2. Write down your goals, Daily.
I believe in conditioning my mindset and belief system by writing my goals out five times a day. I set reminders on my iPhone and never skip a single day. This helps me condition the mind, and reformat my thoughts to continually focus on my dreams and goals. By writing every day, I force my mind to cancel the noise, distractions and random thoughts in order to focus intensely on my dreams and goals. Try it for a week and see for yourself how powerful this technique is. —Com Mirza, CEO of Fitness Expo Dubai and "The $500 Million Man"
3. Focus on what important
I love the discipline of waking up early on a Sunday morning to clean my office and car. There's a magic in tidying up. In the construction business, we say get dirty and "jump in the hole." I vacuum everything and take out the trash. It creates momentum, keeps my ego in check and reminds me of where I came from. Discipline with the small things frees my mind to tackle the big things during the week. It also sharpens a "get it done, no excuses" attitude. —Steve Griggs, founder and CEO of Steve Griggs Design
4. Fail as fast and as early as possible
In our businesses, we prefer to fail fast and learn from it quickly to make improvements rapidly. Things are not always going to go according to plan, so the faster we find that out, the faster we can make changes to correct. If you're waiting for perfection, your competition is going to pass you by. —Gary Nealon, president of Nealon Solutions and The Rox Group
5. Set specific Goals then pursue them
I only aim for a specific target. Too many people set generic goals that aren't specific enough. I believe that if I don't have an exactingly specific target, then I won't know when I've achieved it. Dreaming is nice, but you have to do something about the dream. —Jay Georgi, founder of Nadvia and operations / management / profits-retention coach
6
. Develop your Intuition, you will need it
Intuition is not only a gift but also a skill that can and must be trained. Intuition is regularly mistaken for emotion, which may be volatile, unpredictable and reactive. However, I view intuition as the subtle and unexplainable, yet highly valuable, information that I glean from a collection of observations and sensations. I believe intuition is most accessible when one is prepared, calm and grounded on the inside, and armed to face chaos in the outside world. —Nafise Nina Hodjat, founder and managing attorney of The SLS Firm
7. Have a clear mission around your goals.
You'll experience greater success and raise more capital when you focus your pitch on solving social problems, rather than telling investors how you will provide them with a large return on investment. My health-care software startup FruitStreet.com is a public benefit corporation, which means that we are for-profit, but we wrote our social mission into the bylaws of our company. When you focus on helping society, you'll be more successful because you are solving problems for human beings, and investors want to support that kind of mission. —Laurence Girard, founder and CEO of Fruit Street
8. Invest in your reputation
Your online reputation is the No. 1 factor in converting a prospect to a buyer. Regardless of industry, everyone wants the best product or service at the lowest price from the most reputable provider. Most entrepreneurs invest massive effort, time and money into building the business—find the perfect location, hire the best staff, pick the right wallpaper color. But most entrepreneurs are unknowingly vulnerable to a malicious attack from a competitor, disgruntled employee, or hard-to-satisfy consumer. Without a reputation budget to protect everything they've built, it can crumble in days.