The Hard Truth of Entrepreneurship: You Will Suffer

Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

This is a famous quote that has often been incorrectly attributed to Buddha. Not only is the citation incorrect, the advice is too. It’s an absolute lie, suffering isn’t optional. The truth is that suffering is mandatory, unless of course you want to toil away in obscurity and barely survive.

There is a lot written on customer service, leadership, sales and innovation, but not a lot about the most important aspect of being an entrepreneur -- suffering. Or should I say, learning the value of suffering.

There’s a lot of lip service paid to the value of going the extra mile, doing a little more, over-delivering and a host of other tired old expressions. There isn’t a whole lot of discussion on the value of suffering, which trumps all the other aforementioned areas combined.

If you want to achieve something outstanding and get results you never got before, you’re going to have to suffer. You will have to go against your inner voice that tells you to hold back, stay in the routine you’re comfortable with and play it safe.

Do you have to suffer every single moment? Absolutely not. But make no mistake about it, to get from where you are to where you want to be you’re going to have to suffer. To get what you’ve never gotten before you must do what you’ve never done before. And doing what you’ve never done before often is somewhere between uncomfortable and downright painful.

It’s a lesson I’m learning right now. My goal at age 44 is to get in the best shape of my life, even better than when I was a college athlete. So I invested in a personal trainer, Joe Carabase. (Coaches need coaches too!) The first thing he talked to me about: suffering!

“John, It’s not going to be easy, nothing worthwhile is," he tells me. "Are you prepared to suffer both physically and mentally?”

Sounds a lot like entrepreneurship, doesn’t it?

We changed my diet and workouts dramatically. Joe’s rationale is “if you eat what you’ve always eaten you will weigh what you’ve always weighed. And if you train the way you’ve always trained you’ll be in the shape you’ve always been in.”

This is also the truth about your business. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

I’m changing, and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't suffering. But I know what’s on the other side of suffering and the long-term gain is well worth the short-term pain.

It’s a great metaphor for entrepreneurship because to get to that next level in your business you’ve got to go against your inner core and fight through your emotions. Our feelings are a lousy leader. They lie to us and tell us to quit when really we should be digging in. They lie to us to try to convince us to slow down in the face of adversity when we should be running through the adversity. Emotionally, they tell us we’ve done enough, when intellectually we know that there's more to be done.

There is suffering on the last few miles of a marathon, but the sense of accomplishment at the finish line makes it all worthwhile. In this instant-gratification society, we need to remember that running a business is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be suffering during the various mile markers or phases of your business -- startup, growth, expansion -- but you need to remember suffering makes you stronger.

Mohammed Ali was once asked if he liked training. His response: “I hated every minute of training, but I said to myself, 'don’t quit, suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.'”

To win the championship in your industry you need to do the same. You may hate every minute of studying the market, pitching investors, prospecting and facing rejection, but if you learn to embrace short-term pain, you’ll reap the long-term gain.

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs are undisputed heavyweight champions of lying to themselves, because denial is more comfortable than action. The suffering is what makes entrepreneurship great. It’s supposed to be hard.

From Entrepreneur

9 Things Successful People Won't Do

TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that the upper echelons of top performance are filled with people who are high in emotional intelligence (90% of top performers, to be exact). So, I went back to the data to uncover the kinds of things that emotionally intelligent people are careful to avoid in order to keep themselves calm, content, and in control. They consciously avoid these behaviors because they are tempting and easy to fall into if one isn’t careful.

While the list that follows isn’t exhaustive, it presents nine key things that you can avoid in order to increase your emotional intelligence and performance.

1. They Won’t Let Anyone Limit Their Joy

When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. When emotionally intelligent people feel good about something that they’ve done, they won’t let anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from them.

While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what other people are thinking or doing, your self-worth comes from within. Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain—you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.

2. They Won’t Forget

Emotionally intelligent people are quick to forgive, but that doesn’t mean that they forget. Forgiveness requires letting go of what’s happened so that you can move on. It doesn’t mean you’ll give a wrongdoer another chance. Emotionally intelligent people are unwilling to be bogged down unnecessarily by others’ mistakes, so they let them go quickly and are assertive in protecting themselves from future harm.

3. They Won’t Die in the Fight

Emotionally intelligent people know how important it is to live to fight another day. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight the kind of battle that can leave you severely damaged. When you read and respond to your emotions, you’re able to choose your battles wisely and only stand your ground when the time is right.

4. They Won’t Prioritize Perfection

Emotionally intelligent people won’t set perfection as their target because they know it doesn’t exist. Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you’re always left with a nagging sense of failure, and you end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish and what you should have done differently instead of enjoying what you were able to achieve.

5. They Won’t Live in the Past

Failure can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you’ll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, failure results from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn’t easy. Emotionally intelligent people know that success lies in their ability to rise in the face of failure, and they can’t do this when they’re living in the past. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can’t allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. When you live in the past, that is exactly what happens, and your past becomes your present, preventing you from moving forward.

6. They Won’t Dwell on Problems

Where you focus your attention determines your emotional state. When you fixate on the problems that you’re facing, you create and prolong negative emotions and stress, which hinders performance. When you focus on actions to better yourself and your circumstances, you create a sense of personal efficacy that produces positive emotions and improves performance. Emotionally intelligent people won’t dwell on problems because they know they’re most effective when they focus on solutions.

7. They Won’t Hang Around Negative People

Complainers are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spiral. You can avoid getting drawn in only by setting limits and distancing yourself when necessary. Think of it this way: if a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers. A great way to set limits is to ask complainers how they intend to fix a problem. The complainer will then either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction.

8. They Won’t Hold Grudges

The negative emotions that come with holding onto a grudge are actually a stress response. Just thinking about the event involved sends your body into fight-or-flight mode. When a threat is imminent, this reaction is essential to your survival, but when a threat is ancient history, holding onto that stress wreaks havoc on your body and can have devastating health consequences over time. In fact, researchers at Emory University have shown that holding onto stress contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Holding onto a grudge means you’re holding onto stress, and emotionally intelligent people know to avoid this at all costs. Learning to let go of a grudge will not only make you feel better now but can also improve your health.

9. They Won’t Say Yes Unless They Really Want To

Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco shows that the more difficulty that you have saying no, the more likely you are to experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Saying no is indeed a major challenge for most people. “No” is a powerful word that you should not be afraid to wield. When it’s time to say no, emotionally intelligent people avoid phrases like “I don’t think I can” or “I’m not certain.” Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them.

Written by Dr. Travis Bradberry

The 9 Best Real-World Strategies Every Entrepreneur Should Know

I sometimes troll popular business websites. Don’t ask me why I do it to myself. It drives me nuts to see all the mind-numbingly generic fluff that passes for business advice these days.

It’s as if some evil genius sat down at the drawing board and said, “How do I get half the population to think they’re experts and the other half to read everything they write?” So he made cheap computers, smartphones, Web 2.0, WordPress, blogs and social media. Voila. Here we are.

Let's try something different. Let me show you what real-world business strategies look like. You know, ideas that get you thinking in new ways that actually help you differentiate and beat the competition. That’s right: if you want to be successful you have to think. You have to differentiate. And you have to beat the competition.

Now let’s get down to business.

Create a cult-like culture of religious zealots. Letting people bring dogs to the office is not a corporate culture. Neither is a waterslide on the premises or Friday beer blasts. The Green Bay Packers. Harley-Davidson. Apple. Trader Joe’s. Zappos. They’re all like religious cults. Getting your people to believe they can accomplish something insanely great and create an amazing customer experience, that’s corporate culture.

Study what works and doesn’t work. We learn from experience. We also learn from the experience of others. That’s how all successful executives and business leaders got that way. If you have to read anything, read about real successes and failures in the real business world. Try Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis or Business Adventuresby John Brooks. It’s Warren Buffett’s and Bill Gates’s favorite business book for a reason.

Go where your competitors aren’t. How did China-based Huawei take 7% market share from Samsung in the hypercompetitive smartphone market? By focusing on Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Apple in retail. Amazon, eBay and Alibaba online. The Uber app. They all used new sales channels or existing ones in innovative ways.

Plan for success and develop competitive barriers. Come up with a plan, put all you’ve got behind it, then figure out what can go wrong, including coming up with a strategy to keep bigger and better funded competitors from beating you at your own game. If you’re successful, that’s exactly what will happen. If you’re not, it doesn’t really matter, now does it? That’s why you always plan for success.  

Create a larger-than-life buzz. There once was a startup that made microprocessors. Yawn. Then they painted a bulls-eye on industry giant Intel. They actually had a tombstone in the lobby with “RIP” beneath the trademark Intel Inside swirl. Now that was news. Everyone loves a David versus Goliath story. If you’re creative you can generate buzz on a shoestring budget, but it does help to deliver a competitive product.

Learn to say “yes” a lot. You never want to lose a good growth opportunity, give up momentum, or minimize the challenges of scaling a business. And you can never have too much money in the bank. When Box filed to go public, co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie was asked why VCs own two thirds of the company and he had just 4 percent. He said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I’d rather own 4 percent of $2 billion than 40 percent of nothing.”

Listen to your customers ... and yourself. Don’t know what problem to solve or product to develop? Ask your customers. They won’t know what they want because it doesn’t exist yet, but they will tell you what they want to do but can’t. And they have nothing to gain by blowing smoke up your you-know-what, the way some of your own lieutenants might. Also trust your gut – your own focus group of one. You just might be right.

Learn how business works. Finance, income statements, balance sheets, operations, sales channels – yes, I know how boring and uninspiring that all sounds. But guess what? It will keep you from falling into any one of about 9,000 different hellish pitfalls that swallow most entrepreneurs and business owners whole because they have no idea how business works.

Target your biggest competitors. List the leaders in your market, analyze your products and capabilities relative to theirs, and devise a plan to use your relative strengths while exploiting their weaknesses to take market share from them. The goal is to beat them, to topple them and take your rightful place at the top. That’s how little companies become big companies, by competing to win. 

Look, anyone can start a business. Anyone can be an entrepreneur. Anyone can call himself a CEO. It only matters if you can make and sell something that customers like or want enough to buy it from you instead of the other guy. And that’s just the beginning. What’s the end game? Keep moving forward and enjoy the ride.

From Entrepreneur

The Absolutely Essential but Most Overlooked Skill You Need to Succeed at Management

Think that you have to be a great talker to be a great manager? According to

four legendary tech CEOs, the best managers share this surprising, overlooked skill.

The exemplary manager is often shown as the outgoing guy that gives his team pep talks and high fives. He's a fast-talking genius and a smooth operator. In reality, though, that stereotype couldn't be farther from the truth.

To four highly effective, seasoned, and successful tech executives, being a good talker isn't just overvalued, it can actually be detrimental. Instead, there's a subtle, often-overlooked ability that's one of the most vital skills you can have as a manager--the ability to write.

"Written communication to engineering is superior [to verbal communication] because it is more consistent across an entire product team, it is more lasting, it raises accountability."

--Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz

When managers write, you create work product--white papers, product requirement documents, FAQs, presentations--that lasts and is accessible to everyone in the organization. From marketing to sales to QA to engineering, everyone has a document off which they can work and consult.

The upshot of writing it down is that the manager takes public responsibility for what happens when the rest of the team executes on the point of view taken by the documents. That ratchets up accountability throughout the entire organization.

To Horowitz, the distinction between written and verbal communication is stark and, in fact, it's what separates bad managers from the good ones. Good managers want to be held accountable and aren't looking for ways to weasel out of responsibility. And so, good managers write, while "[b]ad product managers voice their opinion verbally and lament ... the 'powers that be'."

"When I'm interviewing people, I like to give them a writing test. . . . Many people can pretend to be something they're not in person, but very few people can do so in writing."

--Phil Libin, Evernote

The importance of writing over talking is the reason why Phil Libin, founder and CEO of Evernote, makes the ability to write an essential qualification during the hiring process. He'll only hire people who can write. In lieu of a lengthy verbal interview, Libin asks candidates to stop talking and "write a few paragraphs in normal English."

The exercise shows Libin whether candidates can communicate using the written word, but Libin had an additional insight--that writing gets closer to revealing the candidate's true personality.

"I find that you can tell a lot more about a person's personality from a few paragraphs of their writing than from a lengthy verbal interview," Libin said. That's because when it comes to talking, the presentation makes a big difference--however, with writing, it's just words on a page, which approaches pure thought.

"There is no way to write a six-page, narratively structured memo and not have clear thinking."

--Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Jeff Bezos values writing over talking to such an extreme that in Amazon senior executive meetings, "before any conversation or discussion begins, everyone sits for 30 minutes in total silence, carefully reading six-page printed memos."

That's because, to Bezos, just talking and going through bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation concealed lazy thinking. It's easy to jump from one bullet point to the next without having expressed a complete thought. "I don't want this place to become a country club," Bezos said, as he pushed his team to eschew intellectual laziness and think more deeply.

Writing out full sentences enforces clear thinking, but more than that, it's a compelling method to drive memo authors to write in a narrative structure that reinforces a distinctly Amazon way of thinking--its obsession with the customer. In every memo that could potentially address any issue in the company, the memo author must answer the question: "What's in it for the customer, the company, and how does the answer to the question enable innovation on behalf of the customer?"

"Reports are more a medium of self-discipline than a way to communicate information."

--Andy Grove, Intel

Like Bezos, Grove finds value in the process of writing. The surprising thing, then, is that reading what's written isn't as important to Grove.

When you talk, there are often "ad hoc inputs," meaning whatever pops into your head often comes out of your mouth. When managers write, you question those inputs and that reflection drives you to make better decisions.

That's why the main point of writing is to force yourself "to be more precise than [you] might be verbally." That self-imposed precision, according to Grove, is a "safety-net" for your thought process that you should always be doing to "catch . . .anything you may have missed."

Accountability, coherence of thought and planning, and commitment to vision and mission are amazing benefits of what too many consider a ho-hum, even old-fashioned, tool.

From Inc. Magazine

How to Become a Millionaire: Start Thinking Like One

Everybody wants to become a millionaire and get rich. Some people just don’t know where to start. You can get rich in your own way and you can start today.

These tips will get you started on visualizing the road ahead of you and enable you to set goals to make more money than you ever dreamed you would.

Here are 6 different exercises for you to visualize how to become a millionaire and achieve financial independence.

1) How to Make More Money: Start By Writing Down Your Ideas

Buy a spiral notebook. Carry it with you if you possibly can, and write down every idea that comes to you throughout the day. Review this idea log on a regular basis.

Sometimes, one idea that you have while you are driving along, sitting, reading, watching television, or in a conversation may be the insight that will lead to the start of your fortune.

If your goal is to make more money, write down all of your ideas as to how you will achieve this goal.

The rule is, “Catch the idea and write it down.” If you don’t write it down quickly, you will very often lose it.

2) Goal Setting: Relax and Reflect on Your Financial Goals

Take regular time-outs to relax and reflect on your goals and the obstacles that are holding you back from achieving them. During these times of relaxation, ideas will often pop into your mind that can save you hours, days, and sometimes years of hard work.

3) Gaining Financial Independence Using The Magic Wand Technique

Practice the exercise of fantasizing on a regular basis. Sometimes this is called the “magic wand technique.” Imagine that you have a magic wand and you can wave it over your current situation or problem.

Imagine that as a result of waving this magic wand, all the obstacles are removed from between you and your financial goals.

4) Project Forward and Think Back on Your Financial Goals

Imagine that your goal is to build a successful business in a particular field. Project forward three to five years and imagine that you now have a successful business in that field.

What would it look like? How big would it be? What kind of people would you be working with? What kind of reputation would you have in the marketplace? What would be your level of sales and profitability? How would you be running this business?

And especially, what could you start doing right now to make this future dream a reality.

5) How to Become a Millionaire By Practicing “Mind-Storming” on Every Problem

Perhaps the most powerful method of stimulating creative thinking is called “mind-storming,” or the 20-idea method. More people have become wealthy, including myself, using this idea more than any other method of creative thinking ever discovered.

In fact, this technique alone could enable you to gain financial independence.

The method is simple.  Take any problem or goal that you have and write it at the top of a sheet of paper in the form of a question. For example, if your goal is to double your income over the next 12 months, then you would write, “How can I double my income over the next 12 months?” You then discipline yourself to write at least 20 answers to that question.

You can write more than 20 answers if you like, but you must use your discipline and willpower to write at least 20 answers.

6) Save Your Money and Become a Millionaire 

At the very simplest, if you were to save $100 per month, from the time you started work at the age of 20 until the time you retired at age 65, and you invested that $100 per month in a mutual fund that yielded you an average of 10%, you would be worth approximately $1,118,000 by the time you retired.

Chances are, your discipline and your resolve to continue saving, year in and year out, would have such an effect on your character and your personality that you would end up earning far more than 10% per year.  But at $100 per month, anyone can become a millionaire.

Take Action

Focused questions stimulate your mind and provoke creativity. Decide on a goal and then ask yourself, “Why am I not at this goal already?” What is the main reason?

Written by Brian Tracy

What 9 Successful People Wish They'd Known About Money In Their 20s

Learn to manage your credit cards.

Mark Cuban, billionaire entrepreneur, investor:

"That credit cards are the worst investment that you can make. That the money I save on interest by not having debt is better than any return I could possibly get by investing that money in the stock market. I thought I would be a stock market genius. Until I wasn't.

"I should have paid off my cards every 30 days."

Skills are worth more than a job.

Tim Ferriss, angel investor, best-selling author of "The 4-Hour Workweek":

"In your 20s, optimize for learning, not earning. Work directly under or with master dealmakers, and acquire skills. This is particularly true for negotiating and hard skills like coding.

"What would you rather have: $20,000 more per year in your 20s, leading to making $100,000 to $200,000 a year in your 30s, or a lower-paying job from 20 to 25 — but one like a real-world MBA you're paid for — leading to making millions in your 30s?  

"It often comes down to prioritizing skill acquisition over immediate postcollege earning. McKinsey or Goldman can be seductive, but it's easy to get trapped in a 20-plus-year path of paying for a bloated lifestyle that is always a bit more expensive than the year before. Serfs can become self-made kings, but consultants tend to remain consultants. The only true job security is a superior skill set."

You need a plan for your money.

Alexa von Tobel, founder/CEO of LearnVest.com, author of "Financially Fearless":

"Not having a financial plan is a plan — just a really bad one! Given what I see as a general lack of personal-finance education, it can be all too easy to wing it with your money.

"I was lucky enough to learn this lesson while still in my 20s, so I had time to put a financial plan into place for myself (and start LearnVest to help people nationwide do the same!)."

Do something you love instead of chasing money.

Blake Mycoskie, founder, chief shoe giver of TOMS:

"In my 20s I wish I knew that the best advice for any person is to follow their passion as opposed to chasing money. I've seen time and time again that the people who foster their true passions and true callings are the ones that end up the most successful.

"It's hard in your 20s not to worry about money, but to focus on making sure you do something you love. Today, I feel like every time I've made a decision at TOMS that I'm passionate about and improves someone's life, the company grows and makes more money."

Buy high quality.

Kate White, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, author of "I Shouldn't Be Telling You This":

"I was a great saver in my 20s — my dad had persuaded me to save for retirement, which seemed insane at the time, but I'm eternally grateful. But what I didn't know and wish I had is that it's so much smarter to buy a few great quality items — in terms of clothes, furniture, accessories — rather than a bunch of cheaper stuff.

"Oh, sometimes you get a great bargain — I have two Pier 1 prints hanging in my living room that look like antiques but cost $25 — but so often cheap stuff is poorly made and falls apart in no time.

"But the right quality goods last forever and are often timeless in design, something I discovered much later when I could afford better things. I wore a Prada dress the other night that I bought 16 years ago and it still looks good. If you can swing it, go for quality and you'll save in the long run."

Understand the power of investing.

Kevin Cleary, CEO, Clif Bar & Company:

"In my 20s, I wish I better understood the power of investing. At the time, I had fewer expenses, more free time, and a long investment horizon — it would have been the perfect time to learn about investing.

"While I was disciplined about saving money, I missed the opportunity to leverage my money over the long haul."

Your company is more important than your role.

Adam Nash, president, CEO of Wealthfront:

"I was fairly fortunate to have been raised with a strong sense of the importance of saving and living below your means.

"However, it wasn't until later that I learned just how much of your long-term economic success depends on your professional career.

"I'm a huge believer that people in their 20s should seek out opportunities at later-stage, hypergrowth companies. When you think long term, the company you join is far more important in your 20s than the specific compensation or role."

Money doesn't make you happy.

.

Matt Maloney, CEO, GrubHub:

"Money does not define success or happiness. In fact, if you are truly effective at what you enjoy, money usually follows your passion. Passion drives interest, which in turn drives focus and commitment. Both qualities are requirements for success.

"When given a choice between ambiguous paths, choose the course that will bring you the most emotional and intellectual satisfaction — not the most direct path to riches. Don't be afraid, you can live a very full life earning far less than you think you need." 

Learn to manage the money you have now, no matter how little.

Debbi Fields, founder, Mrs. Fields:

"Looking back now, I know that I would have greatly benefited had I initiated an investment strategy as a young adult. I was so busy trying to save every dollar and living paycheck to paycheck that the idea of wealth creation was never really a consideration.

"Not thinking bigger than my bank account was my error — I could have set up a simulated investment account, joined a club, or learned about the buying and selling of securities.

"The key to managing money and building a nest egg is learning how to manage small amounts and grow them wisely over time. It can start with pocket change and grow beyond anything you imagined! The key word here is 'imagined' ... You have to add a zero or two to your net worth and direct your attitude and financial strategy toward getting there."

From Business Insider

8 Things My Dad Taught Me About Entrepreneurship and Life

Even at the ripe young age of 83, my dad is still fixing vacuums and sewing machines as part of the repair business he started 30 years ago after retiring from a career at Western Union.

He no longer runs the business from a shop, and he certainly is nowhere near as busy as he once was -- due mostly to the fact that you can replace the devices far easier then repairing them -- but he still manages to pick up a job from time to time to keep himself busy.

His business and entrepreneurial aspirations had a lasting and (I would like to think) positive impact on me. In my business, as in my life, when I find myself in a conundrum, I often default to asking, "What would my dad do?" Inevitably, I will recall one of these lessons:

1. Quit complaining. Complaining solves absolutely nothing. In fact, more times than not, it just compounds the problem. My dad is the most optimistic person I know, never uttering a negative thing about anyone or complaining about his work.

He even stays neutral in political conversations. He always has a zip in his step and a generous helping of affection for everyone. Even today, as I have become older and more crotchety, he is quick to force the conversation into a more productive tone.

2. Appreciate what you have. One does not make a fortune fixing vacuums and sewing machines for a living, though my dad always seemed to provide enough to make us all happy. More importantly, he made certain we all realized how fortunate we were to have what we had, a modesty I still carry with me today as I sit in my hot office typing on old, refurbished furniture.

3. Frame and control your message. My dad was a marketing genius. He was profoundly good at negotiating because he could turn negative concerns into positive attributes almost magically.

This might be most true with my birthday, which falls on Christmas Eve. By most accounts, this is a terribly inconvenient and unlucky time of the year to be born, but because my dad always reinforced how "lucky" I was to have a birthday so near Christmas, I never thought twice about it. Even today, I am giddy about my birthday.

4. Make time for those you love. It did not matter what my dad had to do or how exhausted he might be, he always made time for me and my brother to throw a baseball or integrate us into his household chores, something we loved to do.

He taught us that there will always be time for work, but rarely time for others, and he would remind us that when we die, we will not regret spending too little time at the office.

5. Give more than you take. My dad helped everyone, often at the expense of his business. I can remember numerous times when someone would visit his shop and inquire about something simple, such as a new vacuum bag or belt, which he often would give to them at no charge.

Even at a young age, I understood that if you run a business, you should charge people money for what you do. He always pointed out, however, that little displays of kindness go much further than nickel-and-diming people. Later, I understood this more, as I learned that most of his customers were repeat clients.

6. Wake up early. My dad rarely slept in. Regardless of when he went to bed, he was always up before us. He was typically engaged in some household chore before he slipped off to the shop. I would later learn that he did that so his afternoons would be free to spend with his family.

7. Nurture close relationships. My dad does not have a great number of friends, but the ones he does have been around for as long as I remember. I learned from him that you should never take your closest colleagues or best friends for granted. They require just as much attention and respect as your family.

8. Watch your cholesterol and your mind. For as long as I can remember, my dad has maintained a healthy diet and remained very active. He also reads and keeps his mind sharp. The benefits of taking care of your body and mind, starting at an early age, are undoubtedly clear. Like him, I too hope to act 20 years younger well into my twilight years.

Bonus: Take a nap. We both recently discovered the incredible value of a power nap, although his are a bit longer than mine. Take naps. You will not regret it.

My dad and I share a similar background. We both left established corporate jobs to start a business. Neither of us had any experience in the industries or businesses we started, and for the most part, we both have had a bit of success in our entrepreneurial endeavors. 

The difference is that I had my dad as a role model, and he had nobody -- which in my mind makes his courage and accomplishments much more admirable.

From Entrepreneur