{"id":501,"date":"2015-09-08T10:25:52","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T14:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marialatimore.com\/?p=501"},"modified":"2018-06-12T06:13:56","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T10:13:56","slug":"thoughts-on-becoming-an-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marialatimore.com\/general\/thoughts-on-becoming-an-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Becoming An Entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"

I want to briefly explore my journey to entrepreneurship, hoping that these words may inspire others. It\u2019s certainly been fun and exciting, with both ups and downs, doubts and successes. And it\u2019s a decision that has challenged me to grow as a businesswoman, a leader and a person.<\/p>\n

Not Regrets, but Lessons Learned<\/h3>\n

As someone who thinks deeply about all of life\u2019s stuff I usually have a million thoughts running in all directions in my head, and yet, I\u2019ve never carried around a lot of guilt or regrets about life. In every situation I strive to maintain my high standards by giving all that I can at the moment and consider it good enough.<\/p>\n

Now, don\u2019t for one minute think that I don\u2019t reflect back on and draw conclusions from conversations and other human interactions; I do. It\u2019s really important to analyze and process past experiences, and to adjust the future accordingly, and I do.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s usually not helpful to retrospectively beat up on myself or anyone else.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0Focus on what happened, what you\u2019ve learned and try to figure out how to make the next time better.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pragmatic Optimism<\/h3>\n

I call myself a pragmatic optimist because I intuitively believe that I will successfully get through the hard times while fully understanding and accepting that it will be hard.<\/p>\n

This brand of optimism is practical because it acknowledges that life won\u2019t always go as planned and unforeseen things will happen. It\u2019s optimistic because I have a strong belief in myself, my family and friends to rally round each other to get through the down times and come out better on the other side of them (remember lessons learned!)<\/p>\n

My pragmatic optimism carries over to work situations where I not only tell my colleagues that we WILL fix this, but then work with them to figure out how to fix it.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0Stay positive. Believe in yourself, keep your eye on the goal and work like hell.<\/em><\/p>\n

You Are Not Alone<\/h3>\n

One of the smartest things that I did in becoming an entrepreneur was to hire Carole Copeland Thomas as my life coach and fully utilize the consulting services of Marcy Tannenbaum-Fox. Both of these women helped me tremendously on this journey by being a sounding board, providing constructive feedback, and bringing objectivity into the picture.<\/p>\n

I must also thank my sister Gail Latimore, who eagerly listened and leveraged her many years as a nonprofit executive to give me advice and connections that got the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0You don\u2019t have to do everything yourself. There\u2019s a big world of people out there willing and able to help you along the way. Take advantage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emotional Intelligence<\/h3>\n

Great entrepreneurs are inspiring leaders with high emotional intelligence. This means that they are good listeners and have strong empathy for people. They accurately read non-verbal cues and respond accordingly, and know when and how to ask the right questions.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs who want to build successful long-term businesses must train themselves to develop strong emotional intelligence as it is a critical part of forging strong relationships based on trust. As business consultant Robert Middleton says, we \u201cmust offer (not talk about) \u2026 our attention, our expertise and our resources\u201d to our clients.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0Listen, listen and listen some more. This is not about you, it\u2019s about your clients.<\/em><\/p>\n

Confidence and Strong Work Ethic<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s be 100% real. Running your own successful business is really hard work. It can also be very rewarding, energizing and profitable.<\/p>\n

To weather the down times and do all of the necessary work requires that entrepreneurs have a supreme amount of confidence in themselves, their products\/services and the value that they offer. This isn\u2019t a boastful arrogant type of confidence, but a confidence born of knowing and believing in your talents and abilities to make a positive difference in the world.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, you can do it! It will take a lot of work, and when you\u2019re ready \u2026 yes, you can!<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Time; The Right Time<\/h3>\n

I was lucky because the perfect storm happened for me, and I know that this is 100% the right time for me to launch my business.<\/p>\n

But, the \u201cperfect time\u201d rarely happens for anything and I\u2019m not suggesting that you sit around waiting for it. When it\u2019s time for you to become an entrepreneur, do it with all your might, and you will find the resources and energy reserves necessary to carry you through the tough and trying times.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an incredible and exciting journey which I hope will inspire you to explore all of your options, to dream big and to seriously consider becoming your own boss.<\/p>\n

Insight:<\/strong>\u00a0The time is never \u201cright.\u201d Just do it!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You could say it was a Perfect Storm that led me to the decision to leave my long and successful career as a corporate IT project manager and become an entrepreneur starting my own consultant business. Actually, it was a series of perfect storms during the record breaking snows in Boston in the winter of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts on Becoming An Entrepreneur - Maria Latimore Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maria Latimore's journey to starting her consulting business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marialatimore.com\/general\/thoughts-on-becoming-an-entrepreneur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thoughts on Becoming An Entrepreneur - Maria Latimore Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maria Latimore's journey to starting her consulting business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.marialatimore.com\/general\/thoughts-on-becoming-an-entrepreneur\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maria Latimore Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MLatimoreGroup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-08T14:25:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-12T10:13:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.marialatimore.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/entrepreneur-e1452011890128.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"678\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"753\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Maria Latimore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mlatim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mlatim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Maria Latimore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thoughts on Becoming An Entrepreneur - 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