THE SINGLE BIGGEST REASON MOST ENTREPRENEURS FAILED IN 2014.

Exactly two years ago today, I woke up at 5 in the morning. Yes, I was suffering from our generation’s new   sleeping problem. It is caused by too much blue light, especially when you stare at your cell phone before sleeping, which leaves you awake after only a few hours of sleep. I thought it was useless to try sleeping any further, so I decided to get up and start working.

After checking my emails, I found myself on Twitter. One of the tweets took me to an article about Ruby on Rails on TechCrunch. That article took me to Codeacademy, where I discovered you can actually learn how to code.

Then I was distrupted by a call from a friend of mine. During the call, I realized that day was actually the birthday of a friend of mine so I got on Facebook where the top post on my newsfeed was about a new social network.

I went to check what it was about and holy sh*t, that SoundCloud the article was talking about was actually such a cool thing. I spent another two hours on it.

Read: Have you heard about the social network that wants to transform the Speaking Industry around the World? SpeakersBay.com is set to launch soon!!!  Follow @SpeakersBay

Guess what? I even came up with a new startup idea that could be much better than SoundCloud! Soon, my mind was exploding with amazing ideas and I was exhausted.

Oh wait, I just saw another tweet. This time it was about “HOW TO blablabla IN blablabla STEPS.” That tweet took me to Inc.com where I spent another…

OK, STOP. FC*K  ME, I WAS AN ENTREPRENEUR. But it was 2 a.m., the middle of the night, and I had truly wasted another day doing nothing but jumping from one website to another.

I had a headache and felt so much pressure on my forehead. I was in bed with my cell phone logged into Facebook.

Oh, I also realized, I never wrote to my friend to wish him a happy birthday.

That day, two years ago, I decided to change the way I work because I was finally so fed up with the one thing that made me fail over and over again:

“I WAS THE DISTRACTED MISERABLE GUY JUMPING FROM ONE WEBSITE TO ANOTHER, FROM ONE IDEA TO ANOTHER, WHILE GETTING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING DONE.”

OH, I ALSO FOUND IT COOL TO CALL MYSELF AN ENTREPRENEUR.

Distraction is the new illness of our generation of entrepreneurs. There is too much noise, too much information overload. If you don’t start controlling your environment, you are destined to FAIL.

Of course I had my excuses such as,

“But I am an entrepreneur and I need to be inspired,” “I need to learn new things if I want to become a successful entrepreneur and I am just curious”

Yes, it’s true. We, the entrepreneurs, are curious. Actually, the problem is, we are SO CURIOUS AND CRITICAL ABOUT EVERYTHING that we are constantly distracted while getting nothing done.

Here is what I did that has since revolutionized my life:

1.CONTROL YOUR ENVIRONMENT, YOU LITTLE BRAINY.

Entrepreneurs are the smartest people I have ever met. I don’t think it’s just because they are born to be so, but also because they use their brains much more than their peers working in the corporate environment, who are usually checking the clock to call it a day and go home.

Use this to your advantage and control your life. It all sounds easy, but how will you implement them on a day-to-day basishe things you will get done that day. Key: Don’t over-target. Be r

2.FIND THAT FAMOUS “ONE SINGLE THING” THAT YOU ARE INSANELY PASSIONATE ABOUT

Come on. It’s not rocket science. You are not looking for the love of your life. If you are reading this, I assume you have spent at least 18 years on this planet and have at least an idea of what you like and what you don’t. Remember, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Discover what you are really passionate about and what you would change in your life or people’s lives. Think about what one thing you can do better than others, or how you could improve an existing problem.

I understand you need inspiration, but wasting a million days in a row jumping from one distracting website to another won’t help you find the idea of your life.

How do you make sure you’ve found that one single idea? Maybe Mark Cuban can help with his  12 Rules for Startups

“Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession”

3.       

       3. YOU FOUND THE THING OF YOUR LIFE? GREAT! NOW DO ONE THING: START!

Stop the vicious cycle and just start. You will be impressed by how many people will contact you or will want to work with you once you begin. Scratch your idea onto a piece of paper (yes, just on a piece of paper) and walk out of your apartment. Talk to people.

By the way, get a life and stop that bullshit of, “What if they steal my idea?” Talk to as many people as you can. Let them steal it if they really will, but you will kick their ass.

Please also stop saying, “I need to find an investor.” How about making some sales first?

Read:  5 CLEVER IDEAS TO RAISE MONEY FOR YOUR STARTUP WITHOUT MAKING AN INVESTOR PITCH.

Maybe you will even realize you don’t need to give any share of your business to an investor. Even if you really need an investor, by making some sales, you will have a stronger hand to play.

In my case the former happened. After making some initial sales and seeing such a high customer repeat rate, I decided I was not willing to give up any share of my startup, PIQERS.

4. NOW THAT YOU’VE STARTED, HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD REMEMBER EVERY SINGLE DAY: SAY NO TO OTHER IDEAS, KEEP DOING ONE THING, AND DO IT REALLY WELL

Just because you started working on your idea doesn’t mean you won’t meet distractions along the way. Your mind will be about to explode with all the ideas you can apply to your business, the many features you can add to your product, etc.

Keep your focus. Say no to distracting ideas. If you keep doing that, another thing that will impress you will be the power of what you studied in your marketing book: word of mouth.

You will be truly impressed by the number of people coming back and asking for more work. Who cares about competition? You are just beating yourself. Isn’t that what matters in the end?

5. OH, BY THE WAY, STOP GIVING A FU*K TO WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK.

If you are an entrepreneur because you want to prove other people that you are successful, then please go back to step one above. Make sure you are following your passion because you have a vision and you are out to change something in this world.

Otherwise, this will kill you. You will have difficulty focusing and you will keep being distracted because you won’t really be passionate about getting anything done.

Now what? Stop wasting your time reading this article and get your ass back to work.

This article was also published on The Next Web. Posted by Ali Mese.

Credit: Ali Mese Founder & CEO @piqers

3 Tips to Become the Empowered Entrepreneur You Want to Be.

Young Entrepreneur PhotoCredit: Getty Images

Becoming the empowered entrepreneur you really desired to be is surely not going to be a bed of petals but the good news is, with these 3 simple well researched steps you are definitely going to be 90percent close to your desired entrepreneurial dreams.

If I may ask you; what's the difference between effective vs. ineffective people?

Effective people take responsibility for their own success.

In short, they don’t wait around for the company to hand them a mentor and a plan.

Effective people take action to get things done -- especially if they're entrepreneurs. They don’t wait around for help. That’s not to say that effective people don’t ask for help; they do. They seek help when they need it and find a way to keep moving forward when it’s not available.

That’s because effective people are simply Empowered.

Being empowered means feeling confident in your abilities and knowing you can access the resources needed to accomplish what you want. It means having a level of control over yourself and the world around you and being comfortable with what you cannot control. It's about thinking for yourself and being true to yourself. Being empowered enables you to get things done. Entrepreneurs, more than anyone, need to be empowered to succeed.

Often time’s young entrepreneurs often have great ideas but don’t know how to get out there and do it themselves.

Here are some "empowerment" tips they can use:

1. Take responsibility for learning what you need; (don’t expect others to teach you)

Entrepreneurs rarely suffer from a lack of academic or intellectual skills. But, more than anything, entrepreneurs need practical skills. They are all about getting things done, and that usually means learning on the go. Becoming fluent in social media is a necessary skill that many -- especially older -- entrepreneurs still need to learn.

You may not have the money to pay someone to teach you, either. This is when it helps to network with other entrepreneurs willing to exchange knowledge and information. You help them and they help you back. In the case of social media and political savvy, inter-generational pairings might be a wise choice.

Read: HOW TO KNOW YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE

2. Initiate action; (don’t wait for others to give you directions)

You snooze, you lose is the old adage. While you wait around for someone to tell you what to do, someone else is already doing it. As entrepreneurs, we don’t have that kind of time. We need to jump into gear and beat the competition.

Initiating action often involves some sort of risk. There’s risk of failing, losing money, wasting time and looking foolish, among other things. Being able to assess risk and be comfortable with it are necessary prerequisites to initiating action. Sure, there are plenty of books on assessing business risk. The psychological part, however, is trickier. You need to train yourself to be comfortable with ambiguity and fear and be confident you can pick yourself back up no matter how hard you fall.

3. Find ways to keep going; (don’t let setbacks stop you from making progress)

Resourcefulness and resilience are the keys you need to keep going in the face of setbacks. You need to be resilient to stay positive, keep your energy up and not give up. Entrepreneurs fail a lot! I repeat…Entrepreneurs fail a lot!! The successful ones don’t let those failures get them down. They learn from their mistakes and correct themselves and try again until they get it right. To build resilience, you need to practice failing -- and getting back up.

Being resourceful is important when you need to find alternative ways to get things done. Resourcefulness means there is no “right” answer; rather, there is always another way. Life rarely turns out the way you expect it to, and you need to be flexible and creative to steer around obstacles and break through barriers.

To develop resourcefulness, practice looking at things from different perspectives and questioning assumptions. You’d be surprised at how much we limit our own thinking with the assumptions we make.

So, go ahead, empower yourself.

Take action, don’t wait. Make mistakes and learn. Figure out how to get things done. That’s how effective entrepreneurs succeed.

See you at the top!

Awake the giant in you!!

Become the best you can be!!!

Join my “CONNECTION ECONOMY” follow me on Twitter @SpeakersBay  @samuelmao 

NB: SpeakersBay the social network for people that has quality things to speak about is launching soon. Kindly email me for an exclusive invitation to be among the first set of Speakers on SpeakersBay.

It’s a great day.

Read: 10 THINGS MARK ZUCKERBERG, JEFF BEZOS AND BILL GATES DON’T DO

Credits to JOANIE CONNELL (Talent Management Expert and Author)