3 Traits That Helped Me Build a Successful Business From Scratch
3 Traits That Helped Me Build a Successful Business From Scratch
Emotion Intelligence.
If I had to refine everything down to one skill, it’s EQ. I had naturally been able to “find the Venn diagram” aka common ground between myself and anyone else in the room. I don’t know if it’s intuition or just nature but that’s the skill I built everything on top of.
When you’re just starting out you want to hone in on your communication skills because you need people - clients, staff, investors, followers, whoever - to actually understand and believe in what you’re building. Pay attention to how other people receive you and be honest with yourself. If you’re misunderstood or rubbing people the wrong way, your business isn’t going anywhere and neither are you.
Grit.
I grew up in Buffalo, and I think that instilled a level of grit that a lot of people don’t have. I started babysitting at 11, worked three jobs at once in high school, and by the time I started my firm I'd probably worked 30 different part-time jobs just for the love of the game. I like being productive. I like the freedom that comes from earning my own money, and that momentum is exactly what I put behind Prisma when I started it.
Hustle culture gets a bad reputation, and I get why but at the end of the day, anyone who's built something real has had to work for it. Kim Kardashian caught heat for saying no one wants to work anymore, but I agree with her. My advice: work early, work late, understand that trying hard isn't optional if you actually want something -just don't let grinding tip into burning out. There is light at the end of the tunnel and there's a difference between working hard and running yourself into the ground. Accept now you’ll need to work hard, yes.
Resourcefulness.
Because I pulled from so many different jobs and industries before starting my own business, I had a huge well of experience to draw from. By the time I was 25, I'd worked in hair salons, at Wegmans, at a campground, in retail, in fine dining, at an ice cream shop, in grocery wholesale, and in public accounting. I even became a "minister" so I could officiate my friends' weddings. When I worked as a barista outside DC, I networked so aggressively with local professionals that you'd trip over me. I took every coffee meeting anyone would offer and learned something from all of it.
Those experiences seem random on paper, but every one of them handed me a small piece of knowledge I could later apply to building my own business.
My advice for this is to get experience, stay curious, read, ask someone to share a coffee, travel, try things that have nothing to do with your industry. Step outside your comfort zone on purpose.
Being resourceful is collecting nuggets of knowledge everywhere you go so when you need to solve a problem you have a collections of answers.
Continue Reading