6 Things All Successful Entrepreneurs Believe

Entrepreneurs have a different way of doing things.

It takes a special kind of person to be able to turn the spark of an idea in their minds into a full-fledged income-generating operation that's built to last. It's no wonder entrepreneurs seem just a little bit different from everyone else. They really are different.

By understanding these 6 things that successful entrepreneurs believe, you can learn lessons that will help you succeed in your own business--and in your career and life.

1. Entrepreneurs believe that anything is possible.

This is what drives them to create the impossible out of pure ideas. They don't understand why other people don't reach for their dreams and put everything on the line for an idea, because that's just how their brain works. Because of this, it may be difficult for some people to convince an entrepreneur that his or her idea is impossible. Entrepreneurs don't know the meaning of the word impossible, and they will pursue their ideas until they find the success they are looking for.

2. When people see hurdles, entrepreneurs see ways to get over them.

It's in nature of entrepreneurs to start figuring out possible problems before they exist, and to figure out ways to neutralize them the moment they arrive on the scene. if anything, obstacles and naysayers push entrepreneurs to want to succeed even more. Don't try to stand in an entrepreneur's way because you are likely to get run over.

3. Entrepreneurs are extremely optimistic.

They know they are going to succeed--eventually--and they always look at the word as a glass half full instead of a glass half empty.While this optimism is at times misunderstood, it's one of the best qualities that an entrepreneur possesses. The ability to look to the future with rose-colored glasses is a gift that many people wish they were blessed with.

4. Entrepreneurs can't stand authority.

Whether it was a boss in the past that they couldn't stand, the feeling of being stifled in a corporate position, or just the fear of mediocrity, there's a driving force behind entrepreneurs wanting to work for themselves. Entrepreneurs don't do well with authority because they are used to living up to their own expectations, not someone else's.

5. And the same goes for rules.

Entrepreneurs like to answer to themselves--and themselves only. They don't like being put in a box or confined to a set of rules that they didn't create. This doesn't mean they don't follow the rules that really count, because they do. They aren't going to break the law just because they don't like it. But entrepreneurs set very high standards to live up to, and their own expectations are higher others would expect or hold them to.

6. Entrepreneurs see limitless possibility.

Ask any entrepreneur if all the success in the world has already been exhausted, and he or she will surely look at you like you must be crazy. Entrepreneurs look at the world and see endless possibilities. Because of this, they never stop reaching for more opportunities and success, and are highly unlikely to ever retire. Most entrepreneurs continue to grow their ideas and start new companies for the entirety of their lives.

6 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Day

Let's face it. Business is busy.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day and just do everything as if on autopilot, without much thought for the bigger issues at stake. I have personally been in hyperbusy mode the past few weeks. In addition to this thrice-weekly column and producing a weekly radio show, I have been driving a major initiative for a new client and readying for teaching three interactive sessions at GrowCo.

There have been lots of 18-hour days. The hard work is lots of fun and very productive, but it can often feel a bit crazy as well. I keep my priorities straight in times like this with 6 simple questions that keep everything on track, including my sanity.

Throughout each packed day, I reference this list of questions and recenter to make sure I am working at my best and accomplishing in a highly productive manner. Asking yourself these questions in busy times will help you stay focused, humble, and on target.

1. Why am I here?

This isn't a big, abstract existential question. I mean it in an immediate, practical sense. What brought me to the place(s) I am today? Motivation is key when times are hectic. I want to remind myself why I am excited to do this work and stretch myself. There are many motivating factors at play. Money, people, accomplishment, and fun all motivate me to work hard and do great work. Keeping these motivators at the forefront of my brain makes me smile and provides satisfaction with each completion. Understanding clearly how the choices I make in the heat of the moment lead to my preferred destiny helps me drive through the most challenging of times with purpose and resolve.

2. What more should I do? 

It seems odd to ask what more you can do when things are already hectic and jammed. But this question helps me identify what I might be missing in my current plan. There may be additional places where my skills and abilities will make the most difference to a project's getting done successfully. Perhaps there are issues I have been ignoring in which my attention is needed and for which I can make a positive impact. It is actually more important to ask this question on the days that I feel overworked, because it will help me analyze where I should possibly change the force of my efforts.

3. What can I let go?

When things are moving fast, priorities can change in a day or even an instant. It's important to reassess and make sure the tasks on my plate are the right ones for me. Some tasks that were high priority may be less important now after new data. Or others on the team may more efficiently accomplish them. Any time I can remove tasks from my list, I free up time and energy for more productive use. I can take that energy and put it toward something worthwhile. This is also a good question for clearing my head emotionally. I use this question to isolate any stress or frustration I am feeling during the day. Letting go of unproductive thoughts and feelings clears the way for a better flow of mental energy.

4. How can I be more efficient?

Necessity is the mother of invention, and I often create my best management and productivity routines when I am crazy busy. During the brief lulls of the day, I will often step back and try to find shorter, more efficient ways to complete my to-do list. Much of my creative energy is used on this question. I have no sacred cows when it comes to process. If I can find a better and faster way to accomplish something, or someone else can show me one, I will quickly change over. I love to get things accomplished, and each new efficiency creates a mental high and a smile.

5. Whom should I thank?

I am constantly aware and appreciative of the dedicated and talented people around me who do great work and contribute to our overall success. But when things are going fast, I sometimes forget to tell them how much I am grateful for their contribution. It doesn't matter if they are people directly on my team or outsiders who stepped up to contribute. I must prioritize making them feel appreciated for their efforts. They deserve the thanks and acknowledgment more than I deserved the support.

6. How should I start tomorrow?

I generally don't wait until the end of the day to ask this question. It's true that every day brings its own unique challenges, and too much forward thinking can distract from the current day's needs. But a little forward planning can ease your mind and allow you to set up structures that may make tomorrow even more productive. Waiting until 8 p.m. might prohibit having everything ready to go on a new initiative or getting others involved first thing. That being said, I will ask this again at the end of the day as I make my to-do list for tomorrow, so I can free my brain for a great night's sleep.

You don't have to be crazy busy to get value from these daily questions. On the slowest of days, they will help you center your mind so you can be confident, mentally free, and fully appreciative of the things you, as well as the people around you, do.

8 Things Truly Outstanding Leaders Do Without Thinking

Once in a while you meet a leader who stands out--even in a room filled with skilled, experienced, successful people. She isn't just remarkably charismatic. He isn't just remarkably likeable.

You can tell, in an instant, they simply think and act and lead differently than most people.

But those rare individuals don't become outstanding leaders overnight. While some are born with an aptitude for leadership, truly outstanding leaders are made. Through training, experience, and a healthy dose of introspection they learn how to make quick decisions. They learn to work with different personalities. They learn to nurture, motivate, and inspire.

They learn to truly lead.

And in time those skills become automatic and reflexive. While great leaders do a tremendous amount of thinking, that thinking happens behind the scenes. In the moment, in the trenches, when people look to them and need them most, they act: swiftly, decisively, and confidently.

Want to become a truly outstanding leader? Work hard to do these eight things naturally, automatically, and instinctively:

1. Praise. It's easy to tell when employee recognition is simply one entry on a very long to-do list. We've all been around people who occasionally--and awkwardly--shake a few hands and pat a few backs. No matter how hard they try to fake it, their insincerity is evident.

No one gets enough praise, so truly outstanding leaders see expressing thanks, giving praise, and providing recognition as one gift that can never be given often enough.

Praise is almost like breathing to a truly outstanding leader: natural, automatic, frequent, and most of all, genuine and sincere.

2. Decide. Ideas are great but implementation is everything. Outstanding leaders quickly weigh, assess, decide, and then immediately act--because decisiveness and action build confidence and momentum.

That's why making a poor decision is often better than making no decision at all. Mistakes can almost always be corrected. Even though you should always try, rarely must you be right the first time. Adapting and learning and revising so you get it right in the end matters a lot more.

Especially when you...

3. Take responsibility. We all make bad decisions.  What matters is what we do after we make those mistakes.

Outstanding leaders are the first to say, "I was wrong." Outstanding leaders are the first to say, "I made the wrong choice. We need to change course."

Outstanding leaders instinctively admit their mistakes early and often because they are quick to take responsibility and because they desperately want to build a culture where mistakes are simply challenges to overcome, not opportunities to point fingers and assign blame.

4. Communicate. Business is filled with what: What to execute, what to implement, what to say, and sometimes even what to feel.

What's often missing is the why.

That's why so many projects, processes, and tasks fail. Tell me what to do and I'll try to do it; tell me why, help me understand why, help me believe and make that why my mission too... and I'll run through proverbial brick walls to do the impossible.

Managers stipulate. Outstanding leaders explain. And then they listen--because the most effective communication involves way more listening than talking.

5. Set the example. Say you're walking through a factory with the plant manager and you see a piece of trash on the floor. There are two types of people when that happens:

One spots it, stops, struts over, snatches it up, crumples it like a beer can, and strides twenty feet to a trash can to slam it home. He's picked up the trash, but he's also making a statement.

The other veers over without breaking stride, picks it up, crumples it up, keeps talking, and doesn't throw it away until he comes across a convenient trash can. He's not thinking about making a statement. He just saw a little trash and picked it up without thinking.

Simple example? Sure. But extremely telling--especially to employees.

Why? Employees notice what you do. When you're in charge, everyone watches what you do. The difference lies in how you do what you do... and what that says about you.

Outstanding leaders do what they do simply because it's important to them. It's part of who they are. They care about go, not show--and, in time, so do they people they work with.

6. Give feedback. We all want to improve: to be more skilled, more polished, more successful. That's why we all need constructive feedback.

Because they care about their employees, not just as workers but as people, outstanding leaders instinctively go to the person struggling and say, "I know you can do this. And I'm going to help you."

Think about a time when a person told you what you least wanted to hear and yet most needed to hear. They changed your life. Outstanding leaders naturally try to change people's lives. Even if it's uncomfortable. Because they care.

7. Seek help. At some point, most people in leadership positions begin to avoid displaying signs of vulnerability. After all, you're in charge of everything, so you're supposed to knoweverything. Of course that's impossible. You can't know everything about your job. Your employees can't know everything about their jobs, either.

Outstanding leaders don't pretend to know everything. (In fact, they purposely hire people who know more than they do.) So they naturally ask questions. They automatically ask for help.

And in the process they show vulnerability, respect for the knowledge and skills of others, and a willingness to listen--all of which are qualities of outstanding leaders.

8. Challenge. Most leaders implement their ideas by enforcing processes and procedures that support those ideas.

For employees, though, engagement and satisfaction are largely based on autonomy and independence. I care a lot more when it's mine: my idea, my process, my responsibility.  I care the most when I feel I am depended on--and given the authority--to make important decisions and do what is right.

Outstanding leaders create broad standards and guidelines and then challenge their employees by giving them the autonomy and independence to work the way they work best. They allow employees to turn "yours" into "ours," transforming work into an outward expression of each person's unique skills, talents, and experiences.

That's a challenge every employee wants to face--and one that outstanding leaders instinctively provide.

Best Places to Work!

3S Enterprises named Best Place to Work for 2014

We are excited to announce that we have been awarded Best Places to Work for 2014! That is now two years running we have won! Thanks to the entire team for their hard work which has made this possible. For more information check out the link!

How to Stay Positive Around Negative People!

2 Ways to Stay Positive When Dealing With Negative People

By Tony Robinson 

We all have to deal with negative people at some point in lives, we just do. Sometimes we can avoid them, other times we can’t. Sometimes these negative people stay for a little while, other times they stay long enough to make us want to jump off a bridge.

But since we know it’s a fact of life that negative people exist, what can we do deal with Negative Nancy and Pessimistic Peter?

Understand They Have Different Values

There are times when the negative people we have to deal with aren’t always negative, they just happen to be really negative in certain situations.

When I started college, I was an engineering major. I did really well in school and got accepted into a summer internship program with one of the biggest oil companies in the world. It was awesome. I performed so well in the internship program that they brought me back the following summer. After the second summer I was told I had a full time job waiting for me once I graduated.

But unfortunately, not only did I turn down that high paying job offer, I left the engineering major entirely! I realized that engineering wasn’t my passion and I began studying small business management instead.

My family wasn’t so thrilled about the idea. I was going to be the first one in my family to get a college degree, and the fact that it was going to be an engineering degree made my family ecstatic because they knew that a degree in engineering meant financial security. That’s what was important to them, a nice steady paycheck with great benefits.

So when news broke that I was changing my major, my family voiced a lot of concerns and brought a pretty negative attitude to the situation. They kept reminding me of the time that would be wasted and the big payday that would never come. It was tough to hear, and it even made me second-guess my decision.

But I had to go back and remind myself of what my values were. What was important to me? Delivering something of significance to world the world, and I felt that a degree in engineering wouldn’t allow me to really reach my potential.

I valued significance, my family valued security. We couldn’t have been further apart from each other.

Once I realized that we had such a big difference in values on the topic, it made it a lot easier for me to tune out the negative comments and energy they were sending my way.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Happiness

Negativity is contagious. It’s easy for someone else’s negative thoughts to slowly creep over and start affecting you in a negative way.

But positivity is also contagious, so when someone is giving you a lot of negative energy, you have to fight back with positive energy. You can’t allow someone else’s negativity to become yours. Just because Negative Nick doesn’t think it’s a good idea for you to go after your dreams, that doesn’t mean you have to think it’s a bad idea too.

You have to be responsible for you own happiness and positivity. If we break down the word responsibility we get “response – ability”. Responsibility is simply your ability to respond.

You don’t have the power to choose what life throws at you, or what these negative people do and say to you, but, you do have the ability to choose how you respond and that’s what’s most important.

You can choose to respond in way that lets the negativity drains your positivity and makes you feel hopeless and frustrated, or you can choose to respond in way that makes you work even harder and focus even more on the positive aspects of the situation.

The dictionary defines responsibility as “the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization”. That means you don’t need an ok from anyone else to act on something that you’re responsible for. So even when the negative people disagree with you, who cares?

It helps if you ask yourself,

• “What can I do to reinforce my positive attitude?”
• “What can I do to discredit their negative attitude and opinion?”

Your happiness depends more on your own attitude than any external factors. So don’t let the negative people of the world get you down.

4 Ways To Ignite Your Personal Passion

By Brian Heat 

Personal passion is the explosive flame you possess inside in the form of strong ideas, gifts and fascinations. It is this passion that propels you towards your very own unique forms of creative expression, fields of interests and adventurous curiosity.

It is also your passion that drives you to push beyond obstacles and self-limitation.

The question then becomes, how do we tap into this enormous power?

1. “You Are a Walking Phenomenon”

As of right now there are over 7.1 billion people on the planet, but only one of you. Down to your very DNA you are a walking phenomenon, an anomaly of sorts…a unique deviation from every other person the world. You were born for reason, designed for a purpose and meant to be here. Embrace your individuality and know that your dormant talents were given to you as a gift. Determine your uniqueness, your strength and your voice…then begin to introduce it to the world.

2. “Chasing The Rush of Fascination”

I’ve often described the feeling your personal passions give you as “The Rush”, or that fiery exhilaration you sense inside while engaged. For some, it may be the excitement of competition that comes from playing sports, while for others the relaxation and creative outlet artist experience while performing.

Starting right now, feel yourself returning to those certain experiences that captivated you and moved your heart once before. Reflect back to reawaken the passions you once possessed assures that where you presently direct your time, efforts and focus is directly connected to the youthful spirit you were from the beginning.

3. The “MASSIVE Power of Mentors”

Now once you’ve taken the time to identify what gifts, talents and experiences that once sparked within you, your next move is to place yourself in situations where you can accelerate your learning and explore everything your passion has to offer. At this point, mentors become invaluable resources because in most cases they’ve already walked the road you are embarking on and now possess the essential expertise needed to point you in the right direction towards more opportunities for growth, resources and access to other like minded individuals. Now, in those cases where the mentors you require are not within your immediate circle of influence, I recommend using the web to profile those accomplished game changers in your fields through their bios, interviews and wisdom filled back stories.

4. “Build a Storm Ready Vision”

What continues to ignite the strength behind your passion as you travel your journey is your ability to create and hold an explosive vision that reflects everything that passion encompasses. This vision is nothing more than a crystal clear mental picture of what exactly you desire to accomplish or become. Just like a beacon in the storm this inspired vision helps you navigate your thoughts, actions and behaviours to stay focused. But in order to keep this vision realistic and grounded you must build into your vision the possibility of adverse circumstances and obstacles that will come along the way. With this in mind, as circumstances occur that attempt to deter your efforts you will already be prepared with contingency plans and alternatives routes to keep progressing forward.

5 Ways to Build an Extraordinary Team Culture

5 Ways to Build an Extraordinary Team Culture

When your employees work together to achieve common goals, everyone wins--you, your business and your customers.

Employee teams are one of the best ways to get things done in any business. When you take a group of independently talented people and create a team in which they can merge their talents, not only will a remarkable amount of energy and creativity be released, but their performance, loyalty and engagement will be greatly improved.

Here are five steps for building an extraordinary team culture:

1. Create a Team-Oriented Organization

Make teamwork one of your core company values, and put a clear emphasis on self-managing teams that are empowered to make their own decisions. Don't just talk about teamwork. Show your employees the seriousness of your commitment by giving teams the authority to get their jobs done on their own terms, while ensuring they accept responsibility for the results.

2. Assign Serious Team Goals

Give your teams really important assignments and projects, not just planning for next summer's annual company picnic. Bring teams in when you're looking at new trends in the market, or need to see things through new eyes. It's important to mix it up and not have the same people making the same decisions all the time. Ask them to challenge the status quo and the conventional wisdom. This will help to keep your company fresh and ahead of the game.

3. Encourage Informal Teams

More work in organizations is accomplished through informal teams than formal ones. It's therefore in your interest to encourage the proliferation of informal teams throughout your company, addressing any and all issues and opportunities that capture their interest. When your employees are able to tackle concerns themselves, without elevating every little decision to top management, you'll have a much more efficient organization.

4. Cross-Train Employees

When employees understand how different areas of the company work, they are more apt to make decisions that benefit the company as a whole, rather than solely their own department or group. Give your employees the opportunity to learn other people's jobs. Some organizations go as far as switching employee roles on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And don't forget your managers. Have top executives spend a few days working on the front lines with customers or directly with your product. They'll have a new appreciation for what your regular employees go through on the job.

5. Provide Team Resources

No matter how talented a company's individuals might be, teams cannot be successful without the proper resources. Teams need a designated and available place where they can regularly meet. Nothing much can be achieved in an over-crowded lunch room. All employees need to be given adequate time to devote to their team meetings, with no grief from supervisors. And make sure to supply your teams with an appropriate budget if required, and the permission--with guidance--to spend it as they see best for the company.

BY PETER ECONOMY

3S Enterprises Awarded for Being "Best Place to Work"

We are proud to be named one of the best places to work in the DC area by the Washington Business Journal! Sers Sterlin, CEO/Founder, was invited to accecpt the award and speak on behalf of the company yesterday.