“Years ago, a bad business decision of mine led to an interesting discussion with my mentor,” Dr. Cloud says. “I had learned a valuable lesson the hard way, and he reassured me: ‘The good thing is once you learn that lesson, you never go back. You never do it again.’

“I wondered, what are the key awakenings that successful people go through that forever change how they do things, which propel them to succeed in business, relationships, and life? I began to study these awakenings, researching them over the years.”

Although life and business have many lessons to teach us, Dr. Cloud observed 10 “doorways” of learning that high performers go through, never to return again.

Successful people never again…

1. Return to what hasn’t worked. Whether a job, or a broken relationship that was ended for a good reason, we should never go back to the same thing, expecting different results, without something being different.

2. Do anything that requires them to be someone they are not. In everything we do, we have to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this? Am I suited for it? Does it fit me? Is it sustainable?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, you better have a very good reason to proceed.

3. Try to change another person. When you realize that you cannot force someone into doing something, you give him or her freedom and allow them to experience the consequences. In doing so, you find your own freedom as well.

4. Believe they can please everyone. Once you get that it truly is impossible to please everyone, you begin to live purposefully, trying to please the right people.

5. Choose short-term comfort over long-term benefit. Once successful people know they want something that requires a painful, time-limited step, they do not mind the painful step because it gets them to a long-term benefit. Living out this principle is one of the most fundamental differences between successful and unsuccessful people, both personally and professionally.

6. Trust someone or something that appears flawless. It’s natural for us to be drawn to things and people that appear “incredible.” We love excellence and should always be looking for it. We should pursue people who are great at what they do, employees who are high performers, dates who are exceptional people, friends who have stellar character, and companies that excel. But when someone or something looks too good to be true, he, she, or it is. The world is imperfect. Period. No one and no thing is without flaw, and if they appear that way, hit pause.

7. Take their eyes off the big picture. We function better emotionally and perform better in our lives when we can see the big picture. For successful people, no one event is ever the whole story. Winners remember that – each and every day.

8. Neglect to do due diligence. No matter how good something looks on the outside, it is only by taking a deeper, diligent, and honest look that we will find out what we truly need to know: the reality that we owe ourselves.

9. Fail to ask why they are where they find themselves. One of the biggest differences between successful people and others is that in love and in life, in relationships and in business, successful people always ask themselves, what part am I playing in this situation? Said another way, they do not see themselves only as victims, even when they are.

10. Forget that their inner life determines their outer success. The good life sometimes has little to do with outside circumstances. We are happy and fulfilled mostly by who we are on the inside. Research validates that. And our internal lives largely contribute to producing many of our external circumstances.

And, the converse is true: people who are still trying to find success in various areas of life can almost always point to one or more of these patterns as a reason they are repeating the same mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes…even the most successful people out there. But, what achievers do better than others is recognize the patterns that are causing those mistakes and never repeat them again. In short, they learn from pain—their own and the pain of others.

A good thing to remember is this: pain is unavoidable, but repeating the same pain twice, when we could choose to learn and do something different, is certainly avoidable. I like to say, “we don’t need new ways to fail….the old ones are working just fine!” Our task, in business and in life, is to observe what they are, and never go back to doing them again.

Source: Success.net

How social media has become increasingly integral to content marketing strategy

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The use of social media within content marketing strategies is set for a rapid increase according to new research from the Content Marketing Association (CMA) which says that 80% of companies plan to increase its use with nearly half  (47%) looking to increase use by up to 50%.

This is set to lead to increased investment as a result, with three quarters planning to invest more in owned social media as part of its growth within their businesses.

The conclusions are from a study of 100 senior level marketers, across companies such as Barclays and Experian and media and creative agencies such as Carat and Ogilvy & Mather, by the CMA as part of a wider report The Role of Social in Content Marketing.

The growth comes as content marketers increasingly believe social media to be integral to their growth strategies. More than two thirds (69%) said that social media was very important part of their content marketing strategies. Almost 90% said that social media had had a positive influence on content marketing strategies.

More than half (57%) are using it for amplification of their brand messages whilst one in five (21%) are using it to build a fan base amongst existing and potential customers.

However the study also shows that brands can do more with their existing use of social media. More than half (55%) said that brands were not experimental enough with what they were doing whilst a similar amount (56%) said that brands were not authentic enough on social platforms.

Facebook was shown to be the most effective social platform for B2C content marketing at 55% whilst for B2B content marketing LinkedIn performed best with two thirds (67%) saying it was the most effective channel.

However respondents were less confident about assessing the value of social media measurement, with less than a third (28%) confident of their ability to accurate measure the return on investment and 42% saying they were unsure that an accurate ROI measurement of social media was possible.

Clare Hill, managing director of the Content Marketing Association, said the new report showed the value of social in content marketing today and said brands should keep up. “The pace at which social media is growing in power and influence is remarkable. There are many opportunities for brands to use this to their advantage to make their voices heard,” she said.

Resources: marketingtechnews.com

Are You the Sheep or Sheepdog? 6 Lessons for Crisis Leadership

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We often say there are sheep and there are sheepdogs, and while both are needed for a community to survive, only one can be the leader. So when a small group is placed under stress, many look for that sheepdog to step forward, to provide guidance and take charge to help ensure the endurance of all involved.

Under pressure, people revert to their basic needs, realizing that the group is stronger than the individual. They form bonds based on that need to rely on one another—bonds that aren’t as great when everything is going right.

People who are forced through the toughest times of their lives—natural disasters, military combat tours, health crises—bond in relationships that typically last a lifetime and are far more meaningful than those relationships made during normal circumstances.

So although we don’t necessarily welcome crisis, it does offer lessons we can use to build stronger teams—in difficult and normal times.

Are you the sheepdog of your group? Consider doing the following the next time you’re caught in chaos:

1. Use times of crisis to evaluate and take notes about your personnel. Look to see who is performing, who is withdrawing, who is setting themselves up to survive at the cost of others, and who is working to promote and ensure the success of the team.

 

2. When the stressful period is over, go back and have mentoring or counseling sessions with individuals and the team as a whole to discuss what you observed and what everyone needs to do in the future to promote the advancement of the team during difficult periods.

By providing individual counseling to each member and talking about their observed strengths and weaknesses, you will probably engage them in talks and reflection that they typically wouldn’t have, prompting them to see themselves in a new light.

 

3. Ensure that as a manager, after a stressful period, you take the time to provide an after-action review with your team. Sit down and talk about what worked, what didn’t and what the team sees as the best chance to do better in the future. Do this within a week of the event, take notes and implement changes based off the feedback.

 

4. During normal times, take the opportunity to push people outside of their comfort zones by giving them responsibility and projects that are more challenging. See how they perform. They may surprise you, and if they don’t, that’s fine; you’ll know where their limits are.

 

5. Don’t always choose the same leaders for these greater responsibilities and projects, but use them to mentor others, or completely remove them and let others take the leadership role. Don’t tell them how to do these tasks; just tell them what you want done and let them surprise you with their ingenuity and creativity.

 

6. Make sure people know that you will defend their honest mistakes and will not punish them but will look at these experiences as opportunities for growth and improvement. Build a team by fostering a go-for-it attitude, not one of fear that’s afraid to fail.

 

We grow the most—as individuals and as teams—when we push ourselves through our toughest times. Ask a group of people when the hardest times of their lives were and then ask them at what times in their lives did they grow the most, and will bet you those times match up. No one grows in times of comfort. We learn and grow when we are tested, stressed and forced to perform to survive.

Resources: success.net

9 Things Good Leaders Never Say

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Think before you speak. We all know that. But, be real, do you actually do it?

There are some things you should never be caught saying—especially if you call yourself a leader. Because you have the power to influence people, you’ve got to choose the right words. If you don’t, you risk being a bad boss.

1. “I don’t have time right now.”

Yes, a leader is constantly busy. Tasks and meetings never end, but you should always make time to answer an employee’s question. If an employee is constantly told, “Now is not a good time,” or “Come back later,” they will stop asking questions. Always have time for your employees. If you are in the middle of something, schedule a definitive time to address their question ASAP.

 

2. “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

A strong leader should never shrug off an employee’s suggestions by saying something is the way it has always been done. Strong leaders should listen and think with an open mind. If they genuinely believe an employee’s suggestion is no good, they should take the time to explain why. Strong leaders should be open to suggestions at any point in time and be happy to implement changes for the better.

 

3. “What were you thinking?”

A strong leader should never ask their employee, “What were you thinking?” Employees make mistakes, and it’s important to allow them to learn from those mistakes rather than blame them. When you critique an employee in a harsh or passive aggressive way, the only thing they’ll learn is to play it safe rather than play to win. And that won’t just hurt them—it’ll hurt the whole company.

 

4. “Here, let me do it.”

Used the correct emails, edit proposals and chime in on phone calls when I thought I could improve on the way a teammate was approaching a problem or a task. Learned and by doing it own self instead of giving feedback and letting the person try again, forgoing was a critical coaching moment to serve as a lasting way to show someone how to better accomplish a task.

 

5. “Employee X does this better than you.”

Comparing employees to one another is one of the fastest ways to turn work relationships into rivalries. Internal competition should be healthy, not spiteful. A company’s management team should be wary of suggesting peers are better than each other. Strong leaders make it a point to acknowledge accomplishments without insulting everyone else.

 

6. “You don’t understand.”

Everyone knows effective leaders only hire smart people, but telling them later that they don’t understand something demeans their intelligence. Not only does this damage morale, but it also shuts them down before you get insight into the situation. A strong leader realizes that if there are misunderstandings on their team, it’s their job to open up a dialogue and make everything clear.

 

7. “Your individual performance can sink the company.”

One of the most toxic things a strong leader should never say to an employee is that his or her individual performance can sink the company. Instead, strong leaders promote teamwork and the idea that each team member contributes in his or her own unique way to the overall performance of the company. Employees should never be made to feel the pressure of carrying an entire company on their shoulders.

 

8. “You’re not as driven as you used to be.”

Telling someone they have lost their spark will rarely heighten their desire to work hard for you. By putting them down, professionally and personally, you will likely get a negative response, and possibly even lose their respect. Try to deliver [your] message in a more playful way, such as: “As superman, I trust you absorb enough sunlight to sustain your strength.”

 

9. “Because I said so.”

There should always be a reason you’re asking someone on your team to do something. A strong leader trusts their employees and allows for enough transparency to help them understand how a request or idea ties back to the company’s mission.

Resources: success.net

7 Behaviors of Millionaire Entrepreneurs

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Becoming a millionaire isn’t an accident. It takes business owners decades to accomplish this rare feat. Many people look at these successful individuals and assume they must be lucky or born into wealth. But in reality, this is usually far from the truth. Becoming a millionaire takes work, focus and productive habits.

Emulating the behaviors of millionaire entrepreneurs can help you develop discipline and the habits that catapult entrepreneurs to the next level. With that in mind, here are seven behaviors of millionaire entrepreneurs you can learn from:

1. Start early.

Do you rush into your day responding to dozens of emails and letting other people define your priorities for you? Successful entrepreneurs, such as Peter Shankman, founder of HARO and The Geek Factory, are early risers. Shankman gets up at 4:30 every morning to allow for a workout before networking and building relationships — all before his competitors even sip their first coffee.

 

2. Learn constantly.

Keeping up in their industries is important for millionaire entrepreneurs, but so is regularly expanding their mindset and worldview. Russell Sarder, who runs the multimillion dollar NetCom Learning, makes time to read every day. Even during the business week, he reads one or two hours a day. By consistently learning, he’s able to bring new insights into his work that help define his business.

 

3. Make a budget and stick to it.

As unexciting as it sounds, budgeting in both your business and your personal life is essential to becoming a millionaire. In the book The Millionaire Next Door, authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko discovered that self-made millionaires diligently tend to the ebb and flow of their bank accounts. No matter how wealthy they become, that behavior doesn’t change — which is why they stay wealthy.

 

4. Don’t be afraid to work hard.

The reason “get rich quick” schemes are so popular is that it’s very appealing to get something for nothing. Not for millionaire entrepreneurs. Gary Vaynerchuk makes this very clear in his hilarious rant about people’s focus on “passive income.” He points out that no one gets truly wealthy without putting in the serious work.

 

5. Make clear goals.

Millionaire entrepreneurs know exactly what they’re working towards. They have clear timelines attached to their dreams. They know what they want to do in the next four weeks, the next six months and the next five years. Studies show that writing down your goals, making clear action steps and sharing those goals with supporters makes it 78 percent more likely that you’ll achieve a goal than simply thinking about it.

 

6. Be willing to fail.

Being afraid of failure is going to hold you back from becoming a millionaire. Successful entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to step outside their comfort zones and take a new risk, because they realize that failure is a learning process — not a final judgment on their ventures. Millionaire entrepreneur Farrah Gray discussed the importance of depersonalizing failure in an interview with Black Enterprise.

 

7. Take time off.

Stopping is hard for any entrepreneur, but many millionaires have realized its importance. Arianna Huffington admits she wishes she could go back and tell her younger self that her performance would actually improve if she committed to unplugging, recharging and renewing herself periodically. Taking time to relax allows new creative ideas to come to the forefront, which helps increase your wealth.

Becoming a millionaire isn’t something that happens by luck or heredity — it’s a matter of hard work and intention. Embrace the habits of these entrepreneurs and hone your own habits to follow in their footsteps.

Which one of these behaviors can you implementing today? Make a commitment to it by leaving a comment below.

Sources: Entrepreneur.net

7 Reorganizational Strategies for Work and Life

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Do you know someone juggling a million different projects, yet looks fit, healthy, happy and is somehow reliably there to tuck their kids into bed? They have day jobs, yet they’re always looking to the next thing. They go on vacations, or run successful businesses on the side, or have heavily demanding jobs that they love.

The key is no big secret once you dig in, they’re still living to the same clock as you or I; we all have he exact same hours and minutes in a day. These people simply have amazing time management skills and are focused on the things they want to accomplish. I’ve learned in studying 1000’s of successful entrepreneurs that most of this success comes from being extremely organized.

Here are a few things to get a healthier and more organized life:

1. Organize with a realistic goal in mind.

People who try to make a significant change in their lives with only an abstract idea of their goal find themselves falling back to their old habits. There are thousands of reasons why people may want to organize or re-organize their lives. Perhaps you want to be a better boss or just have a little bit more time at night with your kids. Whatever your goal, it should be fully visualized and attainable with small, actionable, day-to-day steps.

 

2. Refocus your schedule on your most important daily priorities.

Your schedule reflect your goals. Right now, my goal is to be more fit. I mark everyday from 11-12 to go to the gym. I have to schedule this time so that I go. It’s the same with dinner time at home or going out with your spouse. If you don’t prioritize it, it generally doesn’t happen.

Cal Newport, who runs the Study Hacks Blog, recommends scheduling every minute of the day the night before (what he calls Time Blocking) to maximize your productivity by avoiding time wasted time between tasks. That puts you in control of the time you dedicate to creative endeavors.

 

3. Automate whatever possible.

Some things some of us do daily or weekly don’t deserve our time. Updating your computer, planning meals and even household shopping can be automated, depending on how much you’re able and willing to pay for the convenience. Setting up an automated payment plan for your bills is a no-brainer, and you’ll save money by never paying late fees!

 

4. The KonMari method is a huge overhaul and a new frame of mind.

For an organizational overhaul there’s no better guide than The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Japanese “organizing consultant” Marie Kondo. The has swept over the world with a wave of joy-sparking decluttering ideas.

The KonMari method is elegantly simple: get rid of anything you own that no longer sparks joy in your life, from items in your wardrobe to kitchen gadgets. Once that’s out of the way, reorganize your items to fit your most practical life. The KonMari method includes respecting your belongings by teaching you to properly thank the items to be discarded for their service and giving more respectful treatment to the items you keep (“Never, ever ball up your socks… They take a brutal beating in their daily work”).

Regardless if it sounds a little dippy, those who have committed to the Konmari treatment are overwhelmingly supportive about its results.

 

5. Pursue one ambitious organizational goal at a time.

After applying the method above, give yourself a little break. I recommend a day. This allows you to settle into your new decluttered environment, get familiar with your newly re-empowered items, and learn to live with a cleaner home and office. Then, try to implement organizational goals one at a time.

It takes at least 21 days for a new habit to form, whether it’s as small as making your bed every morning to working out every day, so go slowly and don’t overwhelm yourself.

 

6. Don’t interrupt important work looking at your smartphone.

Anyone, even the most organized, laser-focused worker bee is susceptible to FOMO (fear of missing out), Internet addiction, and mobile rabbit holes. The insidious nature of smartphones befall all who bow at the altars of the Android and Apple gods, which is why the key to a focused workday is a hard and fast rule: put away your phone.

Don’t even look at it. Nothing that can be transmitted in a pop-up notification can’t be checked later, and you risk derailing ten minutes to checking it, checking your feeds, clicking on a catchy headline, commenting on it, then waiting for a response. Stay socially active by scheduling time to check your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Keep a timer running — in the next room, if you have to.

 

7. Talking remains the most efficient way to communicate.

The fewer emails you send out, the fewer emails you have to check! It’s much more efficient to pick up the phone or walk down the hall to talk with coworkers and clients whenever practical. By getting the answer you need on the spot, you waste less time waiting for a response.

Resources: Success.net

The 5 Traits of Great Future Leaders

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Finding leaders isn’t about finding those with the loudest or even the most reasonable voice, or even finding the one with most impressive skills. How often have you seen someone with great skills be promoted to a leadership position, only to see him become a harried, crazed person making outrageous decisions that demoralize the team? It happens, but it doesn’t have to happen to your team, when you understand how to spot people with the potential to become leaders, people who will help achieve the vision you’re working toward.

There are five traits of potential leaders that make them easy to spot:

1. They like people.

This is non-negotiable for leaders. Those who are following want to be around and be a part of things led by someone who likes them and is helping them succeed. People don’t want to be around someone who is clearly impatient with them and considers them a nuisance. In other words, they won’t follow someone who doesn’t like them.

 

2. They are possibility thinkers.

Challenges don’t stymie them. Potential leaders aren’t Pollyannas; they are willing to admit that problems exist. But even if solutions aren’t readily apparent, they can find the workarounds that help the team move forward toward the goals.

 

3. They communicate.

Leaders must have a desire to interact with others. Excellent communication skills can be learned, but leaders innately want to express vision, goals and tasks to others. Those whose go-to coping method is to silo themselves away from the community are not yet suited for leadership.

 

4. They are willing to learn.

Leaders are usually finding ways to learn and grow, and they are motivated to share that information. There will always come a point in a leader’s life where the vision they are pursuing requires them to learn and become more: a better communicator, a dynamic re-director or a stronger motivator.

 

5. They can catch a vision.

Leaders may not come with their own vision at first, but they can be inspired to catch an existing vision. Their determination to be possibility thinkers and willingness to learn will aid them in learning from a mentor how to create their own visions.

 

While some people have a natural bent toward being a leader, good leadership skills can be learned by people who have these five traits. You’ll grow as a leader as you identify these people and help them develop into all that they can be. I’ve discovered that one of the most satisfying parts of my life, both professionally and personally, has this process of finding and growing successors.

Resources: Success.net

6 Things Effective Leaders Always Say

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Too often we forget our most basic goal in business—to create relationships with clients, customers, prospects, colleagues, shareholders and, at the center of it all, employees. Everyone at every level needs appreciation and meaningful feedback about their work. If you think that’s an obvious and practiced element of leadership, think again. Nowadays, leaders are prevented from being effective by not showing appreciation to employees.

 

Communication is the fundamental element of an organization, and the pattern is established by leaders. Healthy communication requires trust, inclusion, recognition, clear directions, meaningful interaction and feedback at the nerve center of the company.

The most effective leaders understand that clear communication helps a company’s bottom line and can increase productivity. They are diligent about building a sense of connectedness with their teams and appreciation of their employees by saying and asking:

 

1. “Here’s what I appreciate about you and your contribution.”

The basic “atta-boy” or “atta-girl” doesn’t satisfy people who put their heart and soul into their work. Instead, say something specific like, “I appreciate the way you pull in people from other departments to reach your team goals—you’re a connector.” Leaders need to notice employees’ unique, specific contributions.

 

2. “Thank you.” (personal and public)

From the elevator to the parking lot, daily interactions represent opportunities for leaders to engage in dynamic interactions and show appreciation for their employees’ efforts. Public recognition at a staff meeting, or a thoughtful “thank you” in a newsletter, are also meaningful.

 

3.“What do you think?”

Employees often withhold their best ideas from leaders who always have the “right” answer or take credit for others’ ideas. Ask questions such as, “What have you noticed?” “How do you think we could improve?” “What is keeping us stuck?” and “What do you love about it?” Establish a safe environment in which people have the opportunity to express themselves and be recognized for their ideas and they will take ownership of the results.

 

4. “Here’s what’s happening and what you can expect.”

Companies today often operate in a state of change, and all too often, information is withheld until the last minute. This is a huge distraction for employees who need “real speak” about their futures. Leaders often underestimate employees’ ability to accept “why” if it is shared in an honest way. Leaders will gain deep respect when they share as much as they know as soon as they can share it. Explanations are better than no explanations.

 

5. “I have some feedback for you.”

Don’t wait for a performance review to tell people how they’re doing. A culture of continual feedback is healthy and nimble.

 

6.“Let me share a time I got it wrong.”

Smart, capable leaders who know their stuff are well respected, but employees like and trust leaders who are not only smart but can occasionally lean back and laugh at their own mistakes and who are generous with what life has taught them. The effective leader says, “Let me tell you about something I learned the hard way,” instead of dictating the course to take.

Resources: Success.net

There’s Nothing Sexier Than a Passionate, Hard-Working Entrepreneur

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Passionate is 1st rules in Entrepreneur 

 

1. The passionate.

There’s no two-ways around it, a relationship with an entrepreneur is filled with emotional ups and downs. One day you’re riding the wave of a huge acquisition, next moment you’re biting your nails as you wait for your next round of funding to come through. The great thing is that they express their emotional roller coaster. They’re passionate and excited about their business, and you get to come along for the ride with them — if you like roller coasters, that is.

And it’s not just their business. They’re equally as passionate about life. And about their partners. No one will ever love you harder than an entrepreneur can. They love you with the fiery force of knowing that everything is impermanent, and the moment is all we have.

Intense, but totally worth it.

2. The persistent.

If you’ve ever loved an entrepreneur — or even been romantically pursued by one — you’ll know this all too well. When it comes to their business, they mean… well… business. Nothing will stand in the way of their dreams, and although they may have their off days, they bounce back quickly and become more focused than ever before. This transfers over to their relationships as well.

They know what they want, and they’re not afraid to go after it. They’re happy to wait as long as it takes to win your heart, and when they finally do, they’ll cherish it even more. They know a good fit when they see one, and even when your relationship hits an inevitable rough patch, they won’t falter.

They’re with you until the end.

3. Have a strong moral compass.

Most entrepreneurs get into business to help the world in some way. They want to make a difference. They can’t stand idly by, knowing that they could have helped make a change for the better. By nature, they are value-adders. They want to better the lives of their clients, their customers and society at large.

In almost every entrepreneur / entrepreneur relationship I’ve witnessed, both partners add extreme value to the relationship. They build each other up and drive each other forward. Their partnership is a constant upward spiral of growth.

They aren’t trying to change their partner — they’re giving them a leg up to their dreams, in whatever way they are able to.

4. Not afraid to show they care.

If someone works that hard for you, it’s apparent that they have strong feelings for you. When entrepreneurs go after their goals, they do so with drive and abandon. They’re not afraid to let people know that they care — their 80/20 clients, or their significant others.

They will tell you how much you mean to them, every day. They’ll make you feel special, because you are. It’s important to them that you know that they love you, because you are what they want, and they know they can’t stand idly by and expect the relationship to run on auto-pilot.

5. It’s fun!

Entrepreneurs have a yearning to live life to the fullest. They have an empire to build, and you get to be part of the building phase. Whether that means you’re helping build a startup from scratch or providing emotional support for your partner’s existing enterprise.

There’s an excitement that comes with being part of something big and knowing that you are an integral part of it’s success. If you have a hard-working entrepreneurial partner by your side — count yourself lucky. It can be one of the most fruitful relationships you’ll ever have.

Keep learning from each other and helping each other to grow, and your relationship will continue to flourish for years to come.

Sources: Entrepreneur.net