How To Boost Your Creative Abilities

Creativity and innovation are two important ingredients that contribute to the success of modern entrepreneurs. These help you create new insights, fresh ideas, and enhanced solutions to old problems. Here are a few tips on how to improve your creative abilities:

I. Think Like a Child

There are not limits to a child's imagination. As we age, we become less creative because we let rationality and logic stop our minds from traveling far away. Their lack of inhibitions allows them to come up with brighter ideas, crazier solutions, and more enjoyable stories. Trying to act like children is not being negatively childish and immature - it is only allowing your brain to push itself beyond its imaginative limits.

II. See Things with Brand New Eyes

Every time you are presented with an old scene, routine, hobby, or activity, pretend to experience it for the first time. Zen practitioners explain this as seeing things with brand new eyes. It allows you to become open to new angles, sights, and experiences that you have not noticed before.  

III. Get Out off the Couch

Throw away lazy habits and say goodbye to your career as a couch potato. Laziness freezes your thoughts and leads you into being stuck to the same old paradigms and patterns of thinking. It prohibits you from exploring possibilities.

Read: The Mind Map Book: Unlock Your Creativity, Boost Your Memory, Change Your Life 

IV. Sweat It Out

Exercise - it does more than giving you a supermodel body, it can also boost your creativeness. Research suggest that at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day can help a person produce more innovative thoughts. It can also release endorphins or "happy hormones". Endorphins are known to create lighter and more positive moods. According to psychologists, people come up with the most creative thoughts ever time their positive emotions are running high. 

V. Get Some Rest

Plenty of studies have proven that naps and quick breaks between work tasks can help recharge the brain. An overly stressed mind can no longer have the capacity to develop new insights and solutions. Resting replenishes the mind and makes neurons work more efficiently. 

VI. Dare to Fail

Do not be afraid of failure or making mistakes. Desiring to be perfect and becoming preoccupied about what others might think can paralyze your capacity for idea generation. 

VII. Open Yourself to Creative Pursuits

Just because you work in a corporate environment, it does not mean that you have to limit yourself to activities involved in your field. Open yourself to other activities such as dance, art, music, and sports. This widens your perspectives and provides you with new sources of inspiration.


Following these creative thinking techniques can definitely make you a better innovator. As the world becomes more competitive, it is important to develop ideas and solutions that stand out. This can definitely help you strengthen your enterprise and achieve promising success.

5 Mental Adjustments To Improve Your Wealth

Need an attitude check? Is your head in the game? Where's your focus? What are you doing out there? As we go into March Madness, these are the questions a coach may ask his team--or I may ask a client! But I would also add another--how are you getting to a healthier state of mind in order to make your business wealthier?

In our Business Value Drivers (BVD) studies, we have found that 67% of entrepreneurs say are in business because they want to make more money and become financially independent. However, according to the Small Business Administration, less than 5% of small businesses have more than $1 million in annual revenue. The truth is that very few actually build any wealth or value from their businesses either. 

Read: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

If you've conducted a reality check lately, you may have admitted, at least to yourself, that your focus is not where it should be. Maybe you are experiencing a little burnout, or just need a vacation. Yet still, you have the drive and desire to build your business and build your wealth. Ultimately, it's all in your mind, attitude, motivation and vision of the future. It's realistic to admit, however, that we all get tired.



You don't have to do everything alone! 

The value of having good reading materials, colleague support, encourager's and the right team of advisers will greatly enhance the value of your business and your ultimate wealth. Consider Eric Sbarge, creator and owner of the Peaceful Dragon.



Eric started the Peaceful Dragon with his wife Debra in 1997. Sbarge was a high school teacher when he first started, running his business on a part-time basis, until the revenue became enough to support the family. After ten years, he began to to work with an industry marketing expert, and in 2006 asked me to work with him in building a foundation toward wealth creation.  

With a focus on the Peaceful Dragon mission "to enhance the lives of our students and members of our community by teaching traditional and authentic Chinese health and martial arts, and supporting the marriage of Eastern and Western approaches to health and well-being," today, The Peaceful Dragon ranks in the top 1% in its industry and was featured in Martial Arts Professional Magazine April 2008.  

"It's all about where your head is," agrees Sbarge. He went on to share with us Five Mindset Changes to Get Healthy and Wealthy: 

1. Have a millionaire mindset. Many people want to be a millionaire and want their businesses to break the million-dollar revenue mark. This means you must build business equity. Your business equity value is not the same as your revenue. Unless you intentionally build your business to a fair market value of a million dollars, you won't make it to that million mark or build any kind of wealth.

2. Have a mentor from your specific industry. As a business owner, your mentor should be a person who has successfully been through the start-up and exit phases of a business. This person will help guide you through what it takes to become a success and build wealth. Sbarge has been working with an industry mentor since 2004. 

3. Have a mentor outside your industry. The best business owners learn from the best business owners--including insights and advice you can't get from an MBA program. A mentor who is successful in business is equipped in ways an academic program cannot replicate, such as real life experience. Sbarge has two mentors outside his industry. 

4. Put a consistent marketing process in place. Most businesses fail to create a marketing plan or strategy in order to weigh tactics against. Sbarge developed his own marketing process internally and set an annual budget and performance monitoring of all marketing tactics. He has followed a marketing plan consistently, adjusting as needed against industry trends, market changes and economic conditions.  

5. Build wealth by building value in your business. Sbarge has carefully built additional value inside and outside the business. They own their commercial property needed for this type of brick and mortar business, as well as having built a solid company foundation through processes and vision. 

March Madness is a good name for the upcoming NCAA round of tournaments.  Eric Sbarge's business name--Peaceful Dragon--is somewhat the antithesis of the craziness surrounding the players and the fans. Don't let your business drive you crazy. Focus, breathe, have a vision and then--get your head in the game!



Ask yourself "where your focus is--and where you want it to be?"

Staying Motivated As A Solopreneur

I was speaking to a colleague who, like me,  works with other business owners. We hadn't spoken for about a year. I was happy to catch up with her. When I asked her what was going on, she told me that she was looking for a job in the corporate world. She missed the predictability of a job. She was tired of making decisions and she missed the regular paycheck. 

In some ways I can relate. Running your own business is often difficult, but I find the rewards outweigh the difficulties. All in all I love being an entrepreneur, but there's one thing I can't stand...being a solopreneur. It gets lonely! It's so easy to spend your day alone, lost in your own world, with no perspective about what's going on around you. 

In my experience I find that solopreneurs have a tendency to get stuck and: 

1. Make problems bigger than they are.

2. Think other entrepreneurs just breeze through their day (they don't).

3. Make excuses and get stuck in their own way.

4. Can't find their way out of a problem.

5. Miss new opportunities because they have so many ideas.

6. Spend the day on Facebook because it's so much easier to see what other people are doing than to get to work. 

7. Under-earn because their focus tends to be on the current fire and not on long-term business goals. 

Read: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

When you get out from behind your desk, and your computer, a whole new world opens for you. You get outside of your own brain and get a reality check. You open yourself up to input from other people. You experience things that motivate and inspire you. You get ideas simply from being part of life and the various situations you find yourself in. You experience life and interact with people who you can help, or can help you.  

Here are 5 things my clients and I do that get us out from behind our computers and interacting with the world.

1. Go to the gym and interact with the people you meet there. The exercise is great for your body and brain, but it's more than that. You may well meet people who become clients.

2. Go to local networking events. Ideally the networks will feed your business, but even if they aren't full of your "ideal clients," at least you will be getting out of your own office and meeting other entrepreneurs. One warning, stay away from networks that are full of negativity. Look for people who are positive and excited about what they are doing and their businesses. People who can support you when you are feeling stuck.

3. Join virtual networks. I like in-person networks, but go ahead and look outside of your home environment to find entrepreneurs doing similar work as you. Think of ways that you can support them and how they may in turn support you.

4. Attend events or conferences. There is nothing like human interaction to see what is going on in the world. Where are your ideal clients congregating? Where are your business colleagues congregating? It might be a big conference or a small local event. Get out and shake hands with people. Don't think of it as a place to sell yourself but a place to get to know people and find new friends.

5. Get a coach. Your coach should be someone who has a good understanding of what is going on at your level of business, as well as a perspective of what's going on at other levels. Your coach can keep you grounded, motivated, focused and feeling positive about moving forward.

Bonus strategy... 


Have fun! Yes, it's important to take your business seriously, but don't forget that you have a life too. Make time for yourself, your friends and family outside of your business. In addition to feeling better you'll be surprised at how much that fun feeds your business. 

How do you feel about being a solopreneur? I'd love to know.

The Mind of an Entrepreneur

The way a person thinks can be the difference between being a successful entrepreneur or a defeated wannabe.


Studies have shown that a person who has an entrepreneurial mindset thinks differently than those who are satisfied with just being mere employees.


Although an entrepreneur entertains both types of thinking, they focus more on effectual thinking as opposed to causal thinking. Effectual thinking is very important especially in the starting a new business venture.


The Difference Between Causal Thinking and Effectual Thinking:

Entrepreneur wannabes often indulge in causal thinking. Causal thinking deals with having a goal in mind and having a definite plan to achieve the said goal. It also encourages a person to find better ways to implement the plan and achieve their goal.


Of course, the person has all the flexibility in the world to find several alternatives to achieve the goal he has first set and this goal stays the same all through out.


Effectual thinking, on the other hand, is a fairly different idea. And yes, it starts the same way as a causal thinker would have it.


There are set means, yes, but the goals develop over time and are molded by the imagination and interaction of the entrepreneur with the other people who contribute to his business.


With effectual thinking, there are no set goals in the beginning. The formation of goals by an effectual thinker is based on three factors:

Personality: (what he is as a person)

Knowledge: (his formal education and training)

Network: (who he knows socially and professionally).

How Entrepreneurs Think:


Elaborating the difference between causal thinking and effectual thinking does not mean that an entrepreneur only uses one type of thinking. In fact, the best entrepreneurs make use of both types at the right time.


For someone who is still starting out, effectual thinking should be put into action. Why? For two things.


First, being an effectual thinker means being creative. You are not limited by your means as well as your goals. You may think of alternate routes to get to your goal, but if it doesn't work, you can easily scrap those routes altogether.



And since effectual thinkers aren't limited to one grand goal, success may come from an unexpected direction and in the most unexpected time.

Read: Entrepreneur Revolution: How to develop your entrepreneurial mindset and start a business that works 

Secondly, when you become an effectual thinker, you develop all the characteristics required to make an entrepreneur successful.



These characteristics include persistence, creativity, resourcefulness, and gut feel or intuition..



Effectual entrepreneurs aren't fortune tellers and they do not try to be one. Instead, they will work to create the future that they want their businesses to be in.



Becoming Successful:



Success does not come overnight and effectual entrepreneurs know this. If the first plan doesn't work, then it's time to move on to the next one, and so on and so forth.



Being successful is just like playing hide and seek with you as the "it". Just because success doesn't come from the first place, as a true entrepreneur you continue moving forward looking for it.



As an effectual thinking entrepreneur, you are allowed to adapt to the moment and change goals on the fly.



Remember, the best entrepreneurs make use of both types of thinking. As a budding entrepreneur yourself, you would do well to follow their example.

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How To Develop the Entrepreneur Mindset

The true potential of your business will only reveal itself if, you, as the business owner, start thinking "business". Without the right entrepreneurial mindset, you certainly won't see your business going anywhere in the years to come.



There are many reason why small to medium sizes businesses...including work at home-based solutions fail. Reasons include, but are not limited to, poor management, ineffective marketing, wrong market potential, and miscalculated capitalization.



But for whatever reason these businesses fail, one major factor to look into is the ability of the business owner to think and plan strategically to allow the business to overcome any challenges that may come its way.



When you start a business, you have to be prepared for all sorts of pressure coming your way. You have the utmost pressure to get it right the first time - make the right decisions, implement the right marketing strategy, hire the right employees, and have the right funding.



This may be achievable in an ideal business school setting, but things vary greatly in the real word of business.



It is necessary that you develop a business instinct so that you'll know at once if a particular idea will work or not before you spend time, effort, and financial resources.

Read: Entrepreneur Revolution: How to develop your entrepreneurial mindset and start a business that works

Some steps for developing an entrepreneurial mindset are listed below to help you get ready to embark on that dream business of yours:



1. Get an Ego-Check: Because they own the business, business owners often think that they can do whatever they want with it without needing the opinions of the other parties who make up the business model.



No matter how intelligent you are, there will always be something you won't know, and this is where communication and open-mindedness will come to play. In the real world of business, it's really not as simple as black or white.



2. Be Curious: When you are curious, you begin to explore other options and get to the root of the matter. Sometimes, if you focus too much on what you know, you will be blinded by your distinct belief in that certain idea.



By being curious, however, you are able to uncover possibilities and options which can make your business better. It's always recommended to become a sponge for information in order for you to build an entrepreneurial mindset.



3. Don't Focus on the Solution Alone: Instead of finding fast fixes to your problems, why not clarify the issues you have at hand first? You need to go through all aspects of the company and the problems you are facing so that you know where you stand.



And remember, unless your solution provides a business value or prevents another problem from occurring, then it will be a worthless one.



4. Gather Proofs: For you to really get to the bottom of things, you need to have hard evidence of what's causing the problem. You need to ask specific questions in order to get specific answers.



Through these specific answers, you will be able to really see the real picture of things.



5. Calculate Risks: Risks are always a part of any business endeavor. But you must be able to weigh every investment and its corresponding return. You have to see how your decision will impact the business before you even implement it.



It is also necessary that you have a benchmark of success for your business so that you can check back at certain times to see if it is indeed progressing.



6. Consider Your Employees' Welfare: Aside from thinking about how your decision will affect the business, you also have to consider how it will affect each and every one of your employees.



A good business owner knows that his business is not entirely made up of one person but a team that works together for one goal.



7. Be Forewarned: If you see early signs of possible obstacles, then do your best to resolve it before it can even snowball into something larger. Even if you fail to resolve it when you see it the first time, at least you won't be doing severe damage control later on.



8. Get to the Bottom of Things: Instead of solving the effects, see to it that you go right to the source of the problem. In order to understand completely, you must get all the facts and underlying truths. Never stop asking questions.



By taking these tips into mind, you will definitely be able to develop a business/entrepreneur mindset. Without it, your business won't flourish as long as you want it to.

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