After selling Reddit to Conde Nast in 2006, Alexis Ohanian has now rejoined the company full-time — and he’s had a lot of time to reflect. Earlier this year, he candidly shared what he learned on his long stint away while advising a number of other startups. In particular, he focused on what he didn’t do that made all the difference to his career, and one of the big ones was not choosing mentors or role models that seemed at all opposed to risk. Ideally, you want to surround yourself with people who will push you past your appetite for risk if that’s what needs to happen. Choose mentors, investors, advisors, who have broad vantage points and long histories of watching companies rise and fall. You want folks who have seen enough to know they’ve seen too much, and who will talk you into pushing yourself as a result. Ohanian experienced this first and foremost with YC Co-founder Jessica Livingston, who suggested that he go on a fake press tour in New York when he was just 22 — or rather, try to generate a bunch of reporter conversations out of thin air. At first, he was intimidated and balked. But, having been through a lot herself, Livingston was able to put it in perspective and make it sound low-stakes. He went through with it — and if he hadn’t, he never would have made the connection that led to Reddit’s sale.

To achieve your goal, you have to make a mental commitment that will be completely devoted to your business. In fact, you should ask yourself that how big of a business you are planning to have. The bigger the business, the more years you’ll need to track onto year one. One of the best pieces of advice that you can ever get in the whole process of building a business is related to the word bond. With this, it means that if you are making any commitment then no matter what happens you have to deliver the same on time. Poor decisions related to business can put your status as an entrepreneur at risk. Extra info can be seen at How to start a business online.

Don’t listen to those who tell you you can’t. You know best what you can and what you can’t. You must want to make money on your own in your field. You need to want to sell goods or services to make money. It all depends on what you want and not what others tell you. Do not let yourself be influenced by such negative opinions, but choose to start on the road with positive thinking, which will give you a broader view on all the opportunities that may arise. Wrong! Nobody is perfect and you can’t even do everything perfectly, even if you want it. Mistakes are always a good experience, which can help you in the future and from which you can learn a lot. But be careful not to repeat them, because this is important. Learn how to fix what you have broken so that in the future there are no such errors anymore. Although at first you might be discouraged, don’t do it! Just think about the good side of things and what you can improve at your business through the things you learned from this experience, to make mistakes. Read how to reduce risks when you start a business.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day challenges of running a business, but you MUST carve out time at least once a week to take stock of what you’re doing for the long-term health of your business. That includes marketing, training, employee development, community engagement and capital development. Sound investments today will pay dividends in the future. – Jim Judy, Try Franchising Source: https://theentrepreneurresearch.com/.