You are a small business owner and you are on the ledge looking down, what do you do?

It is so easy to just pull the covers over you head and say “I quit”.

But entrepreneurs like us are “cut from a different cloth”. We know that we are better off working for ourselves than working for a company. Some of us couldn’t survive in the four walls of Corporate America.

So what do we do?

1. You stand tall and look at your business like it was your first day on the job filled with questions, ideas and the passion to win.
2. You dig deep into every cost and expense and justify their existence.
3. You turn over every stone to see what markets and customers the company has been neglecting.
4. You sit down with your employees and tell them exactly like it is and ask them for their ideas on how to survive the storm.

It is easy to give up in hard times and jump off the ledge but we are entrepreneurs and we fight until our last breath of air.

That’s why it is so important to build a team in which every member is the perfect fit to the puzzle.

Team members should bring to the table experience, talent, and creativity in areas that was missing before they came aboard.

When starting a new company it is so important to take the amount of time needed to build a great foundation and then only add the layers when you find the perfect fit to the next level.

Most start up companies are so in a rush to build a team that they add friends, family and just about anyone to fill a spot in their desire to move forward quickly. Later on they find out that just adding anyone to the team put them further back than they were when they started.

It is easy for me to state these facts because I have made these mistakes and only when I took a step back did I realize how important each and every part of the puzzle must be exactly what is needed to make a great idea, a concept or new innovation a reality.

Do you want to wake up one morning and realize you let your life slip away through your own fingers?

I dare you to dream!

I dare you to look at everything and then say “what if”

I dare you to stop turning right when you come to the fork in the road.

I dare you to stop worrying about failing. We all do, get over it. Right now take your idea and create a plan that will lead you to Remarkable.

I dare you to smash through the door leading to success instead of just lightly knocking at it.

Who knows, the idea you that you have thinking about the last few days but were afraid to tell anyone, just might be the “next big thing”.

I dare you to dream big!

Everyone has a reason to be proud; we all have special talents that should be recognized. If we didn’t, we would just pull the covers over our head and never get out of bed.

But for some reason, maybe because of insecurity, some people feel the need to be braggadocios. They foam at the mouth as they broadcast, “I did this” and “I did that”. Isn’t it strange that you never hear the word “we” when they are shouting out their accomplishments. By the way they talk you would think that they even walk on water.

I am a true believer that when you look in the mirror each morning to brush your teeth, put your makeup on or to shave, the true reflection of who you are, is staring back at you. You know that you just closed a big deal, gave a check to your favorite charity, called your parents to make sure they are well, got a big promotion or went to your children’s back to school night. Isn’t that enough? If you are secure about whom you are then there is no reason to monopolize conversations about yourself.

I learned in grammar school a simple line that has been my driving force “actions speak louder than words”.

So, stand tall, be proud, fulfill your dreams but don’t be the annoying person bragging so everyone can hear.

Employers want to play it safe by hiring over and over the same type of person who they know has the experience that can fulfill the requirements of the position.

What employers fail to understand is that hiring from the same pool of people results in the same old boring ideas that didn’t work with the last person who had that position.

Wake up Corporate America, “times have changed”!

Recent grads that grew up on MTV, video games, internet, email and social networking see the world with fresh eyes and question everything around them unlike most people in the corporate world who see opportunities through blinders.

Isn’t it about time that we realize that the best ideas come out of creative people who look at things and say “what if”?

There is a new generation out there that hasn’t been brainwashed to think that their ideas don’t matter. Don’t let them slip through your fingers and get hired by your competition.

Fresh eyes create exciting new ideas while years of experience produce the same dead end results.

But what about you?

Remember when you were young and used your imagination to create new games to play.

What happened? Where did it go? Did someone along the line label you “not creative”?

I truly believe that everyone has creative juices in them.

Some are flowing and some are dormant but all of us are creative even if we don’t think so.

We all have an idea, a creation or a talent that is just waiting to be expressed.

Rip up the “type cast” signs that people have hung on you and start to let your creative juices flow.