Steps for Becoming an Entrepreneur 7: Act, Risk and Modify

For this penultimate article of this series, where I share some of the most important steps for becoming an entrepreneur, I introduce 3 elements. These elements are complementary and should be taken seriously by everyone. You will probably see how these elements are closely related, not only among each other, but also with other elements I’ve introduced in past articles.

The first element is to act or take action. If you want your project to become a reality you have to take action and do whatever it takes to make it a reality. The project won’t become anything, at least nothing important if the you only think about it but don’t act. However, in previous articles we’ve taken further steps to make this a reality, including planning ahead and taking the plunge.

One important thing you have to keep in mind is that no matter how much you plan ahead, there are too many elements that are out of your control. So planning and preparing yourself will help a great deal, but by no means they will guarantee success. So when acting, rely on your gut, mind and experience to make the best possible decisions.

In many circumstances when acting, you will have to make decisions, some of them difficult. That is just life and here you have to take risks for things to happen. Here you’re trying to make this risk simple and easy to manage, but this won’t always be the case. Sometimes you will win, but in others you will fail.

One of the ideas behind risk taking is to manage risk. When you manage risk, you try to anticipate and weigh in the possible outcomes. If the risk is not too high, you might decide to take it. However if the risk is way too high, you might decide to analyze it better and find an alternative.

In some occasions you will encounter risk that are too high but the pay is so lucrative that you might decide to take it. At the end this comes to a personal decision. If you’re willing to stand both positive and negatives consequences, take the risk. If this is not the case, do whatever makes you more confortable.

When acting and assuming risk, you will fail at some time. Acting is a learning experience that never ends. There is no manual on how to always succeed and never make mistakes. If you fail, learn form the experience, apply changes and keep on going.

At any time you fail, you have several decisions to make. To start, you can decide to stop what you’re doing and never go down that road. For some people at certain circumstances, this will be the best decision. However, I advice you to learn from your mistake, make changes and don’t give up.

It is normal to fail, however you have to fail to learn and become a better person. Fail quick and learn fast is a mantra I’ve heard many times and it applies to this situation.

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