I gave three talks last month, all at very different types of event. One was in Bury, one in Guildford and the other in central London. On each occasion, someone came up to me afterwards and asked me what I thought makes a good entrepreneur?
Over many years now, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is one defining attribute, above all others, that marks out a successful entrepreneur. Self-discipline. Possess that and everything else is secondary. Without it, you’ll never achieve success. I think it was President Truman who said “In reading the lives of great men, I found out thefirst victory they won was over themselves … self-discipline with all of them, came first.”
In many ways, starting a business in the first place is one of the purest expressions of self-discipline. After all, nobody forced us to do it, did they? And no one else is to blame if we fail. Self-discipline is there at every turn for those of us steering our own ships. We need it to keep going when others give up; to save and invest when others would spend; to work superhuman hours; to go the extra mile to serve customers; to make that last sales pitch even after dozens have flopped.
If you look at all the self-help books, pretty much all of them can be summarised into a single sentence: develop self-discipline and the world is your oyster.
In other words, master yourself and you can master the world. And it’s true.
Of course, the opposite of self-discipline is a life of excuses. We all know plenty of practitioners of that particular art form – those who are lazy, or procrastinate, who are risk averse, or unwilling to forfeit short-term pain for long-term gain. These are characteristics of people who rarely, if ever, build a worthwhile business.
At the Guildford event, a gentleman told me that he’d love to start his own business, but he hadn’t got any capital. I tried to explain to him that he needs to start a business that doesn’t need any capital then, or be more imaginative in how he raises it, or get going on a shoestring and grow. But he wasn’t having it. Excuses.
In London, a lady told me how she’d love to give up her job to start her own business, but she couldn’t afford to do so. I explained that any important step in all of our lives usually requires sacrifice, had she thought about at least cutting her hours or trimming her outgoings if setting up the business was that important to her. She looked at me blankly. She’ll never make the leap.
Self-discipline is paramount in every one of us that leads a business, because we’ll all suffer crises and set-backs. We can’t give up until failure is inevitable; and even then, there are entrepreneurs who defy the odds and recover. All that keeps them going is self-discipline. There are several such members in EC and whilst I wouldn’t want to embarrass them here by relating their stories, they’re all happy to talk and there’s much to be learned from them (interestingly, at least three of them applied to join Inside Track. Who you hang around with matters, you see).
As you achieve more success, willpower and self-discipline remains important even as you amass wealth. You have to resist the temptation to become boastful, or a bully, or complacent. We all know people who have succumbed to delusions of grandeur because they lost the self-discipline that got them to the top in the first place.
It’s our self-discipline that enables us to carry out our plans of action and finish the task. It’s our self-discipline (or lack of it) that determines how many 90-minute sessions we get done this week. It’s our self-discipline that enables us to shoulder responsibility and avoid blaming others – even when the fault lies elsewhere.
No workforce respects a boss who lacks self-discipline.
Those who possess self-discipline typically reap advantages in all aspects of life: relationships, health, finances. The wonderful thing is self-discipline is a learned behaviour. It’s acquired through habit rather than being inherited in your genes.
Sure, it’s strengthened through practice and the impact it has is huge. Those of us with willpower and self-discipline know how to devote our energies into purposeful longer term goals. And we reap the benefits as a result.
I’m not pretending it’s easy – but equally you can’t pretend it’s not essential and, when you look in the mirror tonight, you know how you score on the “Self-Disciplinometer”. It’s the most predictive characteristic of where you’ll end up …
Have a great month.
