When we start our journey to be an entrepreneur, we often have a basic idea about what entrepreneurship entails. About how we develop a company and how we want to fulfill our role as an entrepreneur. Where doubt arises in, for example, marketing or selling the products or services, we often look to the outside world.

Relying on the outside creates confusion

We seek experts to help us successfully develop business processes. We inadvertently follow the path that works for others in the hope that what works for the other person may work for us as well. But this is not always true. There are so many nuances to be considered about the conditions for ‘what works’ and especially ‘why something works’.

That we get stuck in business is because we do things that naturally do not fit well with who we are. Often, we don’t immediately realize it, but may feel a subtle question mark about the way in which an expert teaches ‘how things work’. We often wave those subtle question marks away because the mind convinces us that an expert, ‘someone with experience will know’.

When we are unsure about what we want, we are ready to shrink ourselves to fit into ways others deem right for us. We look outside of ourselves to discover what is a good way of doing business. Instead, we forget to look inward and ask ourselves ‘how can I best do this in my own way?’.

Don’t conform, align yourself with what you want

It is easier for us to conform to what we expect to work than to explore ‘our own way’ of doing business. We trust others rather than our own strength, vision, mission, and strategy.

When who you are is in line with how you do business, you flourish. To be aligned, ask yourself the above questions and see whether you are aligned.

Especially with small businesses and independent entrepreneurs, the personality, who you are at the core, is super important for the way in which you do business. Your personality as an individual determines what your message is and the way your clients find you. It is your personality that makes you and your company more authentic.

People choose entrepreneurship over employment to experience a sense of more freedom. More freedom than you expect or have known in a job. And you experience that freedom the most when you do things in a way that fits seamlessly with who you are as a person. Your natural talents are a powerful source for doing business on your own terms.

Where the old adage was “work harder” to achieve more, there is no longer a need to torture yourself by working in a way that doesn’t match with who you are. By examining your natural talents, and your strengths, you discover how you can start working from energy and pleasure.