Now, to be honest, I must admit that a few weeks ago motivation was running away from me. And I think that we need to pay attention to these issues because in the world of entrepreneurship, whether as a personal brand or a commercial business, motivation is key. It is undeniable that when we are unmotivated, our productivity is affected. And if we do not work, the business simply does not advance.
This is the basic difference between being an employee and being an entrepreneur . When you are an employee, your salary comes at the end of the month regardless of whether you worked on a particular day or not. But when you are an entrepreneur, especially in the beginning, you don’t have that “cushion” of safety. If you don’t work, there is no profit, period. Although of course, it is also crucial to know when to rest. But that is a topic for another post.
OK, let’s succumb to the “coaching” and “motivational speaking” vietnam email address wave, hahaha. I’m going to share with you what I do to motivate myself when the spark doesn’t ignite. Because, you know what? We can’t always depend on external factors to keep us motivated, they’re not always going to be there. So it’s necessary to have tools and little aids to motivate ourselves on our own when inspiration doesn’t appear.
What I do to motivate myself
I am one of those who reads entrepreneurship books to motivate myself And I am not referring to those typical self-improvement books like Tony Robbins and others. Personally, I think it is rubbish that someone is motivated because someone told them that life is beautiful or because someone scolds you and tells you that if you are poor it is because you want to be.
But I do enjoy books that tell stories of successful entrepreneurs. For example, I love the story of Nike and Phil Knight . Also the story of Pixar, Creativity Inc. There are many things to learn from these people. A while ago I read a lot about neuromarketing, one by Martin Lindstrom, Compradicción , inspired me a lot. And now I'm reading one called “Show your work” , highly recommended.
I am also very motivated by documentaries . I just finished one last night, called “ Welcome to Wrexham .” It’s about a town in Wales and its football team. Two Hollywood actors (Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) buy the team and document their first year as owners. The second season is coming out soon. Apart from being very motivational, it has that typical Ryan Reynolds humor, and it leaves some valuable lessons. I have also been watching documentaries about entrepreneurship, such as the one about the history of Pixar , the one about ILM (the Star Wars production company) and others about successful companies.
Speaking of documentaries , another one that has me hooked is “ Undercover Billionaire .” This series, produced by Discovery Channel, follows millionaires who, in 90 days, must build a million-dollar business from scratch with only $100 in their pocket. It’s an interesting exercise to understand how they manage to build businesses. You have to watch it with a critical eye because in the United States things work very differently than in Latin America, but you can learn a lot from each person’s way of doing business. For now I only found it on YouTube, with English subtitles.