How to transform your daily decisions into golden opportunities
Date: February 19, 2016
Name: How to transform your daily decisions into golden opportunities
Presenters: Victor Liu and Emily Lim
Many young entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed with decision they have to make. In fact, they tend to miss out the best opportunities in front of them. GetLeadUp meetup invites Victor Liu, the Owner of Ink Saints and the Business Operations Consultant for crème De La Crumb, to share his strategy on reframing successful mindset. Young entrepreneurs will learn how to use the right mindset to setup their next golden opportunities. Emily Lim, the Founder of GetLeadUp meetup, will reveal the practical application to apply the mindsets into effective decision making.
Victor Liu was the Special Projects Coordinator from Organika Health Products. Until one day his mindset shifted, he took the leap of faith to discover his golden opportunities. He pursued the opportunity to become the Business Operations Consultant at Crème De La Crumb. His journey did not stop there. Victor Liu found the company of Ink Saints, provides meaningful tattoo for people, and took on the role of Chief Financial Officer.
Liu will share the 7 important mindsets to effective decision making.
Mindset #1: You can always make more money, but you can never make more time
It is common to hear from people that they do not have enough time. However, the truth is that it is not that they do not have enough time, yet it is what they value or prioritize certain things over others. Everyone has 24 hours and the difference is how people choose to spend it. When a company vision is large enough that it cannot accomplish by one person, the company will hire people to trade their time for money to help them accomplish the vision.
Liu wants young entrepreneurs to think if their time is spend on the value they require; otherwise, they need to rethink about their priorities
Mindset #2: Create new daily habits for yourself
Liu believes it is important for all young entrepreneurs to visualize where they will be in the next 5 or 10 years. Every step they take today will determine if they are one step closer to their goals. Therefore, young entrepreneurs should create little habits to ensure they are on moving in the right direction. Little habits can add up and it can create huge impact at the end
Liu wants young entrepreneurs to write down at least 5 habits a day. Whenever they are lost, they can refer back to the notes to get back on track again.
Mindset #3: Mistakes teach you how not to do something
Everyone makes mistakes and that is why there are erasers on pencils. People tend to stress over because they want to aim for the perfect solution. There is no such thing as the perfect decisions. Mistake is a way to signal people if they are going to the right direction. Without mistake, people will not know if they are closer or further away from their goals. Liu indicates successful people do not always make the right decisions; instead, they make decisions and then they make them right.
Mindset #4: Be clear, be focused, and be deliberate
Liu does not believe practice makes perfect; instead, perfect practice makes perfect. Young entrepreneurs will receive what they focus on. For instance, there are two basketball players. One player focuses on the goal of shooting 1000 times. In fact, the other player focuses on scoring 1000 times. At the end, the second player has a better chance to be picked on a team because the first player only has a general goal and the second player has a focused goal.
Mindset #5: Do not overthink, act
When young entrepreneurs overthink a situation, their minds tend to create limitless amount of “what ifs”. They are overwhelming their mind with negative instead of positive. Usually, this comes from fear. Fear is irrational, and Liu wants young entrepreneurs to act on fear. Act is the abbreviation of “Action Conquers Terror”. When young entrepreneurs act, they choose to face their fears.
“I chose the possibility of having a different result”
Mindset# 6: There is almost always another solution
In business, young entrepreneurs will face “either or” situation. However, they do not realize they have the choice to choose alternative solution. Young entrepreneurs should not limit their options because other people say so; instead, they need to discover the alternative option.
Liu shares a story. A sneaky loan shark is forcing a father to pay the debt. If the father is not paying, he will go to prison. When the loan shark discovers the father has a beautiful daughter, he provides a solution for them. He will pick a black and a white pebble on the ground and put it in the bag. If she picks a black pebble out of the bag, the father will be debt free, but the daughter will have to marry to him. If she picks a white pebble, the father will be debt free.
The daughter discovers the loan shark purposely put two black pebbles in the bag. She has three options.
- Refuse to take the pebble
- Try to expose the loan shark as a cheater
- Pick the black pebble and sacrifice herself.
If the daughter chooses the first option, her father will go to prison. If the daughter chooses the second option, the loan shark will ignore it. If the daughter chooses the third option, she will sacrifice her life.
The best option is the forth option. The forth option is to pick the pebble out of the bag and accidently drop it on the ground. She will tell the loan shark and say the color she picks is the opposite of the color that is remaining in the bag.
In business, young entrepreneurs should always take a step back and find the alternative option.
Mindset #7: Today, I am one day closer to…
Every young entrepreneur has a different answer to that statement. Nevertheless, the answer should always be positive. That phrase is telling them the situation they are in currently is temporary. Struggling through certain periods of life is part of being human. The positive side to it is to help young entrepreneurs to focus on hopes, dreams and accomplishments.
Liu believes young entrepreneurs need to learn how to focus on mindset. Based on statistic, only 6% of people will keep their New Year resolution because they are based on action and not on mindset. It is easy to talk about behavior, but it is difficult to change mindset.
“When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs. When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations. When you change your expectations, you change your attitude. When you change your attitude, you change your behavior. When you change your behavior, you change your life”
Confident decision making
After making any decision, most people will question if they are making the right decision. Emily Lim believes when people are having doubts, they are giving power away to doubts.
Young entrepreneurs must trust their instincts. People tend to have the habit to get second opinion before purchasing. They do that because they have doubts. While dining out, most people will ask others what they want to eat. They do that because they fear their ideas will get shutdown. Lim considers that as the fear of rejection. This fear will allow others to speak up for them.
When young entrepreneurs do not have inner voice, they cannot confront others. Most of time people feel by complaining to others will solve their problems. Nevertheless, they are fear of facing the problem itself. In addition, most people have fear of joining something new. They will feel they will get judged. They will ask others to join with them. This leads to the fear of alone time. This is the fear of making personal decisions.
Why people have problem of having their own voice? Lim believes it is because gut feeling is not sufficient for any backup evidence. People are willing to make decision when they have enough support reasons, and gut feeling does not have any. To avoid this problem, people need to build instincts to have quick decisions.
For young entrepreneurs, the path of entrepreneurship will be a torture if they do not find their inner voice. Most of time, they will realize their original endpoint might be different. Moreover, they should not feel afraid to make mistakes; in fact, they should keep going and it will eventually out at the end
Young entrepreneurs should stop second guess themselves and always go with their instinct. They need to recognize their bias and start changing their decision making. Bias come from inexperience, and going through life will gain experience. Therefore, if they do not trust themselves, they do not have enough experience.
Most young entrepreneurs rely on their logical side to make decisions. Lim wants young entrepreneurs to stick with their decisions and make it work to maximize the values.
“Guts first, then other considerations come second”
“Follow the fruit” is phrase young entrepreneurs need to ask themselves. It means every decision they make need to be aligned with their desire outcome. Fruit is the outcome and there is always a way to self-access. Young entrepreneurs need to seek more opportunities and stop being insanity. Insanity means doing something over and over and expects new result.
When young entrepreneurs discover they are happy with the life they are living, they need to figure out what they need to do and follow the fruit.