2021

Welcome to 2021. Last year was pretty painful & frustrating for everybody across the globe, I'm not even sure I can actually say I suffered at all when I put my perspective forward against the situation of others across the globe. Many people lost their jobs, businesses & homes, caused by the global pandemic, but more than that, people lost their lives, loved ones, parents, children, friends & my heart is with those people who have suffered. When I first started my business, my plan was to rid my family & future generations of what I viewed as a state of poverty, whereas I felt upset seeing people without money & struggling to make ends meet - then 2020 taught me there was more to life than money, there is life itself. That heart that doesn't stop ticking is life. The brain that doesn't shut off, is life. I think we've all learnt valuable lessons from 2020.

One lesson 2020 taught me well, is the thing I thought I was looking for, wasn't what I wanted nor needed at all.

I began this blog following heart failure in early November. I later visited a specialist cardiologist who suspected multiple diagnoses from the severe scarring found on my heart muscle which lead me to take a deeper view at what I was doing, why I was doing it & what I was trying to achieve in life. Before the event, there was a huge series of events that had occurred, from a break up, a not so fair court case, the revenue my industry was generating taking a nose dive, customers who owed me money seized trading, pressure from employees & associates as to where the future of the business was going & how they would pay their mortgages, I'd taken on another business, there was family issues to continuously deal with, I had pressure from customers, trying to dodge COVID - all of this while working 16 hours a day trying to find a solution for the last problem thrown my way, trying to pick myself up off from my own faults & dealing with unresolved issues from 2019.

The good news is that after my MRI scan, I was released with no further assessments required, the scarring wasn't going to cause me any significant long term effects as long as I continued to look after myself & remain positive. The final diagnosis was uncertain, but likely caused from stress induced myocardial myopathy or myocarditis - the scarring looked like it originated from a heart attack, but it was severely unlikely at my age, however both final diagnoses were reversible as long as I kept fit both physically & mentally. Laying in the hospital bed, I realised I had a list of things I wanted to do for me, when I had finished doing what I thought I had to do for everybody else - which leads me to my first tip above wishing every entrepreneur out there a wealth of prosperity & good fortune this year - is to make sure that you are doing everything for the right reasons, take a deep look into what you set out to achieve, what you want out of life, where previous bad decisions have effected your life in a negative way & use this information to ensure you are looking after your health in 2021.

Below, I've written some rules that I'll be following, take what you want from them - I'm fairly confident that my life is completely unrelatable to most other peoples.

24 hour rule - Don't make any split second decisions, whatever they are, take some time to think of the consequences. I made decisions in 2019/20 that have haunted me ever since. I knew at the time, some of them would bite me in the ass but I made them wrongly. If I had have waited 24 hours, without thinking about them since the initial thought & reviewed the decision I had written down, things could have worked out a lot different today. Einstein once said 'I think 99 times & find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence and the truth comes to me'. This happens in life. I wrote in my mental stress post, that the human brain cannot divide a thought, it can only add them up & multiply them, which in my experience can lead to you convincing yourself that you are right. Distract yourself with something else before making important decisions, then your intuition & experience can intervene to help you make better ones.

Do not argue with anyone rule - We could really relate this back to the 24 hour rule in many ways. Lets face facts, nobody wins an argument, one party loses & the winner loses more because they made somebody else look or feel stupid. If you know you're right, still shut up. The chances are the person you are arguing knows you are right. Human nature makes us stubborn, and because of this arguments rarely stay on the same subject that they began with, it becomes an 'I'm smarter than you' contest, which is far from my interpretation of a professional, confident individual.

- If you're the employer, lets say your employee is arguing back to something you said, silence from your side will win every time. If they do not follow your instruction, send it via email, if they ignore again, well its time for further calm approached professional & constructive workplace action by way of warnings or dismissal. You're the boss, employees won't like you when you can't afford to pay them anymore & you won't like them if they had a detrimental effect on your business by not following your informed instruction to them, so be the boss & do what's right for your business.

- If its an argument with family, just stop, the storm will pass. If they're wrong, let them realise. Some subjects that are said out loud in an disagreement cannot be unsaid, so don't be a victim of your own mistake of words in this sense, just stop.

- If its an argument with your wife/husband - ask yourself what you are trying to achieve from the argument or what can be achieved. Over the last year, I have given friends some amazing advice on partner relations & they end up upset and go back to their partner to make up. I've learnt lessons in why you never win - the simple concept of won the battle but lost the war, you may win the argument, but was it worth losing them for? Probably not & if it was in your eyes, one of you deserves better.

- Final example, a business partner - I'll say it like this, 'if both business partners agreed on everything, then one of them isn't needed'. A debate is maybe the better way to look at business partner disagreements, creating an argument to show what you believe is the better approach. However listen to what they have to say too, no human is always right, its a matter of perspective. Constructive criticism and acknowledgement of their ideology is the way forward is any disagreement between partners. Remember to always remain calm, if they are the type to think they're the clever one in the end, but you've constructively changed the outlook, who's the smart one?

30 or 60 day plan rule - This is also written into my 'Focus' post. It's written in my mental bible of how to achieve anything I want. Its simple to do too, create a document (whether on word, excel, a piece of paper pinned to your office wall or in your diary) write the date you started writing the objectives & give it a 30 or 60 day deadline. Each day, wake up & spend 20 minutes silently thinking about how to conquer it (you have to review it daily, because I'm sure you're as aware as me how fast a situation can change, so does the strategy), do a comfortable exercise (maybe some squats or even star jumps, then make sure you eat before you drink coffee or any hot liquid, do not skip breakfast. Then head to work with your strategy in mind, ready to take on your day. Remember 4 hours focused on achieving a goal at work, is better than 8 unfocused hours.

I use 60 day for work & 30 day for home projects.

As an entrepreneur, I know what it is like to not be able to sleep thinking of where you dream to be, I know what waking up at 2am with a new idea is like, I know how excited new projects are & how bored you can become of routine. However, focus is truly the key to success. I used to tell people 'I'm the type to try to build Rome everyday, overnight.' The vision of trying to build an empire is a challenge most are unable to compute. Trying to implement a strategy of building it faster than possible is a challenge even your brain is unable to compute, failure is inevitable & the feelings of failure are something I also understand too well. If you achieve it all before your deadline, then what an achievement. With the correct focus, I can do what I set out to do in 60 days, faster than it would have taken me in a year without focusing properly. Read my post of 'Focus'.

Praise others sincerely rule - Before I begin, I must warn that 'flattery' is insincere :) flattery is more a backhand than a soft hand. Lets keep it simple, if an employee does a good job, let them know you recognised it. If somebody smells good, tell them. (if they smell bad, don't tell them in front of others :)) If you notice something different with somewhere hair or style, tell them it suits them, but keep your mouth shut if that's not your true opinion (that'd be flattery). Its nothing to do with winning friends or gaining anything from anybody & you should know now there is nothing to gain for you, however helping others for no return is in my personal opinion, a beautiful trait to have.

5 a day rule - & I'm not talking about fruit, although that's also good for you. Everyday, smile at 5 people that you either don't know or haven't smiled at in a long time. Smiles are contagious. If a stranger somebody smiles at you, you feel recognised in some way, the environment becomes less alien. If you smile at work, others are more inclined to smile too. Or look at the opposite if you can't catch my drift, if you look unhappy, most people will look unhappy around you too.

Next, acknowledge 5 people - whether you say good morning to a stranger walking their dog, acknowledge somebody by way of praise, acknowledge their business or what you like about it, acknowledgement is something missing from many peoples lives. We aren't to know what happens behind every closed door, so acknowledging somebody in any way, can only pay dividends in their lives. It will also help you maintain a positive outlook in life.

Lastly, 5 things you appreciate or are thankful for. Each day you do it in one week, try to make sure its not something you've already said that week. Self appreciation is something we all need to do as humans - for me as an entrepreneur, I feel a failure a lot of the time, even when others are recognising your achievements. Please recognise how far you have came from where you began or what you've learnt from any experience.

6-5 rule - wake up at 6, shut off by 5. Even if you're working 6 days a week, you'll have the evening and 5 hours of your day to spend with your loved ones or talking with friends about general life. Ensure you take a day off each week. The more you learn to implement the focus rule, the less time you'll need to work anyway. Time is relevant to the mind that tracks it, sometimes what we can achieve in 6 hours of focused work can be the equivalent of 12 hours of the work others can. I've freed up so much spare time to focus on myself implementing the 'focus' rule already before 2021 came - all I'm trying to say is have a day off once a week, any day that fits for you. If you're married & have children, the focus rule will help you reduce it to 5 days using the 6-6 rule.

If I have forgotten to add any rules, I'll be sure to add them in.

This year I'm hoping to get 100 subscribers onto my blog, entrepreneurs can be few & far between so its a big number for me to find alone. Once I have this, (or at least close to it) I'll be setting up a Whatsapp group, so we can all help each other.

For anybody that want to connect to share advice in the meantime, send me an email & I'll exchange my Whatsapp with you - as I mentioned in my About the Writer page, I'm not always available as I also have a business to run myself, but be sure I'll help where I can & it'd be great to begin to start to build a network of like-minded individuals who can advise each other on the many challenges that we face as entrepreneurs.

Once again - best of luck to everyone for 2021, I wish you a year of prosperity and I really do hope you have a very successful year ahead of you. Lets embrace, plan & conquer new ventures, adventures & joint ventures. Let us use 2020 as a year of experience to grow on.

Thank you for taking your time to read