Today’s success trait is a very power one. Successful baby boom entrepreneurs must understand this trait and learn to use if effectively to secure their place in the market. This success trait is nothing more or less than personal confidence.
Personal confidence allows a business owner to entry the fray with assurance as to their ability to be successful. They understand the nature of their business and are convinced that they can overcome every obstacle. Confidence drives us to exceed the expectations of our own team and those of our clients/customers. While every business owner deals with the struggles inherent in business, those who have a sense of personal confidence know that none of their struggles will cause them to fail.
I need to caution us all in one area. Personal confidence can, left unchecked, lead to arrogance. The arrogant see themselves as people who cannot ever make a wrong decision and who are exclusively needed by their team, clients, and customer. Arrogance most often leads to destructive behavior and the eventual ruin of your business. Great care must be exercised with regard to personal confidence that keeps it from mutating into arrogance.
A healthy dose of personal confidence, on the other hand, will strengthen our relationship with our team, our clients, and our customers. They will develop a trust in us because of that confidence and we will be more often called upon to help meet their needs. As we act confidently on their behalf, a loyalty will grow toward us and our level of success will only be limited by our desires for growth and expansion.
The confidence of baby boom entrepreneurs comes from our time spent in the marketplace. We have learned from both our past successes as well as past failures. These lessons from the school of hard knocks have shown us that we can do much more than just survive. With these experiences we are less likely to be shaken by the current business climate and more willing to see things from all angles before making decisions.
I think that this point fits well as the center point of our current series. The reason is that personal confidence stabilizes us and gives us focus so that we can concentrate on strengthening all the other traits. With our confidence in the right place, nothing can stop us in the development of our “second career.”
So … Be confident, avoid arrogance, and watch success come to you!
Talk again soon ….
(By the way your comments, as always, are both requested and appreciated!)
