What would you say is the starting point for creating a successful business?
Different people may have different answers and all of them might be correct.
In my opinion, the absolute starting point for creating business success is to truly know yourself – to know and understand who you are as a person: your personality, strengths, weaknesses, behaviors, beliefs, motivations, emotional reactions and everything else that makes you tick..
The reason why self-knowledge is so important is because it increases the likelihood that you can create the results you want in your life and your business. When operating your own business, you can read every business tip out there, you can model the practices of others, and you can eat up every piece of self-help that comes across the computer screen, but it’s completely pointless if you don’t know yourself well enough to put the correct advice into practice.
So, self-knowledge helps you to figure out what you want to do, what you will enjoy, and what you are willing to let go. It helps you make much better decisions in terms of
- What type of business to start
- The services you offer
- How to perform your work
- The type of clients you work with
- How you interact with clients
- How you manage your business and resources to progress faster
- How to manage and grow your finances
- How you market and attract clients
When you understand who you are as a person, what you are willing to do, what you want in life and why you want it, you can start creating the business success you want. Because only then, you can change behaviors that don’t suite you, and direct your thoughts, plans and actions to achieve all the things you want.
But, getting to know yourself doesn’t just happen.
It takes conscious effort and a lot of stripping back the layers, one by one.
It also takes a lot of courage. (But it’s worth it!).
So, to help you on this journey of self knowledge, here are a couple of important thought-provoking questions to ponder on.
17 Thought Provoking Questions to improve your self-knowledge
- How would you describe yourself?
- What makes you happy
- What motivates you?
- What are your top five values?
- What are you most grateful for in life?
- What you are really passionate about.
- What do you dislike?
- What makes you angry?
- What do you fear most in life?
- What limiting beliefs are you holding on to?
- What empowering beliefs can you take on to help you achieve your goals?
- What bad habits do you want to break?
- What good habits do you want to cultivate?
- What are your greatest strengths?
- What do you want from your business…from life in general?
- Why do you want it?
- What will you do anything for (to have or get)?
Obviously, these questions are just a starting point, but knowing the answers and delving a bit deeper to understanding yourself better, will in the end drive your overall behavior and impact on all the decisions you make regarding your business and your life.
So take some time out today, and start stripping back those layers to get to the real you.
Let’s start creating your business success, today.
To your Success
Francis
