Ever since I decided to build my own company, I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on! I find the more I know, the more confident I become. There are SO SO many areas to learn about when you want to be an entrepreneur …..and that can be rather daunting.
So, my first book review is for #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso. It’s not necessarily a “book review” but rather the messages that made me think, particularly struck a cord or resonated with me. I want to make sure I remember them in the weeks, months and years that go by. So here they are:
1. “Instead of spending my time trolling the forums and obsessing about what other sellers were doing, I focused on making my store as unique as possible.”
(Take away – Don’t get caught up in other things – focus on YOUR business and YOUR customers)
2. “One thing you should know about me is when I hear no, I rarely listen. It takes a special kind of stubbornness to succeed as an entrepreneur. And anyway, you don’t get what you don’t ask for.”
(Take away – Persistency is KEY!)
3. “I believed in what I was doing, and fortunately other people believed in it as well. I cared as much about the process as I did about the results. No decision was too small. Whether it was the word choice in a product description or the expression on a model’s face, I treated everything with the upmost care. At the time this was just because, like I said before, I’m the kind of person who pays attention to something as small as a crooked shipping label. In hindsight, I see that it’s those small things that can make or break a business.”
(Take away – Pay attention to EVERYTHING)
4. “Magical thinking is the alchemy that you can use to visualize and project yourself into the professional and personal life you want….I am talking about visualization that works when we actually get off our asses and do stuff….Each time you make a good decision or do something nice or take care of yourself; each time you show up to work and work hard and do your best at everything you do, you’re planting seeds for a life that you can only hope will grow beyond your wildest dreams. Take care of the little things – even the little stuff you hate – and treat them as promises to your own future. Soon you’ll see that fortune favors the bold who get shit done.”
(Take away – Positive thinking; all the little things MATTER!)
5. “If you believe something, other people will believe it too ….This isn’t the false confidence that comes from getting a bunch of ‘likes’ on your Instagram selfies, but a deep-down, unshakeable self-confidence that persists even when things aren’t going all that great.”
(Take away – Having confidence in BOTH good times & not such great times in necessary!)
6. “While I truly believe that you must have intentions to fulfill your dreams, I think you have to leave room for the universe to have its way and play around a bit. Don’t get so focused on one particular opportunity that you’re blind to other ones that come up ….if you let yourself meander a bit, then the right things and right people fall into place.”
(Take away – Be focused as well as open to new possibilities)
7. “I have always viewed the business as a work in progress. I constantly tweak and move on, peeling back layers of the onion as new ones arrive. If something didn’t work – like if I put a dress up for auction and no one was bidding on it – I didn’t just assume that no one wanted it. I just tried something else. I rewrote the product description, or swapped the thumbnail ….I never assumed that I’d just done my best job first time around ….Your challenge as a #GIRLBOSS is to dive headfirst into things without being too attached to the results. When your goal is to gain experience, perspective, and knowledge, failure is no longer a possibility.”
(Take away – Be willing to change, adapt, test, tweak and try new things)
8. “We started buying units of six, testing the waters to see what sold and what didn’t. If it sold, we learned. If it didn’t sell we learned. And we kept learning.”
(Take away – Embrace learning, every step of way; Listen to your customer)