Never settle.
Protect your curiosity.
Nurture your creativity.
Love what you do.
Strive to be a slightly better beta version of yourself every day.
Push opportunities and take action.
Make an impact.
Change the world.
First Thursday every month I send out my ”Monthly inspiration by Care of Next” emails to inspire entrepreneurial minds. Most of the time I find it both easy and fun to write these emails. But today it’s a struggle… No worries, I’ll do it anyway. Because I know inspiration doesn’t always show up when needed – and that’s where commitment comes in. Taking the lead and create the business or career you want is about commitment. And when you’re committed, you won’t let temporary loss of inspiration stop you.
Wanna see the result? Sign up on the right hand side 🙂
Today I’ve been working on a new concept that will launch later this spring. Got kind of stressed out because I don’t know exactly how I will do this… Obviously time to repeat my mantra: Start before you’re ready! Today, we all act in information-poor, resource-constrained and time-compressed surroundings. No one “knows it all”. We need to use our creativity, be courageous enough to take on a certain amount of risk and commit to progress rather than perfection. As Reid Hoffman said:
”If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late”
Needed that reminder today, maybe you too? 🙂
Some people seem to apply a very reactive mindset to their professional life. Meaning sending their resume to a couple of companies and then…wait. And wait. And wait. Brian Rashid wrote a very interesting article about this on Forbes yesterday and pointed out that this mindset leads to a reactive professional growth. Because the skill set building doesn’t start until you get the job. On the other hand with a proactive mindset where you create the opportunities you need to do inspiring work you’ll start build your skill set right away. This is what the freelance economy is all about.
Start exploring and expanding your entrepreneurial mind and take advantage of all the great possibilities out there!
What I’m thinking about today: Why are we (myself included) so eager on doing things that same way as everyone else? I’d say we rather stop it. Do things your way. There is no “right way” to do things. If you have an idea that it could be done differently – give it a try!
Embrace your uniqueness.
Isn’t this proof that you really can create the professional life you want? If you push the opportunities around you, use your strengths and add some craziness anything is possible! Inspiration and a whole lot of fun in this TED talk 🙂
If you’re anything like me, you probably have a whole bunch of things you think you should do. Expectations from yourself, family and friends, your community… Regarding what you should do, how, where and when you should work, who you should associate with.
What if we stop “shoulding” ourselves and instead ask: What do I want to do? How, where and when do I want to work? Who do I want to hang out with?
Put yourself in the driving-seat and create the opportunities you need to take the lead in your field of work. You can do it.
If we are fully focused on perfection there’s a huge risk nothing gets done, or gets done too late… Therefore I suggest shifting mindset from perfection to progress. No more perfection paralysis. Instead lots of action. I like thinking of myself as a Beta version – not perfect but constantly in progress and with a new update every day. Also meaning I don’t have to have it all figured out to get started, which takes off a whole lot of pressure when trying new things.
To remind myself every now and then I have this on my wrist.
This story is from a friend of mine who had been talking to a friend of his, dreaming of starting his own business but facing resistance.
My friend asked ”So what’s the worst-case scenario?”.
His friend replied, ”That I have to find another job”.
My friend: ”How’s that different from your situation now?”.
Silence. The to-be-entrepreneur realized he was living his worst-case scenario and it wasn’t that bad. Meaning aiming for the best-case scenario isn’t that scaring.
No matter what change you’d like to make in your professional life, ask yourself if it might be that you’re already living your worst-case scenario. And then…GO!
Why is an entrepreneurial mindset important in today’s and tomorrow’s professional life?
To me, having an entrepreneurial mindset means you’ll create opportunities to do work that inspires you. When you’re inspired you’ll inspire others. And there’s nothing you can’t do.
An entrepreneurial mindset will nurture your creativity; you’ll see things as they can be rather than as they are. Earl Nightingale said “Creativity is a natural extension of our enthusiasm”, I think that’s perfectly true. When you see new ways of doing things you can work smarter and support the lifestyle you desire.