If you’re an entrepreneur, you probably have a great understanding of the value of branding for your company or product. But what about building a brand for you as an individual? While the former is vital to your success, one could argue that your personal brand is equally important. If you find yourself in a crowded, competitive market, a strong personal brand may be just…
Building entrepreneurial success is not easy. If it was, everyone would do it. And unfortunately, there is no single key to success when building your own business. Finding success as an entrepreneur comes from a culmination of different lessons, values, and hard work ethic. And while everyone’s journey will inevitably be different, there are a few constants. Here are a few of those lessons that…
Everyone has a definition of success they strive to achieve. The people you look up to and consider to have achieved success probably don’t have more potential than you do, so what is it that really contributes to becoming successful? Well, the reality is that how you do something is how you do everything; meaning, even the little habits you develop will either pave your…
People know who they have the potential to be. The challenge is seeing that process through. Self-development is an art. It takes time. It requires patience. It asks you to step outside your comfort zone. It is challenging — and that’s the point. However, the biggest challenge when it comes to self-development is the process itself. People really struggle with the path and all its twists and turns,…
“Compounding is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time.” — Albert Einstein The quest to become a better version of yourself often feels like a roller coaster ride. It’s hard. And it’s usually so uneven. You can end in failure. But life is a journey, not a marathon, so you always have another opportunity to restart and improve. Many people practically look out for secrets,…
Four years ago my sister got me something that would dramatically alter the direction of my life. In fact, it was probably the most influential gift I’ve ever received. It would help me find my true calling, become a writer at the Huffington Post, and go on a 5-month road trip across America by myself. You know what it was? One of these… A journal….
There’s a paradox with self-improvement and it is this: the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself. Think about it: The whole goal of improving your productivity is to reach the point where you never have to think about how to be more productive. The whole point of pursuing happiness is to reach the point where…
There’s a quandary I hear people talk about a lot in the self-improvement world which goes something like this: “Should I keep trying to change, or should I just learn to love myself?” The people posing this question almost invariably feel terrible about themselves, and further, they assume that’s par for the course. It isn’t. In fact this whole “self-love vs self-improvement” thing is a…
One of my favorite pieces of ancient wisdom comes from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus: We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. Sure, that may not be the real reason we have two ears and one mouth, but it reveals a useful pattern that we see repeated in communication in general. Communication essentially has two parts: transmission and…