Books Unwound

This is part of an in depth review of  The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, by Mike Michalowicz.  This book is about being an entrepreneur and starting and running a successful business. I will focus on 1 section at at time and distill the best information to help your business now.  This should not be considered a replacement for the actual book, which will usually have a lot more in depth information as well as stories, which are an important way to communicate the essentials.  If you find the information in these posts helpful, I recommend buying the book.

Chapter 2 – A Little Peace and Quiet (In Your Mind)

Accomplish What Your Believe

What do you believe? I mean, really, deeply believe, not just think at the moment. Mike Michalowicz starts chapter two out by plumbing the depths of what belief is. He says that “belief is the inner, unswayable knowledge of what you know to be true.” In other words, its the things that don’t bend. I think that belief may be shaped over a lifetime, much like a bonsai. Thoughts, on the other hand, may change day to day.

In order to be successful in your life, let alone your business, you need to have a clear picture of your beliefs. The problem is that there is much to distract and pull you away from your inner belief. We have an amazing capability to lie to ourselves and temporarily trick ourselves into believing something that isn’t true. However, that never lasts. The deep belief will always bubble up and fight against it. That may be why you are uncomfortable working a job, because you believe you are meant to do more. The question is, how do you live out your inner beliefs?

Michalowicz makes it clear that there is a difference between beliefs and truth. Beliefs are what guide us personally. Two people could have polar opposite beliefs, but neither is necessarily wrong. With belief, you must be true to yourself. So, if I am quiet and you are loud, we shouldn’t look down on each other, but embrace our differences as different beliefs. Truth is another matter altogether, and its not covered in The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur so I won’t weigh in on it here.

So, how do you find out what you believe? Well, according to Michalowicz, “our emotions act like an invisible GPS and move us toward our beliefs every time without fail.” You will find that emotion plays a big role in running your own business. You might as well embrace it and let it do its job. If you are going to look to emotions to discover your beliefs, start by listing the things that make you really happy and the things that make you really sad.

What does this all mean? Yes, I admit that it is a bit heady and philosophical at first, but it becomes more clear throughout the chapter. For now, look at it as a starting point. What you believe truly will truly be. Its not that you can snap your fingers and it will be. Just believing something doesn’t automatically get you there. But you do need to absolutely believe something in order to achieve it. If you go into business thinking that you will never succeed, how can you? So, you need to believe that you can succeed. Its like a destination on a map. You have to know its there and believe that you can get there. If you don’t have a destination that you believe in, you will never get there.

So it seems that the path to entrepreneurial success starts right in your own head. What do you believe about your future? You are going to need the deep well of your true beliefs to get you through until you reach the destination, that sweet moment of belief meeting reality.

There is one more important point made in this section. We each have two types of beliefs, enabling and limiting. You are going to have to work to strengthen your enabling beliefs while eliminating your limiting beliefs. This isn’t positive thinking poppy-cock. Its about finding or creating beliefs that will move you forward in life. For instance, you can think everyone is out to get you, or you can think that everyone is looking for a smile. You choose. Your belief will affect your outlook and have a huge impact on where you get in life.

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Coming next: The Wall of Limiting Beliefs

Buy or Not: This book is a buy.  The ideas presented here will re-frame how you think about your business and help you find your passion and put it in your business. Even if you already have a business, you can learn a lot from this book.  Buy this book at Amazon

Bradford Shimp helps small business owners and entrepreneurs build successful businesses.  Read his blog at www.allbizanswers.com.  Follow Bradford on Twitter.

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