10 Things To Do Before Becoming An Entrepreneur.

#1. You gotta learn how to self-motivate.

If you don’t know how to self-motivate yourself, cross this thing out. If you do not know how to self motivate yourself and get yourself fired up , business isn’t for you. Because in a world of business you’re alone. There’s not gonna be somebody telling you’re amazing. There’s gonna be actually people on the complete opposite side, saying how horrible you are, constantly finding your leaks.

#2. Save, save, save.

Save your money. I was working in some private store (which I'm not going to name here) but I was saving that money. I was setting aside the money, because I knew longterm, I was gonna be in sales. I didn’t know what I was gonna sell and I didn’t know if I was gonna stay as an employee forever, because I wanted to figure out a way to make more money. I did know sales was it, but I did know that I needed my money in case if I went fully commission, what am I gonna do if I go fully commission? Save, save, save.

#3. Learn how to sell.

I went to a mobile store, because my old phone has crashed. So I enter the store and their employee comes to me. He was talking for 10 min straight! You know what I asked him? I asked him the following question, “Do you know how to sell?” He says, “I do.” I said, “I’m telling you, you don’t know how to sell?” He says, “What do you mean?” I said, “10 minutes and you haven’t asked a single question yet. You’re just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. So your business is not gonna work if you don’t know how to sell, you gotta learn how to sell. As an entrepreneur, if you’re an employee right, now you’re working wherever you’re working at. If you don’t learn how to sell, what do you think happens? All of a sudden you become an entrepreneur, you don’t know how to sell. You gotta learn how to sell. Before you make that plunge of becoming an entrepreneur full-time, learn how to sell.

#4. Work for one. (yes, I said work for one)

Work under an entrepreneur. Work closely with a CEO, shadow one, see what they do, see what’s different about them. I’m talking about one that, today an entrepreneur, I hear a lot of people that say, “You know, I work for a 72 year old very successful entrepreneur who made a lot of his money, but he golfs every day.” That’s not who you want to work with. You want to work with the entrepreneur that is starving, but he’s on his way up so you can learn from him.
Do you want to work with somebody that tells you stories on what they used to do when they worked 20 years ago? Or do you want to work with somebody that’s doing it today? They’re working 80-100 hours a week, because they’re in the hunt. If they don’t, they’re gonna be out of business. That’s how you learn the most!

#5. Network, build contacts and relationships.

Whatever industry your’re in and whatever phase you’re at as an entrepreneur, everything to you should be about relationships. So network, build contacts, you never know who is gonna introduce you to, people send me a message and they say, “How do I find an investor, Djordje, how?” What do you mean how do you find an investor? If you’re a rookie entrepreneur, make a list of everybody you know today and start asking the question: Who do you know that… and find out who knows who. As you’re starting, as an employee you want to become an entrepreneur, build your list of contacts.

#6. Work 80 hours a week for 12 to 24 months and see if you can do it or not.

While I worked in Telenor, I worked 80 hours every single week as an employee, and they only paid me four, you know, six dollars an hour or seven dollars an hour, five dollars an hour, whatever the number was, because it was commissions. But I worked 80, 90 hours per week. I was in the shop from morning until night. Every day I was at the shop. You know why? Because I wanted to see if I had what it takes to work. Because if you don’t know how to work 80 hours a week as an employee, you are definitely not gonna be making it as an entrepreneur. If you go full time and you want to make a business, you’re gonna be required to work regularly. I think a lot of times people have this idea that you become an entrepreneur, because when you become an entrepreneur, you’re gonna become a millionaire.

So if you don’t know how to work hard and you lose your edge, BOOM, somebody comes and takes the market away from you, because you lost your edge. So if you don’t know if you have it, you’re right now working nine to five, why don’t you work 80 hours a week at your job and see what happens? I’m dead serious with you. First of all, you may get some crazy promotions out of nowhere. You may be there and having real, direct, private conversations with the CEO, because the CEO is there, and you have him like, “My gosh.” CEO sees me every night, I leave after him. I come before him. What the hell is going on? Who is this guy, why is this guy working so hard? Work 80 hours a week for 12 to 24 months to see if you got it or not.

#7. Research. Learn how to research and learn fast.

Learn how to research. I think this thing about researching. Again, that’s a whole different thing that people, we can probably do one, how to research something, that could be an episode. I think researching is a skill. You gotta research who is this connected to, who does this guy know, what’s this thing all about, what is this product all about, what is this guy, why did they come out with us, why did this happen, what does this law have to do with this. You gotta learn how to research, okay. And you get to the bottom of something like, this guy is connected to this guy. Now I get why this guy is saying this. Oh, this is starting to make sense. You get the click, I figured out what’s going on. I gotta learn how to research and learn fast.

#8. Build an audience.

Build an audience on social media. Build an audience on Snap, on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube, on Twitter. Figure out a way to build an audience with your voice.

#9. Start becoming self aware and aligned about what your own strengths and weaknesses are.

I never knew I was gonna be good in sales until I started working at Telenor. I mean, I used to sell at 10 years old. But I really started realizing, I can be pretty good at this sales thing. Then I started realizing pressure. What happens in pressure. You know, deadlines. When we have numbers we have to hit, in sales, we had closeouts on fridays. I’m okay with this.

There was another guy, one of my managers that I work with. He was my boss, he couldn’t hack it himself, but he was my boss.
I remember it was Friday closeouts. We haven’t hit our numbers yet. He would be panicking. There’s a guy named Tony Willson, would call in and no one wanted to pick up Tony’s call, but I would pick up the call. “Tony, what’s going on, why are you bothering us? It’s not done yet, let me finish up my day, can I call you back at midnight?” “Yes.” Then boom, we would get two, three sales. How?

I’d go on the walkway, I’d go in the gym, I’d walk around, I would say, “Hey, how you doing, how is work? By the way, who do you know right now that’s looking for a membership? Why are you working out alone? Why don’t you call your friends, let’s get them to become a member. Who can you call right now who can come to the shop? Tell them to come to the shop.” I would go through the members that are working out and I would get them to call their friends to come to the shop and I’d sell them membership that night, and boom, we would hit our numbers. Right? But it was, you kinda figuring out how to make that part happen. So you learn your strengths and industries. I liked sales, I liked numbers.

#10. Put yourself in “Death Ground” situations where your back’s against the wall.

Every single day you are on death ground as an entrepreneur. But even more when you’re a startup entrepreneur. A death ground situation means a series of events taking place that seem out of your control and you step in to tackle it; to tame it; to make something happen out of what seemed impossible to achieve. Take a deadline that seems crazy and go hit it. Say yes and take responsibility for certain projects and go execute them from start to finish. Take that deadline that no one wants to touch, because they’re afraid of coming through.
Don't play it safe, challenge yourself! Because you gonna have many challenges at start, and you need to learn how to deal with them.

Now ask yourself, are you ready? Some of you guys may be reading and say, “Djordje, I’m afraid of this 80 hours a week thing for 12 to 24 months. I’m afraid of all these other things that you’re talking about.” I’m just telling you the truth right now. You want to do it? Do it. You don’t want to do it? You don’t do it. By the way, 90% of people are not gonna do this, what I just talked to you about. If you’re reading this as the employee and you’re saying, “I want to do it.” Go take up the challenge and update me on the type of progress you’re making here, on Steemit.