I just read an article about speed writing, and the article reveals what I considered as one of the best tips I’ve read so far:
What make a writer excellent are deadlines. Writers are the most productive when pressed with deadlines – They can produce articles that are top-notch in quality and quantity. So, in order for you to be a writer that produces better quality in shorter timeframe, set yourself a deadline to meet.”
In a sense, being an entrepreneur is similar to being a writer (and many writers are, indeed, entrepreneurs.)
Entrepreneurs are defined when they are faced with problems – Limited resources, tight deadlines, management issues, sales/cash flow problems, lawsuits, and more. And yes, those problems are common if you are entering entrepreneurship full-force (so if you haven’t experience most of them, you ain’t seen nothing yet!)
Entrepreneurs who have experience failures know exactly what resilience and perseverance are. Many who are succeed have fumbled a couple of times, before creating a success formula of their own – A trade secret that separate great entrepreneurs with the mediocre ones.
Wanna know a secret to success?
Milestones.
Yes – if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, in every sense, you need to set yourself milestones.
Milestones are goals that you have to reach in order to move on to the next. Without milestones you will become a mediocre entrepreneur, if you are lucky enough to survive the competition.
Milestones can help you measure your entrepreneurial effectiveness and efficiency.
A case study: me
Here’s how you should do it (my personal success formula).
You hate your job and off line entrepreneurship seems not interesting enough for you – You want to make a living online by any means possible.
You know nothing about IT and the Internet, but you do know that the opportunities are there (What is Twitter anyway? Facebook – A book with a face on it?).
You set yourself a master plan containing one, single plan: Learn as much as you can in three months, and take off making money online. This is your first milestone.
How I learn making money online? I study the Internet 16 hours a day. I invest my time heavily on this, so this gotta work, or else!
I learn that make money online comes with many flavours: online business, freelancing, website/blog flipping, and more. I learn and explore each, nights-in and nights-out.
WordPress? I just learned about WordPress a year ago. I learn that blogging can be one of your paths to success. And there are other, multiple things I learn, including affiliate marketing.
Then, the time comes: I go full force, setting sites and everything goes automatically since then.
My second milestone is to make $100 a month online. My third milestone is to make $500 a month online. My forth milestone is to make $1000 a month online, with 50% of it on autopilot. And so on – I also aim to increase my dollar-per-hour rate in each milestone, in a way that I can reach financial independence from my money making online activities while working as little as I can.
Set your milestones today
I become a webpreneur because I set milestones, not because I have the programming ability and the money to invest in (and oh, I forgot to mention. My initial investment is $0 and soon after I invest $1000 in domaining and start everything off the roof.)
You have to set your milestones, and if you can, write or print it in bold and extra-large font, and tape that on your office’s wall. Set your very own deadlines in achieving the milestones, as deadlines will give you a sense of urgency, thus making you a great entrepreneur.
Good luck on your entrepreneurial endeavours!
Ivan Widjaya
Milestones are set to beat in the shortest time possible
Image by robinsonsmay.