For the eight and last article of this series about how to be successful as an Entrepreneur, I will talk about a very important subject that many times is left behind, because we don’t considerate it important or because we just don’t have the time. I’m talking about the final evaluation you should make every once in a while, where you evaluate your performance and see how you can improve in the future.
In the last step, the idea is to analyze what you’ve done in the last months, to see where you have made mistakes, how you could do something better, and in general, how to optimize your overall performance.
In the 8 articles I’ve published for this topic, I’ve dealt with different aspects that I consider very important to be successful as an entrepreneur. As you can probably imagine, there are many more items to add to this list, but the one’s I’ve shared are basic ones you should keep close and handy.
As entrepreneurs, it is normal to fail or at least, to not be as successful as we wanted to be. Also, we will want more and better things as time passes by, so it’s important that each time we are better persons and professionals. For these two reasons, it is a good idea to analyze our actions and try to make them better for future situations.
I’ve found it very useful, that every couple months we take a couple hours from our busy schedule, to make an analysis of what we’ve done in the past. For this, ideally you should go to some place where you won’t be interrupted. For instance, if it’s easy for you, go to a park or the country. Disconnect form your daily life, which means among others, to turn off all electronic devices, including your cellphone. Have a piece of paper and a pencil or a computer (this is the only device you can have turned on, but with no Internet access), as you will be taking notes.
For this exercise, analyze what you’ve been doing in the last couple months. What did you accomplish? What was great about this? What mistakes did you make? How could you correct these mistakes? It is important that you answer these questions with a cold heart and mind, not being excessively tough on yourself, but neither going to the other extreme.
I’m sure you’ve done many mistakes. Analyze what would you do different, if you had the opportunity to go back and make things in a different way. This activity will prepare you for the next time you go through a similar situation. However, keep in mind that you will never have control of every situation. So prepare yourself, but realize things will never go exactly as you plan them.
I advice you to do this exercise frequently. Also, analyze the other 7 steps form this series and add your own additional steps. Success is never guaranteed, but all these elements will minimize errors and failure.