When I'm advising my clients about business strategy, I often speak about focus. And one of the benefits of cultivating a laser-like focus is, quite frankly, knowing what not to waste your time and energy on. Focus means staying in the zone, maintaining a state of heightened concentration and absorption that psychologists often characterize as flow. It's the kind of immersion that you can see in great artists at their peak or world class athletes at the top of their game. It's also something that leading entrepreneurs cultivate.
Here are three quick tips to help fine-tune your entrepreneurial focus.
- Make it Fun
- Stop and think about what you love to do. The more centered your work is, the more it emanates from one of your core strengths, the easier the work will be, the more fun it will be – and, in fact, the less it will feel like work. Picture for a minute how focused and immersed children are when they play. That's exactly the type of focus you want to bring to your business.
- Knowledge & Empathy
- You must be able to talk fluently and intimately about the deepest fears and highest ambitions of your clients. This sort of knowledge cannot be faked – you have to own it.
- You must also genuinely care about the challenges, desires and goals of your clients – and moreover have an authentic desire to help them succeed. Doing so makes you relatable and credible and, further, makes the competition irrelevant.
- Trust Your Gut
- Your intuition should play a big part in developing your focus. The important thing is not to over-complicate or over-analyze things. In other words, don't get in your own way.
- Successful entrepreneurs are famous for turning to their instincts at key moments in the evolution of their businesses. As Steve Jobs famously said at the Stanford Commencement in 2005: "Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
Related: Lessons from the Red Ink: 26 Tips to Help Boost Profits
Children. Artists. Athletes. And of course visionary entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs – all great signposts on the path to staying focused.
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Business Strategist, Sophie Boyko teaches Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs how to grow a profitable business. Sophie is an aspiring, thought provoking leader and in-demand speaker, trainer and coach. Sophie has helped hundreds of North America's entrepreneurs with the skills and growth strategies they need to communicate with influence, make an impact, inspire action and build revenue. Connect with her on LinkedIn, ca.linkedin.com/in/sophieboyko
Related: Strategies for Growth
Tags: social, leadership, business, strategy, entrepreneur, flow, focus, immersion, intuition, niche, youinc, digital, Steve Jobs
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