Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy journey. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as a “person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially business.” This definition is antiquated because business used to mean having a brick and mortar store. With the invention of the internet, the need for a store has been dramatically depressed for many industries. In fact, Pofeldt (2013) reported that 69% of all businesses start from the home and that 59% of established businesses are run from home. In this article, we’ll explore how some of the great business minds like Ariana Huffington and Richard Branson achieved their success and apply lessons for future entrepreneurs.
Where did Ariana Huffington start from to become the successful entrepreneur she is today?
If someone mentions The Huffington Post, most people will instantly know that it refers to one of the largest internet news sites in the world. It’s founder, Ariana Huffington, stated that there are four things she does each day to successfully build her empire: get adequate sleep, meditate, exercise and eat a healthy diet (Umoh, 2016). By doing these four actions consistently, she built the Huffington Post to a scale so large that it AOL bought it for $315 million (Yarow, 2013).
What daily habits drive Richard Branson to be so successful?
Richard Branson is one of the most well-known entrepreneurs in the world. In 1972 he started his journey with the founding of Virgin Records. Fast forward 46 years and he has built the empire to include, but not limited to a mobile phone business, an airline and train system. He’s also worth about $5 billion and has been knighted by the queen of England. Not bad for 46 years of work. Branson personally credits this to his daily habits of:
- Waking up at 5am,
- Exercising,
- Eating breakfast with his family,
- Planning the day ahead (Branson, 2017).
What things can you do to be successful?
Based on the stories of these two entrepreneurs, we can tell that making your health and sanity is the basis for any level of success. Though Branson and Huffington have achieved bigger levels of success than most people can dream of, they still have the same 24 hours in a day that we all do. To insure you make progress on your entrepreneurial journey, you can block out specific times in your day for different business building activities.
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Getting enough sleep
Research shows that getting enough sleep allows new pathways to form in the brain (Yang et al., 2014, p. 1173). These new pathways solidify the new information entrepreneurs must take in on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. If venturing onto social media and building a following over time is one of your goals, you need to get the required 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Doing so will allow patterns you see in your social media analytics to stay fresh in your mind and give you the ability to expand on previous successes.
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Eating healthy foods
Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of eating convenience foods, so they can work more hours. This is a mistake. Selhub (2015) a writer for Harvard School of Public Health, reported that eating junk food promotes brain tissue injury, even leading decreased energy levels. Prolonged exposure to these junk foods can lead to decline in mood and might cause an error in judgment when responding to a critic on social media.
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Plan in advance
Additional research shows that the quality of decisions we make throughout the day declines because of the physical actions required by the brain (Tierney, 2011). This explains why typically rational people have angry outbursts or a sensible eater gives into binge cravings. If a task, such as planning a social media campaign needs to happen, do it early in your morning before the brain is mentally exhausted and delegate decisions whenever possible.
References
Branson, R. (2017, April 7). My (usual) daily routine. Retrieved from https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/my-usual-daily-routine.
Pofeldt, E. (2013, June 4). U.S. Entrepreneurship Hits Record High. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/elainepofeldt/2013/05/27/u-s-entrepreneurship-hits-record-high/#6ac6c7fb1d79.
Selhub, E. (2015, November 16). Nutritional psychiatry: Your brain on food – Harvard Health Blog. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626.
Tierney, J. (2011, August 17). Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html.
Umoh, R. (2016, June 27). Arianna Huffington says she became successful after she started doing 4 simple things every day. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/06/arianna-huffington-became-successful-after-doing-these-4-things.html.
Yang, G., Lai, C. S., Cichon, J., Ma, L., Li, W., & Gan, W. (2014). Sleep promotes branch-specific formation of dendritic spines after learning. Science, 344(6188), 1173-1178. doi:10.1126/science.1249098.
Yarow, J. (2013, October 16). FINALLY: We Know How Much Money Arianna REALLY Made From The $315 Million Sale Of Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-arianna-made-from-the-sale-of-huffington-post-2013-10.
Category: Advanced Tactics