Everyone needs a little encouragement now and then. Or, in some cases, constantly.
When you’re building a business, there are many hurdles. Finding an office building in the right location, hiring employees, getting accounting software, choosing an effective sales enablement tool, picking carpet colors, and a million other decisions weigh on business owners.
So you need some encouragement. Your team needs encouragement. These quotes should be tattooed in your minds as you push forward looking for customers.
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” —David Brinkley
As a business owner, you probably feel like you’re getting bricks thrown at you daily. The costs of creating and owning a business, both monetary and emotional, can be high. Frustrations can come from, say, negative online reviews.
Take, for example, the Snowbird Ski Resort. After receiving a one-star review that criticized the slopes for being too difficult to ski, the resort started using that review in its advertising. Yes, the mountain is tough, and that’s the point! The resort owned that one-star review and became famous for it. That review was just another brick in the foundation.
“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy.” —Groucho Marx
Losing a client, missing a sale, having massive technical difficulties, or some other issue can feel like the derailing of your business. But the feeling is just that, a feeling. Even the largest businesses on earth experience setbacks. The difference is the attitude of the owners and the organization that keeps them moving forward.
You might need to come up with a new sales strategy, introduce a new product, revamp an old product, add tools like a free sales route planner app, increase cloud storage, or update old hardware. Do what is necessary, but choose your own attitude in the meantime.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” —Frederick Douglass
Successful businesses with zero struggles are like unicorns. They don’t exist. It’s almost universal that the greatest lessons have been learned thanks to struggles. It might take a door slammed in your face to realize that there are five better doors you can use.
“If … you are being really hard on yourself right now for something that has happened … it’s normal. That is what is going to happen to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are all going to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourselves and stand up for yourself, please.” —Taylor Swift
Yes, Taylor Swift. Sure, she’s a young pop star, but she’s built a successful brand and knows how to dominate record sales. This quote contains a couple of great lessons. First, you will get knocked down. In business, you will have plenty of “no’s” hurled at you. Second, it’s important to be kind to yourself, to realize that a failure doesn’t make you a failure and that a team that has failed can still be a winning team.
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one!” —Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has reinvented herself several times over. She has dominated the country charts, acted in movies, created the Imagination Library that provides free books to kids, started theme parks, owned dinner theatres, and donated millions of dollars for vaccine research. When she says you can pave another road, she means it. She’s done it.
You will stumble and fall in your business. Your team will stumble and fall. Are you equipping everyone (including yourself) with the tools you need to succeed?
Beyond all of the equipment, software, office space, and infrastructure, don’t forget that an encouraging word can do more for morale than you can imagine.
