It’s no secret that a great mentor is one of the most valuable things any young entrepreneur can have. Learning from other’s life experiences, those who have taken similar journey’s that you are on can be invaluable to your overall growth and success, both personally, and in business. So, when the Cleveland Business Journal reached out to our CEO, Vinnie Fisher, with this inspirational topic, we just knew it was a perfect fit! As a member of the Cleveland Business Journal Leadership Trust, Fully Accountable is excited to be featured amongst their ten members, chosen as industry and community leaders, to share personal insight on professional and personal growth!
It is with humble pleasure that we now share this motivational download of personal experiences from entrepreneurs just like you, with hopes that it truly inspires growth within your business and your life.
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Read the Full Article from Cleveland Business Journal below.
Each of us has probably received guidance from a respected mentor or encountered an inspirational message that’s stuck with us ever since. Further, simple life experience sometimes provides lessons that transform into the advice we most often share with others.
The members of Cleveland Business Journal Leadership Trust are community and industry leaders who have learned both from others and through their own wide-ranging experiences, and they’re eager to share the knowledge they’ve gained with colleagues and newcomers to the professional world. Below, 10 of them share advice that has changed their lives for the better.
1. View failure as a sign of progress.
I don’t believe in failure, but I believe in lessons, which have a silver lining. And the only way you will see the silver lining is by adjusting your attitude as it relates to failure. This mindset has changed my life significantly – it has allowed me to pivot and pursue opportunities that would not have been evident had it not been for failure. – Odell Coleman, ColemanWick
2. Don’t slow down.
Let your momentum keep pushing you forward. Sometimes that means not waiting until a project is 100% complete before pushing it to production or moving forward with the next thing. To paraphrase and blend a few popular quotes, “Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.” This mentality is everything when you’re leading any company, but specifically a tech company. There’s no time to slow down. – Kristie Beck, Proformex
3. Don’t just dream it; do it.
There’s a proverb that says, “A vision without execution is hallucination.” While this wasn’t advice given specifically to me, I mention it here because it’s something I live by every day, and it has been life-changing for me and my team. The media may sometimes glorify an idea and the vision of that idea, but it’s the ability to execute that separates the truly successful companies from the others. Ideas are great, but the ability to execute them is better. It’s the team holding each other to high standards, making smart decisions, and focusing on continuous improvement that will make a company successful in the long run. – Ray Lui, Sprinly
4. Be open and share opportunities with your entire team.
I have had the privilege of starting and growing a few large organizations, and early on a major hero complex caused me to take the lead on all of the roles. My strong “I’ve got it” attitude many times stifled open to feedback from valued members of my teams. One day, while breaking one of these wonderful companies, I had a dear friend say to me, “You pull a lot of levers, but you quite honestly are not amazing at execution and have many half-built projects in your company – worse yet, your team knows that but doesn’t have the room or permission to speak up.” That made me realize that openly and clearly communicating our direction and my abilities (and lack thereof) – along with communicating and living our values and expectations for a team culture – allows us to grow beyond my shadow and have healthier teams and organizations than ever before. As a result, each person on our team thinks about the organization, knows how they fit into our purpose, and steps up and serves the roles needed in our company. – Vinnie Fisher, Fully Accountable
5. Say ‘no’ strategically.
The things you say “no” to help define who you are. The idea is to hone the perception of your strengths and weaknesses in the minds of all the people who know you. When someone in your network needs something you are good at, you want them to think of you, and that means you have to be the strongest person who comes to their mind. There should be a certain set of skills, industries, or subjects that people come to know you for. If you’re not known for a specific thing, it will be harder for people to remember you. By politely saying “no” to opportunities that aren’t your core strength, you can hone people’s understanding of exactly what you do and don’t like to do. Over time, you will find that your network brings you much higher-quality opportunities that fit you well. – Andrew Spott, VividFront
Cleveland Business Journal Leadership Trust is an invitation-only network of influential business leaders, executives and entrepreneurs in your community. Do I qualify?
6. Solutions are made when we work together.
The best career advice I have gotten is to be of service and solve problems in helpful ways. This has been a way for me to organize my work because it encourages a focus on the success of organizations, local governments, and of people working together. I believe this is how progress gets made. – Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
7. Remember the future consequences of your present actions.
Things you do today affect your tomorrow. There are consequences for actions, and you need to be able to take personal responsibility for those choices and decisions. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, and I’ve always found it to be pretty easy to outwork my competitors. For me, that active mindset created a successful tomorrow, which is now today – and every day. Fail quickly and move on. – Rodger Roeser, The Eisen Agency
8. Pursue your passions professionally.
It’s not about what you do, it’s about why you do it. Throughout my career, I’ve pursued passion projects that often evolved into full-fledged businesses. By pursuing your passions professionally, you’ll find that you work with more rigor and will care more about your customer, your product or service and, ultimately, the reasons you started. I try to make sure that everything I pursue is purposeful for my goals. – Kumar Arora, Arora Ventures
9. Don’t just find clients – find the right clients.
You are more defined by the business you turn away than by the business you keep. We have found that the wrong client can become a distraction and hinder our efforts in helping the right clients. This philosophy has helped us build a very strong client base and true partnerships so we can focus on adding the most value to our clients. – Dave Moore, Vigilant Global Trade Services, LLC
10. Set daily goals for clarity.
Jim Rohn said, “Borrow from the future and set goals daily to make every day a success.” For me, setting goals provides clarity in what I’m setting out to accomplish each day. Even if I fall short of my goals, I still find that I’m more productive when I set them. Plus, it allows me to review what held me back, adjust and improve. – Keith Gutierrez, Manage Inbound
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