5 Business Lessons I Learned During The 2016 Year

Towards the end of each year, I love to reflect and see what things I learned and what things I can do better the following year. In this post, I share 5 business lessons I learned during the 2016 year.

Time flies and it’s finally hitting me that the 2016 year is coming to an end. As each year comes to a close, I love to reflect on the year and figure out what things I learned, what things I could have done better and how I want to better approach the upcoming year.

2016 was an eventful year for me. I ended up having my first major startup getting acquired, StatFuse. I launched a handful of businesses, opened the doors to tons of other investment opportunities and developed partnerships with many great entrepreneurs.

In this post, I share 5 business lessons I learned during the 2016 year:

1. The right people are worth everything. 

In 2016, I really got to learn about how important the people around you are. I’ve always surrounded myself with successful people, but this year I found out that not all successful people are good people or the right individuals for you. By cutting out individuals who had a negative impact in my life and building relationships with top-notch people, everything began changing.

Being a solo entrepreneur is tough, you need friendships and connections to keep you sane. Not only that, but by meeting valuable people….you open up the door to many more connections and opportunities that can change your life.

2. There is nothing more valuable than time. 

This was the year that my team and companies grew the most. I ended up adding dozens of new employees to my companies that allowed me to leverage my time so much better. I always had employees and I always delegated tasks, but this was the first year where I did more management than day-to-day work.

Leverage your money and your talent to save you time and to create more time in your life. As long as you do that, you’ll be able to innovate and pursue whatever dreams you have.

3. Never make decisions based solely on financial gains. 

Money is a huge motivator for a lot of people in their lives. Whether we like to admit it or not, money does truly run the world and many decisions everyone makes is because of currency. I have learned this year how important it is to not just focus on financial gains.

By investing my money more, I quickly learned that it’s more important to invest in people and their passions/purposes more than the anticipated financial gain. The deals that looked to have the best financial gains ended up costing me the most money because the people behind them weren’t real with me. Some of the best gains I have gotten are from investments I made because of how much I believed in the person behind the concepts.

4. All it takes sometimes is an email. 

Entrepreneurship truly is about hustle. We were very proud to announce that my startup, StatFuse got acquired by LendEDU earlier this year. How did it happen? Well, we had come to a point in our company where we felt like we had grown it as much as we could and we thought it was time to let our baby go.

We simply went out and emailed companies in the education industry that we thought had the right team and would be able to continue carrying out our vision. We would write a short email letting them know that we are interested in selling our company and give them some basic information in regards to the business. We ended up getting dozens of replies and after a few months, we were able to lock in a deal for an acquisition.

5. Patience pays off. 

I don’t know if other entrepreneurs feel the same way, but I am extremely impatient. Being an entrepreneur, you’re in control so you constantly want to take charge and make things get done faster. However, sometimes patience and going through the process is crucial to your success.

This was a big lesson that I got to learn during the 2016 year. I learned how to be more patient, how to strategically deal with situations and how waiting for the right timing is sometimes a better idea than running with something immediately.

Conclusion

With another year down, it feels great to reflect on the lessons that I learned during 2016. What are some lessons that you learned in the 2016 year?

5 Reasons To Take The Leap of Faith And Give Entrepreneurship A Chance

In this post, I discuss 5 reasons to take the leap of faith and give entrepreneurship a chance. After startups have been highlighted everywhere in the last few years, there is no better time to consider becoming an entrepreneur than today.

Startups and entrepreneurship is what is ‘in’ right now. Everywhere you go, you’ll hear something about startups. You turn on the television and you see shows such as Shark Tank constantly promoting entrepreneurship.

If you are an individual who has considered entrepreneurship, but never pursued it for whatever reason…..this article is perfect for you. In this article, I’ll share 5 reasons to take the leap of faith and give entrepreneurship a chance:

1. Experience Something New 

Forget about success or failure, the journey of entrepreneurship is great enough because it will give you the opportunity to experience something new. In the first 6 months of entrepreneurship, I had learned more during that time than at any point in time of my life.

By taking the leap of faith into entrepreneurship, you are exposing yourself to a whole new world. You get to negotiate business deals, make sales, tap into your creativity, network and pick up so many other skills that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. If you’re looking to change your life and experience new things, this is the best idea for you.

2. Freedom

If you’re tired of being a yes man and working for someone else, that’s a good enough reason to become an entrepreneur. There is no greater feeling and satisfaction in the world than working for yourself. If you want to work your own hours at your own location, there is no career path that provides freedom like entrepreneurship.

For those seeking freedom and a greater purpose in their lives, entrepreneurship is the way to go. You may not get freedom immediately if you want to be successful since you have to work long hours without much pay, but the payoff in the long run can be incredible.

3. Build Your Legacy 

At some point, everyone realizes that they were put on this planet for a bigger purpose. Whether it’s to change the world, change a culture or whatever it is, entrepreneurship allows you to truly build your legacy for the long run. My passion for being an entrepreneur has to do with my desire to leave a legacy that outlives me.

You’ll never know how far you can build your legacy without giving it a chance. Becoming an entrepreneur puts you in the driver seat to control your life and how people remember you. By creating products, services or ideas that can change the world forever, entrepreneurship is a great way to build a solid legacy.

4. Financial Independence 

Whether we like to admit it or not, money is extremely important in this world. It’s what runs a lot of the world at the end of the day. By becoming an entrepreneur, you can put yourself in a position to be financially independent for the rest of your life.

If you’re able to build your business and grow it to a sustainable level, you can earn a lot of money without having to put in a lot of hours. The beginning is always the hardest, but when everything has been set up…..you can really create an exceptional operation. If you’re seeking financial independence, entrepreneurship is a great path for it.

5. Meet New People 

When I became an entrepreneur, I entered a world where I didn’t know a single person. From networking, reaching out to others and meeting others at various venues, I ended up building a massive network of other entrepreneurs. In the last 5 years, some of these individuals have become my closest friends and I hold powerful relationships with them.

If anything, entrepreneurship will open you up to a whole new world of unique people. If all else fails, you at least have the opportunity to meet new people. From these connections, you have no idea what can come in the future.

Conclusion 

In this article, I shared 5 reasons to take the leap of faith and give entrepreneurship a chance. What are some reasons why you decided to become an entrepreneur?

5 Strategies For Having Highly Productive Days

Productivity is the key to success for highly successful individuals. Having the right amount of it can completely change your work and personal life. In this article, I share 5 strategies for having highly productive days.

Productivity is one of the most important skills to have when trying to be extremely successful. It’s rather simple, you have to figure out the best way to apply your skills, efforts and talents as it relates to time.

Early on in my entrepreneurial career, I was terrible with being productive. I was working 14-16 hour days and I realized that I still needed more time to get more stuff done. I quickly realized that it was a lack of productivity on my part that was causing this disparity in my life.

Since then, I’ve not only reduced the amount of hours I work on a daily basis but I am getting far more done than I ever have. I was able to accomplish this by taking a step back and finding a way to be far more productive. In this article, I share 5 strategies for having highly productive days:

1. Plan Your Day The Night Before 

One of the quickest ways I increased my productivity was by being a little more organized. I did this by planning my days out the night before. I would set out a list of goals I had for the next day, what I had to get done and create a mini schedule the night before.

That single change made me extremely effective because I had a plan of action going into each day. Instead of trying to figure out the next thing to do the day of, I had a concrete schedule that allowed my day to fall into place. This saved me probably an hour, if not more on a daily basis.

2. Prioritize 

The next most important thing for having a highly productive day is to prioritize your daily tasks from most important to least important. What are things that you MUST get done before the end of the day? What are things that you can get done later on in the day or aren’t crucial to the success of your day?

By prioritizing your days, you again have the ability to visualize what is important. Not only that, but entrepreneurs especially have a lot going on in their lives. It’s very easy to get distracted so prioritizing your tasks is a great way to stay focused while avoiding any outside distractions.

3. Exercise Daily 

It seems crazy since you have to spend time exercising, but it makes a massive difference. When I began exercising, it not only created some balance in my life but it made me a lot more productive. That short 1 hour break I would take to go lift some weights or play some basketball made a massive impact on my work.

I was fresher and more focused from the break that I took in between my work. I was able to think more clearly and by getting my adrenaline pumped up, I was actually more motivated with my work. By adding an hour of exercise into my life, not only was it better for my health but it was increasing my productivity as well.

4. Learn To Say No 

No is the most powerful word that you can use especially as you get busy. You have a vision and a goal for what you want to achieve in life. Anything that doesn’t align or somehow help you to your goals in life, you need to say no to that outside noise. Early on, I thought saying NO was some kind of taboo and I would say yes to everything.

As a result of that, my productivity was extremely poor. Once I learned to say NO to others and to things people asked me, all of a sudden I was far more productive. You need to be extremely disciplined with your goals, vision and plans so that you can stay focused on the path that you have created for yourself.

5. Don’t Multitask 

If there is anything I can tell anyone not to do, it’s to not multitask. I was the biggest multitasker out there when I started out as an entrepreneur. I wanted to get everything done at once and I tried juggling multiple things every single day. Not only was my brain hurting, but I was getting less done than I should have been.

Focus on one thing at a time. Even if you have a ton of things going on at one time, take a break and focus on the most important one. From there, focus on the second-most important task and so forth. Do not multitask ever, spend your time focusing on one thing and your levels of productivity will shoot up.

Conclusion 

In this article, I shared 5 strategies for having highly productive days. What are some strategies that have helped you have some really productive days?

5 Ways Self Made Millionaires Earn More Money Than Others

From growing my network and communicating with numerous wealthy and highly successful individuals, I’ve been able to develop a solid mindset over the years. In this post, I shared 5 ways self made millionaires earn more money than others.

From growing my network and communicating with numerous wealthy and highly successful individuals, I’ve been able to develop a solid mindset over the years. Part of my network, I’ve met tons of self made millionaires that have given me great advice as well.

Through my personal experiences and interactions with self made millionaires, here are 5 ways self made millionaires earn more money than others:

1. They have multiple income streams. 

Majority of the self made millionaires I know have numerous income streams that provide them with revenue and income on a monthly basis. Most people I know have one major business that they focus on and then they have a handful of other passive income opportunities that provide supplemental income.

Self made millionaires know and understand that life is a roller coaster. Anything can happen at any time. You can’t put all your eggs into one basket and you need to plan for the future. Your business should always be your main focus and your main stream of income, but having income from side projects and passive projects are crucial to building long-term wealth.

2. They make their money work for them.

Self made millionaires understand how powerful money is. Instead of taking their cash and stuffing it in a bank earning ridiculously low interest on their money, they put their money to work for them. Not sure what that means? Well, let me explain.

By investing your money, you have the greatest opportunity to grow your income. Whether it means putting your money into rental properties, stocks or investing in other business opportunities, money is the best substitute for time. By leveraging your money, you don’t have to spend time and you can still earn residual income from your investments.

3. Chase success instead of money. 

Every self made millionaire is so successful because they are chasing success. I quickly learned in my entrepreneurial career that chasing money is the biggest mistake you can make. Money is one of the hardest objects to obtain, but if you chase after success….the money will just come to you.

Have a passion and a massive goal that is way bigger than money. My goal has always been to leave an impact and a legacy that will outlive me when I’m gone. As a result of that, success to me requires me to accomplish a massive amount of things. Never chase money, chase something bigger.

4. Surround yourself with people who are extremely successful. 

Your net worth is your network. You’ve probably heard that statement a ton of times before, but it’s actually very true. If you surround yourself with people that push you to become better and motivate you to achieve your goals, you’ll end up being more successful as a result of the character of the people around you.

Seeing other people around you achieving success and accomplishing big things is a great inspiration on its own. When I created my own network of young entrepreneurs who were constantly achieving big things, it was a constant reminder to myself that the grind and hard work will eventually pay off.

5. Create a belief and mindset when it comes to money. 

You can earn millions of dollars, but you still may not be a millionaire if you spend all of it. Lot of athletes deal with this struggle on a regular basis where they earn so much money and spend so much money, they still end up going bankrupt once their professional careers are over.

Create a mindset when it comes to your own money. How are you going to invest? How are you going to spend? What is your monthly budget? What are you willing to spend money on and how frugal can you really be? The wealthiest individuals aren’t always the ones flaunting fancy cars, it’s often times the guy driving a regular that doesn’t show it off.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared 5 ways self made millionaires earn more money than others. What are some ways that self made millionaires earn more money than others?

5 Things All Serial Entrepreneurs Should Know Before Jumping In Too Deep

In this post, I share 5 things all serial entrepreneurs should know before jumping in too deep. Serial entrepreneurship has become extremely popularized in the last few years, but not everyone is aware of what it takes to successfully manage and maintain multiple business opportunities.

I became a serial entrepreneur a few short years after I began my entrepreneurial journey. I quickly realized that being a serial entrepreneur wasn’t easy at all and that I had signed up for a lot more than I knew. It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to successfully thrive as a serial entrepreneur in this world.

If you are a serial entrepreneur or are someone considering taking on multiple projects at once, I highly recommend you read this post. In this post, I share 5 things all serial entrepreneurs should know before jumping in to deep:

1. Stay Focused

Many people make the argument that as a serial entrepreneur, you can never be focused. Ignore those individuals because it’s possible to stay focused, but it’s also very easy to lose sight of things. With more businesses than ever being opened up, people will often times ask you to join them or for your help.

You have to learn to say no and stay focused on the projects that you can dedicate the proper time commitment to. If you can’t even stay focused on the multiple projects that you take on, then you’re going to be in for a nightmare.

2. Invest In A Strong Team 

When you have a lot of commitments and projects, it’s KEY that you put a strong team around you to support you. I quickly learned that it’s impossible for me to micro manage every element of my businesses and I had to put a solid team around me.

Understand your weaknesses and put people to compensate for the things you aren’t good at. After that, focus on your strengths and your main role in each of your projects/businesses and you’ll have a much better shot at balancing everything. Don’t work harder, just work smarter.

3. Expect Failure 

Throughout my short entrepreneurial career, I’ve failed quite a few times. Can you imagine how many times people who have been in entrepreneurship for 20-30 years have failed? You must expect failure especially when you’re a serial entrepreneurs. Good entrepreneurs know when to give up and when not to give up based on the results they see.

It’s okay to expect failure in one of your projects especially if you’re tackling so many different things. Be prepared to deal with failure in a proper manner and don’t get too obsessed with reviving a project that might have no future.

4. Approach Everything Methodically

Everybody has their own idea of what it takes to build a successful business. There is no right or wrong way of doing things, it’s just a matter of what works for you. I personally am a very strong believer in the lean startup method and I try to apply that to almost every type of business that I build.

Whatever your method is, just make sure you apply a form of it to all your projects and businesses. Being a serial entrepreneur, it might be easy to try taking short cuts but it’s a terrible idea. There is no shortcuts for success, so stay focused and approach everything methodically.

5. Have Patience 

Most serial entrepreneurs jump into multiple things because they’re impatient and they’re extremely hungry for success. That’s how I was starting off as I didn’t want to wait and trust in the process. Instead, I thought it was smart for me to not have all my eggs in one basket and to see what works.

I quickly did learn however that you need patience. The road and journey to success is never easy. You’re going to deal with tons of obstacles and overcoming challenges takes time. You need to exercise extreme patience so you can succeed.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared 5 things all serial entrepreneurs should know before jumping in too deep. What are some things you learned as a serial entrepreneur?

6 Outside of the Box Strategies For Growing Your Website Traffic

In this post, I share 6 outside of the box strategies for growing your website traffic. These techniques are unique, but almost any website can apply it to their marketing plans.

Many people often times share their website or project and ask me how they can bring more traffic to it. Well, no two websites are the same so there are always different ways to drive traffic to a website.

However, every website owner can integrate a few unique strategies to create more awareness and draw more traffic to their websites. In this post, I share 6 outside of the box strategies for growing your website traffic:

1. Start A Blog 

Whether you’re an e-commerce website or a web application, you should always be blogging. By creating good content, you’ll create another way for your website to be found. Starting a blog has become easier than ever with the tools and resources available on the internet nowadays.

You can write blog posts yourself or you can outsource it by hiring someone competent enough to create good content. As long as your content is informative and provides knowledge to others, you’ll be taking the right steps to driving more traffic to your website.

2. Be On Podcasts 

One of the best ways I was able to drive traffic to my websites was by being everywhere. I took the opportunity to appear on podcasts, get featured on blog posts and get interviewed by popular influencers.

Find podcasts or interviewers that are in the same industry/niche you are in, reach out to them and see if there’s anyway you can get involved. Use that time to expose your name, brand and personality to this audience. This is a great way for you to drive more traffic to your website.

3. Post In Forums

Every industry or niche has forums where people are consistently engaging. Find these forums, create an account and provide value. Don’t be one of those individuals that constantly mention their own brand and continue to sell their products or services. Instead, be someone who provides value and has your own website information in your signature.

If people find value in your posts and answers, they’ll automatically check out what your website is about. That’s an easy, but effective way to drive traffic to your website. When driving traffic, you don’t want quantity but rather quality traffic.

4. Host A Webinar 

Some webinars charge money while others are hosted for free. If you want to drive more traffic and create more awareness for your website, host a webinar for free. Ask your followers to join you in your webinar and motivate them to share it.

People love free things. If people think they can get some kind of value out of something, they’ll absolutely take it especially when it’s free. Host a webinar on a topic that you’re an expert on and utilize your knowledge to promote your brand.

5. Utilize Quora 

Create a profile on Quora and start engaging in relevant industries and niches. When creating your profile, you should write a witty description and connect your web links. From there, search for and follow other influencers in your space.

After that, you’ll get a feed filled with questions that Quora thinks you’ll be able to answer. Take that time to find questions you can provide great expertise on and your profile will automatically show up with your answer. If users find value in your answers, they’ll be more prone to clicking your web link to see what it’s about.

6. Create A Community 

One of the best ways to drive a lot of traffic to your website is to build a community. A friend of mine was selling a product for eBook writers, but he was struggling to drive traffic to his website. He decided to create a community on Facebook by making a group where authors could promote their books to one another on the day of launch to boost their rankings.

He built this community and invited every author he could find to join. Authors saw a great value in this and it didn’t take much convincing to get them to join. From there, everyone knew that my friend was the Admin and the Manager of the community where he took time to let everyone know who he was and what he did. His traffic to his website went up by 12x within 3 months of starting this community.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared 6 outside of the box strategies for growing your website traffic. What are some things that have worked well for you?

8 Qualities All Great Leaders Share

In this post, I discuss and share 8 qualities all great leaders share. Leadership is something that takes a lifetime to master and great leaders can create a positive impact on just about anything.

Before you can be a great leader, you must understand what leadership truly means. It’s a person who leads a group of individuals for a common vision, goal or purpose. Great leaders are present in many different industries, niches and places.

In this post, I’ll share with you 8 qualities all great leaders share:

1. Selflessness 

Whether you’re leading a team, business or a project….the leader has to be one of the most selfless individuals. Selfish people don’t thrive as leaders because their needs come before the needs of everyone else. You need to prioritize the goal or vision that everyone is there for while allowing your own needs to take a backseat.

2. Focus 

Life is filled with distractions and many of your partners, team members and classmates may have a tough time focusing. People will get distracted, but your responsibility as a leader requires you to get everyone to focus and re-focus when necessary. You don’t have to lead with an iron fist, but you must have a great balance of kindness and forcefulness to ensure things get done.

3. Confidence 

Great leaders are confident individuals who believe in their own abilities allowing them to lead another group. If you lack confidence, it’s hard to get other people to listen to you. People gravitate towards leaders and they follow leaders having a strong desire to be under their wings. If others respect you, they will allow you to lead them.

4. Open Mindedness

Nobody loves a leader who is strung on his/her ways and refuses to listen to new options. Great leaders encourage their team members to speak their mind and help them find better ways to succeed. A great leader is not one who has the right course of action every time, but rather one who is willing to do whatever it takes to figure out the best plan.

5. Communication 

As a leader, your main role is to communicate and to bring everyone together on the same page. The best leaders are able to do this with ease while poor leaders struggle to do this. If everyone is on the same page and you have a drama-free environment, you’ll be in a great spot to succeed. However, when communication is poor….things begin to crumble quickly.

6. Accountability

As a leader, you are no different than anyone else on the team. Nobody is better than anyone else, it’s an even playing field and these are the best environments to create as a leader. If you make a mistake, you need to own up to it with complete transparency. Leaders need to follow by example. You can say all the right things, but your actions must replicate those words.

7. Decisiveness 

Great leaders are always decisive even when they aren’t sure. It’s always great to get opinions from other people and to keep an open mind, but at some point you have to step up as the leader and make a decision when nobody else can. As a leader, you don’t always have to be right. You just have to be willing to be a decision maker and live with the results.

8. Passionate 

If you aren’t passionate about your job or project that you’re working on, you cannot expect your teammates to do the same. Your passion and enthusiasm has to resonate to everyone else. I always see poor leaders upset when their team members aren’t enthusiastic when they are only there to be there. Great leaders are filled with passion on the projects that they work on.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared 8 qualities all great leaders share. What are some other qualities great leaders seem to share from your experience?

How To Use Twitter To Build Relationships & Find Customers

In this post, I discuss how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers. Find out how powerful Twitter is and how you can utilize it to your advantage.

A question I often get asked is, “What is your favorite social network for business?” People are often surprised at my answer. I think Twitter is the most powerful social network for me because of how quickly I can build relationships, find customers and get information about a specific topic or niche.

Twitter is so helpful for me because I think it’s the only social network catered towards busy individuals. It’s such a minimalist platform that doesn’t require a lot of work. You click one button to connect with someone and you’re forced to be short & sweet when introducing yourself to someone with their character limits.

In this post, I’ll share how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers:

Engage With Everyone 

I’m verified on Twitter and I have over 250,000 followers, but that doesn’t mean that I’m too busy to engage with people. If you want to find customers or build relationships with people on Twitter, you have to be willing to engage with your followers and others that reach out to you.

You don’t have to necessarily spend a lot of time engaging with these individuals because you cannot forget that Twitter is about being short & sweet, but it’s a great way to get acquainted with new followers. Not only that, but you should reach out and follow people that are interesting to you without directly selling your services or asking for something in return.

Utilize Hashtags 

By using hashtags, you’ll be able to find people engaging in conversations that pertain to whatever your industry, niche or field is. If you simply type in a hashtag such as #entrepreneur in the search bar, you can see a list of all the people posting tweets relevant to that topic.

Once you find these hashtags, you can then decide which individuals engaging in those conversations might be someone you’d be interested in reaching out. From there, you should follow them and maybe send them a short tweet introducing yourself while seeing where it goes from there.

Post Relevant Content 

The secret to Twitter is to post really good content. The great thing about Twitter is that you don’t necessarily have to provide original or unique content. You just need to post content that is REALLY good and RELEVANT to the people who are following you.

If you post articles from other resources that are informative, your followers will not care. If you share Tweets or thoughts that are thought-provoking or interesting, your followers will not care. The best way to build relationships and to even possibly get customers is to post a ton of great content through your Twitter feed.

Take It Outside of Twitter

As I mentioned, Twitter isn’t probably the best place to find your next best friend or business partner. Why? Because there simply isn’t enough resources or tools that will allow you to build an in-depth relationship. If you want to be successful with your usage of Twitter, pursue the proper relationships outside of Twitter.

Meet up in person for coffee or set up a phone call or Skype call to meet other people. Especially if it’s someone that you think can become a customer for a service, product or idea that you offer. For friendships and business relationships, you should absolutely find a more open forum where you can connect and network with someone that you meet through Twitter.

Conclusion 

In this post, I shared how to use Twitter to build relationships & find customers. What are some things that have worked well for you when it came to Twitter?

5 Poker Skills That Translate To The Business World

In this article, I share 5 poker skills that translate to the business world. The world of poker and entrepreneurship is very similar and this article highlights quite a bit of things that cross over.

One of my favorite hobbies is to actually play poker during my downtime for fun. The great thing about playing poker is that I am constantly meeting amazing entrepreneurs and business owners. It seems like poker is a very popular choice amongst those in the business world.

The reality behind it is that poker and business has a lot of similarities. The two worlds have a lot of things in common and lots of life lessons and skills actually transfer between the two.

In this article, I share 5 poker skills that translate to the business world:

1. Money Management 

Whether you get an investor or get some revenue yourself, you need to have great money management to be successful with a business. The quickest way to go broke in poker no matter how good you are is poor money management. Risk too much of your money at one time and things can go wrong causing you to lose everything that you have in poker.

When it comes to business, you need to manage your money really well. Nail it and then scale it. Don’t scale too fast because things will end up getting messy. As a business owner, you have to manage your money well and make smart decisions just like you would in the poker world.

2. Reading People 

The best poker players know when to call an opposing player because they’re bluffing and fold when they feel as if they are beat. This is known as poker psychology or being able to read your opponents on the table. Business is very similar because you have to read other people.

Whether it’s employees, potential customers or investors, it’s crucial that you’re able to read other people in the business world. Understanding certain situations is extremely pivotal because it allows you to access everyone involved and make the best choice based on your read on everyone.

3. Patience 

Poker is a game of patience. Impatient people don’t do well in the long run because you cannot play every single hand that you get. Most good players actually fold over 80% of their hands while only calling about 20% of hands. Business and entrepreneurship is the same thing.

You’re not always going to be successful in the world of entrepreneurship. You need extreme patience when trying to build the next big company. If you fail, you need to be patient, review the situation and bounce back.

4. Risk Management 

In poker, you have to manage your risk. Is it smart to put all your chips into play with a mediocre hand that may or may not win? Probably not. You want to get all your chips in when you have the best hand in the game, but you’ll probably be a lot more careful when you don’t have such a good hand.

Business and entrepreneurship is the same thing. You must be able to manage risk when it comes to spending money on marketing, making big decisions and rolling out features to your customers. You must reflect and understand the type of risk that is involved before making any decisions.

5. Always Sell 

As a poker player, you’re constantly selling. Every bet, every reaction and every move you make is a sales pitch to the rest of the players on the table. You’re trying to get opponents to believe that you have a strong hand when you’re bluffing and that you have a weak hand when you want them to call.

In business and entrepreneurship, you need to always be selling. In poker, by selling others you’re getting paid. In business, it’s the same thing. If you don’t sell, you won’t get paid. As a result of that, you should always be hustling and trying your best to sell yourself and services to others.

Conclusion 

In this article, I share 5 poker skills that translate to the business world. What are some poker skills that you think are important for business owners to know about?

How To Transform Your Failure Into Massive Success

In this post, I talk about how to transform your failure into massive success. Failure is tough to deal with, but if you have the right mindset….you can change your fortunes quickly.

Failure is a topic that is often debated and many motivational speakers charge thousands of dollars to show people how to overcome failure. Personally, I experienced a ton of failure when I started my entrepreneurial journey.

When I experienced this failure, I really had two choices. I could give up and let failure define me OR I could get back up stronger, better, faster and wiser. It’s clear that I made the second choice, but it wasn’t always that easy.

In this post, I’ll share with you how to transform your failure into massive success:

Build Extra Motivation 

If it’s not challenging enough, it’s probably not as enjoyable when you do get it. Think about the girl that you have to chase for months and plays really hard to get, when you get her….you feel like a million bucks.

By failing, you realize just how hard a certain goal is to attain. That will provide you with additional motivation to work harder and to focus more if you really want to be successful with it. Failure is something that is sure to challenge you and that will provide you with the extra motivation you need to bounce back.

Reaffirm Your Beliefs

When I failed, it was a great moment for me to sit back and reflect on myself. Failure allowed me to grow as a person and to be critical of myself at all times. When you fail, you need to sit down and reflect on yourself as a person so you can improve yourself.

Think about your beliefs, your work ethic and who you are as a person. What are things you think are hampering your chances of success? What are things you can improve? This foundation gives you a variety of different things to work on over time.

Build A Support System 

When I failed, I quickly realized that I had to vent and share my thoughts and feelings with friends and family. One of the best ways to deal with failure and also bounce back from it is to share your thoughts with those that you are close with.

Not only is it nice to clear your mind and say your thoughts out loud, but it’s always good to hear what opinions others can offer in your situation. It made me a lot stronger and it was good to see how much faith my friends and family had in me. Seeing how much belief they had in me made me want to work even harder to prove their thoughts right.

Understanding Failure 

The best way I was allow to turn my failures into massive success was to change my thought process on the idea of failure. Failure isn’t something that defines you. Everybody fails all the time, it’s only if you quit/give up that you allow failure to define you.

If you bounce back, then failure becomes an event. It’s something that happened at a time and a place, but it doesn’t define you or your business. In business and entrepreneurship, you only have to be right once. You can fail hundreds of times, but as long as you are right once….you can be massively successful.

Conclusion 

Failure is something that everyone has to deal with at some point in their life. While it can be devastating to fail, as long as you change your mindset…..you can turn failures into massive success.