Be Brave Not Safe

In a prior post I mentioned I’m now a SCORE “mentor in training.” One of the key requirements to becoming a fully-qualified / lead mentor is to co-mentor with 5 separate lead mentors, for 2 mentoring sessions each.

Earlier this week I began the process, sitting in on 3 client mentoring sessions. In these sessions we met with individuals who are considering launching service-related businesses. I shan’t provide additional details as to the nature of these services as we must keep our client information confidential. And, we certainly don’t want to create any competition for their potential enterprises 🙂

During these mentoring sessions I made a number of observations. Following are just a couple that impacted me the most.

• Each of these humble individuals had given considerable thought to a business idea, all of which would seem viable. Viable because:
  • We can easily identify other businesses offering relatively similar services (i.e,. the need exists in the marketplace).
  • Others offering similar services are not doing so in our client’s target market, aren’t doing it very well and/or aren’t clearly differentiated as to the true value they can ultimately bring to their customer. The perfect opening for an entrepreneur!
• The client’s potential success with their enterprise is NOT “primarily” about the business idea itself. It is primarily about the mental game…

A few apt quotes:

When you reach that elite level, 90% is mental and 10% is physical. You are competing against yourself. Not against the other athlete. ~ Dick Fosbury

Golf is 90% mental. Once you know how to hold the club, swing it, it’s all in the mind. ~ Dan Jenkins

Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical. ~ Yogi Berra

My personal experience tells me that this (90% of the challenge is mental) applies just as much to business as it does to athletics.

You see, a big/huge outcome these thoughtful individuals were looking for was – validation. Validation that their idea has merit and that “it” has a chance to succeed. In fact, one of our clients asked the question point blank. My response was something to the effect of: To answer that question, I’d like to put a mirror up in front of you, as this is ALL about you: your belief in your idea, yourself and how hard you are prepared to work to deliver a high quality service.

While we can provide specific business-related guidance (on corporate structures, finance, marketing, sales, operations, website, etc.) a big/huge ingredient to our client’s success is, quite simply, preparing for the mental game. Because, if they can win that, the sky is the limit 🙂

And, the American Dream is quite alive…

As such, my guidance to would-be entrepreneurs is to certainly learn all you can about business and the area(s) you wish to serve, which comes through training/education, work experience, engaging with SCORE, etc. That is the whopping 10% – truly the easiest part.

The other 90% is working on your mental game. This can be done by reading and listening to motivational and inspirational materials that serve to strengthen our self-image and resolve. For the convenience of the reader, MANY recommendations are available on this blog site. Simply click here to prepare for the mental game.

I can personally attest to the SIGNIFICANT impact that each and every book and audio program recommendation has had on my life (personally and professionally), and that of others who have similarly applied each. It is just a matter of doing it – every single day!

In closing, I have found that mentoring would-be entrepreneurs is an extremely rewarding experience. It just doesn’t get any better than being in a position to actively fan the flames of someone’s dream. And, providing concrete guidance to aid in their success.

All the best!