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© Cynthia Killion 2007 Excerpt
from “New Age Entrepreneur: Building Your Successful Lightworking Business”
Chapter 2THE INGREDIENTS
OF A SUCCESSFUL NEW AGE ENTREPRENEUR
Pre-view:
This chapter discusses the “top 5” qualities that make up a successful New Age Entrepreneur.
It tells specifically what these qualities are, what they really mean, and how cultivating them will help you to be
a more successful entrepreneur. This chapter will be helpful to you whether you are just starting out or
have been in business for awhile. There are many ingredients to a successful New Age Entrepreneur. Some of the qualities
you might find helpful in building your business are:
—Passion
—Compassion —Vision —Integrity —Inspiration —Self-motivation, and
the ability to be a self-starter —Courage, innovation, and a pioneering spirit —Flexibility, adaptability, and openness —The ability to promote yourself —A “can-do”
mentality —A
willingness to take chances —Belief in yourself and your product or service —Imagination & creativity —Good people skills —Organization —Practicality —Common Sense —Determination —Consistency —Commitment
Of all of these, I believe commitment is the most crucial element to your success (or failure)
as a New Age Entrepreneur, followed closely by consistency, passion, organization and self-motivation. Let’s
explore these in more detail.
Commitment &
Consistency
To
have commitment means to be willing to follow your dream to fruition through all the ups and downs and challenges of life.
It also means being devoted first and foremost to your own spiritual path, and allowing that devotion to your path
to fuel your rise to success. In its purest sense, commitment means that you plan on sticking to your dream until it comes true (or
more accurately, until you have brought it into manifestation). Commitment is a divine marriage between
you and your calling, and it is your promise to love, cherish, and develop your dream, even when things get rough. There are degrees
of commitment. Some New Age Entrepreneurs have a little and some have a lot. The most
successful (and financially well-off) entrepreneurs have a lot of commitment. Generally, the more
commitment you have to your dream, the more successful you will be at bringing it into manifestation. One of my favorite
sayings when I was first beginning as a New Age Entrepreneur was “there is no Plan B”.
I said this over and over again until it permanently implanted itself into my mind. It helped me
get through the first few years of building my business, when my commitment was constantly being challenged by the people
around me and the difficult circumstances in my life. If you’re serious about making it big in the spiritual business world, you may
want to commit that phrase to memory or write it on a sticky note where you can see it often…there is no
plan B. Now, maybe you’re not yet that serious about all of this, or maybe you’re just not yet sure
if you want to make that kind of commitment. That’s OK. Your dream will wait for
you until you are ready to awaken to it. And when you are truly ready to bring it into fruition, the commitment
(and the willingness to commit) will be there. In the meantime, know that
if you have commitment, but are a little weak in some of the other areas, you can usually develop those qualities over time.
On the other hand, it is difficult to get far in this business (any business) until you’ve mustered
the commitment necessary to make the best use of your other abilities. Related
to commitment is consistency. Basically, to be “consistent” as a New Age Entrepreneur
means to find something you like doing and to stick with it for a few years or more. It’s difficult
to build a successful business if you keep changing what you are doing every 3 months. You will have the
most success as a New Age Entrepreneur if your offerings are consistent over a long period of time. Of
course, some change is normal and necessary. Your dream (and consequently, your business) will
evolve over time. However, the essence of what you are doing essentially stays the same when you are on
the path of your true dream.
Passion
Passion is another important quality of successful New Age Entrepreneurs. Passion is what
keeps you (and others) fired up and excited about your dream long after the initial thrill of starting has worn off.
Passion is what fuels your business and your commitment to your business over the duration of its life.
The more passionate you are about what you are doing, the easier it will be to attract clients & customers.
People will be naturally drawn to you when you demonstrate passion, excitement, and enthusiasm for your products or
services. And these same people will continue to be interested in your offerings as long as you continue
to show passion and enthusiasm. On the other hand, if you aren’t passionate about what you are doing, it is very difficult
to get others excited about purchasing your product or service, no matter how good you are at delivering it. And
it is also difficult to avoid burnout. So when choosing a business for yourself, make sure you choose something
that you feel passionately about. Organization
Another quality that I believe is one of the top five among successful New Age Entrepreneurs is organization.
Organization is your ability to make plans and structure and arrange your life in a way that gives optimal support
to your dream. I admit that this quality is not as “poetic” as some of the other ones we have
discussed. However, it does seem to be one of those crucial qualities that separates the profitable
& successful New Age Entrepreneurs from the struggling and frustrated ones.
Generally, the more organized you are, the easier it is for you to be successful in business. And
the less organized you are, the harder it is. This is true no matter how talented you are or how
great your product is. Why? Because so much of operating a business, any business
(including a spiritual business), involves organizing forms, records, receipts, data, time, and life in
general. Getting organized can take some time & effort. However, you will find that being
organized actually saves you time and makes life easier. For example, it only takes 5
seconds (or less) to put a business-expense receipt in the appropriate folder the moment you bring it home. On the other hand,
it can take 5 hours to categorize & sort through a giant box of miscellaneous receipts and papers. If organization isn’t
your strong suit, don’t worry. The guidance and suggestions in this book will help you to get better
at it. Of course, you first have to decide that you want to get organized. Believe
me when I say that it will be to your benefit and to the benefit of your greater success to be organized. Self-MotivationThe final “ingredient” of a successful New Age Entrepreneur
that I would like to discuss with you is self-motivation. Self-motivation is the ability to do
what you need to do without anyone else lurking over you and telling you when and how it is needs to be done.
By definition, self-motivation comes from within. When you do something out of self-motivation you
are doing it because you want to and choose to, not because of someone else’s desires or expectations. Self-motivation
is key to success for entrepreneurs everywhere. When you work for yourself, you are both the boss
and the employee. This means that it is up to you to make sure you get out of bed on time each
day and do the things you need to do to keep your business running smoothly and profitably. It also means
that no one is going to “punish” you or fire you if you don’t show up on time for your work, nor is anyone
going to “make” you take care of your business responsibilities. When you work for
yourself, it’s up to you to inspire you to do what you need to do to be a success. This
is the essence of self-motivation. This means that you keep you inspired and working
towards your dreams, even if there is no one else to pat you on the back when you do a good job or tell you what to do next.
It also means that you do what you do because you love to do it, or at least because you choose to do it,
not because of some external pressure or demand.
*
Now
that you’ve familiarized yourself with the top five “ingredients” of a successful New Age Entrepreneur,
let’s do a little experiment that will help you to chart your progress as you work with this book. As soon as you are done reading
these instructions, I want you to take a moment to get quiet and centered. Breathe deeply and relax, letting
the cares of the day slip away. Allow yourself to slip into a quiet, contemplative state. Once you are relaxed,
take a moment to explore your levels of commitment, consistency, passion, organization and self-motivation. Ask
your Higher Self to show you how strong you are today in each of these areas on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest.
Record your answers below. QUALITY
SCORE ON SCALE OF 1-10 Commitment Consistency Passion Organization Self-Motivation
Note which quality you are the strongest in. This is the quality that you can capitalize upon to
build your business to its highest level. Also note which quality that you scored the lowest in (particularly
if your score was below 5). This is the quality that you will need to develop in order to reach your highest
success. If you feel like it, take a few minutes to journal about your current levels of commitment, consistency,
passion, organization, and self-motivation. You may wish to include ideas about how you can grow or increase
your ability in some of these areas. Or you might want to explore which one of these qualities seems the
most important & useful to develop at this time. Keep in mind that these
are not the only qualities you will need to be successful as a New Age Entrepreneur. As we discussed
in the beginning of this chapter, there are many qualities that contribute to your success in the spiritual business
world, including integrity, compassion, vision, belief in yourself, and flexibility. I’ve chosen
to write about these “top five” because I believe that they are the key to stimulating many of the other qualities
I mentioned earlier. I hope that you are beginning to get a sense of the ingredients of a successful New Age Entrepreneur.
I also hope that you are beginning to see both your strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur.
Don’t worry if you don’t possess every single characteristic mentioned in this chapter, or if you possess
some characteristics only to a lesser degree. Luckily, you don’t have to be perfect to be successful. Just focus on increasing
your commitment, consistency, passion, organization, and self-motivation, and the rest will follow. SUMMARY
There are many important qualities of a successful New Age Entrepreneur, including passion, integrity, innovation,
commitment, consistency, organization, compassion, courage, vision, inspiration, self-motivation, flexibility, creativity,
and a belief in yourself and your product or service.
Out of all these qualities, commitment is probably the most essential to creating your success, followed closely by
consistency, passion, organization, and self-motivation. Commitment
means being willing to follow your dream to fruition through all the ups and downs and challenges of life. Consistency
means finding something you like and sticking with it for a few years or more. Passion
is the “fuel” for your success. It is what keeps you (and others) fired up and excited about
your dream long after the initial thrill of starting has worn off. Organization means making plans and
structuring & arranging your life in a way that gives optimal support to your dream. Finally, self-motivation
is the ability to do what you need to do without anyone else lurking over you and telling you when and how it is needs to
be done. It’s
OK if you are weak in some areas and stronger in others. That’s normal. The best thing to do is to
capitalize on your strengths while trying to develop your weaknesses. To reach your highest level of success, you will need
to cultivate all of the “top 5” ingredients of a successful New Age Entrepreneur. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cynthia Killion is the originator of this site and the author
of "A Little Book of Prosperity Magic" and the workbook "New Age Entrepreneur: Building Your Successful
Spiritual-Based Business". She is also a successful psychic, astrologer, channeler and spiritual teacher.
To learn more about how you can work with Cynthia to create your own success, please click HERE. Feel free to visit Cynthia's personal website at www.cynthiakillion.com
Learn more about how you can receive guidance from Cynthia concerning your business
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