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Henry Lopez
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Henry Lopez: 作为一名企业主,我认为最重要的两项责任是做出决策和接受个人错误。创业之路充满挑战,需要具备特定的个人特质和技能。我必须有勇气做出艰难的决定,并承担相应的责任。我需要认识到,并非所有决策都是正确的,但我必须有从错误中学习并继续前进的意愿。我享受成为那个做决策的人,即使这意味着要承担压力和风险。我明白,害怕犯错会阻碍我的发展,所以我努力克服这种恐惧,并相信自己能够做出正确的选择。当然,我并不喜欢失败,但我会尽快从失败中恢复,并从中吸取教训。我接受自己不完美的事实,并努力在决策中保持理性和客观。我相信,通过不断学习和实践,我能够成为一名成功的企业主。 Henry Lopez: 我认为,创业者需要具备承担责任的勇气和能力。我必须愿意成为那个做艰难决定的人,即使这意味着要面对压力和风险。我需要认识到,并非所有决策都是正确的,但我必须有从错误中学习并继续前进的意愿。我享受成为那个做决策的人,即使这意味着要承担压力和风险。我明白,害怕犯错会阻碍我的发展,所以我努力克服这种恐惧,并相信自己能够做出正确的选择。当然,我并不喜欢失败,但我会尽快从失败中恢复,并从中吸取教训。我接受自己不完美的事实,并努力在决策中保持理性和客观。我相信,通过不断学习和实践,我能够成为一名成功的企业主。

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This episode focuses on the two most critical responsibilities for successful business owners: making decisions and accepting personal mistakes. These are tightly interrelated; you can't have one without the other. Embracing these responsibilities is key to success.
  • Making decisions and accepting mistakes are critical for success.
  • These two responsibilities are tightly interrelated.
  • Successful business owners embrace these responsibilities.

Shownotes Transcript

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中文

Welcome to the How of Business with your host, Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, run, and grow your small business. And now, here is your host.

Welcome to this episode of The Howa Business. This is Henry Lopez. Today, we're going to focus on the topic of responsibilities. Specifically, what I think are the two most critical responsibilities that successful business owners must embrace. And those are making decisions and accepting personal mistakes. You know, the list of responsibilities for a small business owner is long. It's definitely longer than just two. As small business owners, we face and must embrace a multitude of responsibilities.

multitude of realities every day. This requires a set of personal characteristics and skills that separate those who succeed in business from the rest who merely talk about starting a business someday. There are countless books and seemingly endless supply of opinions on this question of what does it take to be a successful business owner?

I agree with just about all of the content I have read on this topic over the years. And if I narrow my list, however, down to the most critical responsibilities that successful business owners must embrace, and I use that word purposely, embrace it, you take it on, you want it, it would definitely include making decisions and accepting your personal mistakes that you're going to make along the way.

In my experience, making decisions and accepting mistakes are critical to successful business ownership and the two of them are tightly interrelated. You can't really have one without the other, I think. If you accept responsibility and accountability for decision making and understand that a business owner has to make lots of those big decisions every day, then you must also accept that not all of your decisions will be correct.

You must, however, have the desire and the courage to make those decisions. To become a successful small business owner, you also must accept the responsibility of your mistakes. Try to learn from your mistakes and keep charging forward. Hopefully, over time, you end up making more good decisions than mistakes.

So let's talk a little bit more about what I mean by embracing decision-making. Ask yourself some of these questions. Do you enjoy being the one person who people come to for all of the big decisions? Do you embrace being in charge? Do you welcome having to make the hard choices?

Your answers to those kind of questions can help you determine if you're prepared for the challenges and responsibilities of small business ownership. As the boss and owner, you will be responsible for making the ultimate decisions that determine the success of your company. In the corporate world, in my experience in particular, there are often executives above us who have to make the really tough decision or perhaps the decisions are made as a group after gathering consensus, for example.

A board of directors may be responsible for the overall decisions that guide a large company leading to success or to ruin. In the world of small business ownership, conversely, the decision must be made by the owner. That's you. Perhaps you may have partners like I have or mentors whom you rely on to help you make those tough calls. But most often, it's the lone business owner who bears this ultimate responsibility.

This is Henry Lopez briefly pausing this episode to invite you to join me for one of my next live online workshops. With each of my affordable and interactive workshops, I'll cover a specific topic to help you start and grow your small business. Just visit thehowabusiness.com to learn more and register. If you need help getting your first business started, then

then my next Start Your Small Business online workshop may be just what you needed. During this 90-minute online workshop, I will provide step-by-step instructions and guidance on how to create your business plan and launch your first small business. This workshop includes the Small Business Startup Checklist, which outlines the 15 most critical steps involved with creating and opening your first small business, and

my business plan template, which you can use to create your own actionable business plan. Or perhaps you need help with planning for the growth or expansion of your current small business. If so, then I invite you to join me for my next strategic planning online workshop. This workshop is all about helping you to find a clear vision for your business, including the 10 steps to create your strategic plan, which gives you a clear strategy and actionable roadmap

to help you achieve continued success with your small business. Whether it's getting started with your first business or growing your existing small business, I can help you get there with one of my workshops. To find out more and register for a live online workshop, please visit thehowabusiness.com and then click on the resources link on the menu. Take the next step today towards finally realizing your business ownership dreams. I look forward to having you join me for one of my next workshops.

To succeed as your own boss, I believe you have to want to be the person who makes the difficult decision. It's not that you won't feel pressure and stress related to decision making, but instead it's more about your confidence and your ability to do so. Furthermore, it

It's probably one of the things you wanted which drove you to become your own boss in the first place. That freedom to choose your own path, to run your company the way you see fit, to be the one that makes those hard decisions. That's probably what drove you to become or is driving you currently to want to become your own boss.

There will certainly be times when you tire of being the one who makes the difficult decisions and sometimes you will avoid having to do so, like having to fire someone on your team who you have grown to like as a person but is simply not a fit for your business, or determining where to spend and where to cut back as you navigate the growth of your business. The fear of making mistakes and failing is often realized.

what makes us apprehensive about becoming the ultimate decision maker, which is what it takes to be your own boss. All successful entrepreneurs will tell you that making mistakes and learning from them is an essential part of the process. As Henry Ford explained in a quote that I like of his, quote, one who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to intelligently begin again, end quote.

I believe you have to plan to succeed, but be prepared to fail. That may sound somewhat self-defeating, but I accept that as a reality of being an entrepreneur. I can live with the probability that some of my ideas and decisions will be wrong, but I am confident that my experience and knowledge will lead me to more good ones than bad.

Most days, I have confidence in my decision-making abilities and I trust that my instincts will guide me in the right direction. On the bad days, the days when I fail miserably, I try to learn from my mistakes and look forward to the next day when I can start again.

Small business owners must accept that mistakes are part of the process. If you're making enough decisions, then odds are some of them will be blunders. Hopefully, no one or single one of those blunders is so monumental that it kills your business. Nobody is capable of avoiding mistakes if they are truly taking risks and pushing beyond the status quo. If you try hard to avoid mistakes, then you will likely overanalyze every move and become paralyzed.

paralyzed, either in the decision to start your first business or in where to take your business and where to spend and not spend and what decision to make next. You can't be afraid of making mistakes. You must accept this and find the courage and develop the

confidence over time that most of your decisions will be right. Others will probably be quick to point out when you do stumble. I suspect those people are probably not small business owners themselves, are they? It's certainly much easier to make no decision and remain on the sidelines, all the while critiquing those who do make decisions, of course. It's much harder and courageous to apply your intellect, experiences, your skills to make bold decisions, which in part are

is what business requires from us. This absolutely does not mean that as business owners, we enjoy failure. I hate to fail. But when I do, I try to get past the grieving and self-pity phases as fast as possible and try to learn from it. I understand that I am not perfect, even though I may want to try to be. I don't own a crystal ball that works consistently. And I have learned that with making lots of important decisions will come some poor results. That's just part of it.

The famous football coach Vince Lombardi summed it up nicely when he said, if you're not making mistakes, you're not trying hard enough. And when we do inevitably make a mistake, it's critical that we accept responsibility for it. Don't blame others for the circumstances of your situation. Accept the failure, learn from it, make any necessary changes to avoid repeating that same mistake, and then move on to the next decision.

The future of your business or the future of actually starting your first business, it depends on it. Embracing and enjoying decision making, yes, enjoying it and accepting the mistakes that are going to come as a result of it are essential to starting and building a profitable small business. When you make decisions, particularly the hard ones that help determine the future of your life and your business, you're going to make some bad ones along the way. Sometimes you make a lot of bad ones in a row.

The successful entrepreneur, the successful small business owner understands that this is part of the process and keeps moving forward. You must develop confidence in yourself and believe that you are capable of overcoming mistakes and making choices that keep you on the path to your success.

So what's one thing I would like you to take away from this episode? And that's that to be a successful small business owner, you have to be ready, willing, and able to take on the significant responsibilities that come with that.

that. You have to be ready to embrace those. And in particular, I think you have to embrace making decisions, being the person who makes the decisions. Again, perhaps you might have a partner, so you and that person might be the ones that have to make those big, hard decisions and accepting that you're going to make mistakes along the way and that that's okay. You'll learn from that and keep moving forward.

I would like to help you with making that transition into business ownership, or if you need help getting your current small business organized so that you can enjoy your life and realize your goals and your dreams. So I invite you to schedule a free business coaching consultation with me. During the call, what we'll do is we'll discuss your most pressing issues and questions, and then begin to define a clear path to your success.

This is Henry Lopez, and thanks for listening to this episode of The How of Business. We release new episodes every Monday morning, and you can also always listen to us at our website, thehowofbusiness.com. Thank you for listening to The How of Business. For more information, links, and other resources, please visit thehowofbusiness.com.