HOW TO THINK & DREAM CREATIVELY

Creative thinking is simply finding new, improved ways to do anything. Step one: Believe it can be done. Here is a basic truth: To do anything, we must first believe it can be done. Believing something can be done sets the mind in motion to find a way to do it. Your mind will create a way if you let it. Eliminate the word “impossible” from your thinking and speaking vocabularies. Impossible is a failure word. The thought “It’s impossible” sets off a chain reaction of other thoughts to prove you’re right. “Average” people have always resented progress. Traditional thinking is personal enemy number one for the person who is interested in a creative personal success program. Traditional thinking freezes your mind, blocks your progress, and prevents you from developing creative power. Be an experimental person. Break up fixed routines. Expose yourself to new restaurants, new books, new theatres, new friends; take a different route to work someday, take a different vacation this year, do something new and different this weekend. Be progressive, not regressive – not backward, regressive thinking but forward, progressive thinking. Successful people, like successful businesses, live with these questions: “How can I improve the quality of my performance? How can I do better?” The successful person doesn’t ask, “Can I do better?” He knows the can. So he phrases the question: “ How can I do it better?”

Dream Big with a Vision

1. Dream Big If you want to be larger than life, you need a dream that’s larger than life. Small dreams won’t serve you or anyone else. It takes the same amount of time to dream small than it does to dream big. So be big and Bold! Write down you One Biggest Dream. The one that excites you the most. Remember, don’t be small and realistic; be bold and unrealistic!! Go for the Gold. the highest you can possibly achieve in your field. Aft 2. Vision Without a vision, we perish. If you can’t see yourself winning that award and feel the tears of triumph streaming down your face, it’s unlikely you will be able to lead yourself or others to victory. Visualize what it would be like accomplishing your dream. See it, smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it in your gut.

Capital and Your Business

What’s particularly interesting about the critique is that as businesses grow, owners often have to– cede some degree of control. This is the case whether taking on equity or debt. The reality is very few businesses are wholly-owned successes that continue to fund themselves through their business savings or cash flow alone. I think both the investor/equity community, from angels to venture capitalists, to the lending community from banks to alternative lenders, when putting aside their respective business interests, all agree that self-funding is the way to go if you have the option. But very few companies live in that world.

Many would argue that outside investors with an equity stake are no more incentivized towards the desired outcome of the business owner than the lender who seeks repayment on the loan. All of us who study business know that equity investments can come in the form of strategic investors or simply cash. We also appreciate that often equity investors enjoy privileges like rights to first profits or exits/payouts, which owners may not. A tough pill to swallow for the business owner.