Tip #1 for Young Entrepreneurs: Know What YOU Want Out of Life

Imagine, if you will, that you’re a basketball player. You have all the talent you need to be successful and you’ve come up with a regiment for yourself to succeed at your current level. Part of that regiment is just showing up. Another part of that is having someone there for accountability purposes and helping you progress – a coach. But a major MAJOR part of it is having a vision of where it is that you’re going to go and how you’re going to get there (a coach helps with this too!) Because you can run drill after drill, and shoot free throw after free throw – that’s true. But why are you doing that? If you don’t have a picture of yourself winning the game, then there’s not too much incentive to actually do that. To be frank, if you don’t choose to win, you automatically choose to lose.

In life, most of us believe we have a great plan that will get us what we want out of life. Usually it goes like this: Go to school, get good grades, go to college, get good grades there, (some random event???), get a well paying job, be able to support for your family of 2.5 kids and own your white picketed fence house.

That’s one scenario.

Here’s another scenario: Instead of your parents telling you that you should want, or what your boss thinks you should want, or even caring about what your buddies think of you, you should actually do what you want to do. Crazy, huh? Is that previously mentioned lifestyle what you want? Or did someone else give you that goal?

Most people who want to start their own business do it for one of two reasons. They have a great idea and they want to make it a reality. Another reason is that they want to live like a “rock star”. For me, the second was the case. Is yours? If the answer is yes, then would you mind doing a lot of work over a short period of time, that in the end, you’d have a lifestyle with time AND money? Maybe? Depending on what it is, huh?

Well… while you said you might do that, many of those that are considered great at life have already done that. Players in the NFL and NBA – they’ve spent their dues practicing day in and day out. Did they really want to spend all that time playing ball? Hip hop and rock stars? Yeah – they had to practice their talent as well and build up a fan base. Did they really want to do that show in that small town in that crappy bar? Probably not. But the entire time they had a visual for what they were seeking to accomplish. And that’s why they were willing to put the time in. Stardom just doesn’t happen. The lifestyle that goes with it – that just doesn’t happen.

The simple truth is this: right now, whether you know it or not, you’re putting together a picture. Like the picture on the front of a puzzle box. Each decision you’re making in life is a piece of the puzzle – right or wrong. What does your picture on your puzzle box look like? If you figure out out what you want that puzzle picture to look like, decisions in life get so much easier. You stop living just for the now, but you start living for the future.

When you start living for the future, then your best days aren’t behind you – they’re in front of you. That right there should help you get up every day because then you have something to live for. You have a vision. Start making every decision based on where you want to be in 5 years. A wise man once said, “A man without vision shall perish.”