Pictured (L to R): Racquel Marvez, moi, Manjula Varghese

My episode of The Generations Project won an Emmy last night in the Human Interest category. Pardon the above screen shot of someone else’s cell phone picture, but metaphorically, it’s the perfect example of how last night felt— a blurry moment in the middle of someone else’s dream. It was surreal to say the least.  Wonderful, yes, and totally surreal.

This morning, I woke up to this face. I woke up to real life, and that moment wasn’t blurry and surreal. It was perfectly clear. . . and exquisitely beautiful. . . and filled with real life joy—real life joy that is at least a thousand times more wonderful than all the pretty shoes, fancy dresses and yes, even Emmy awards, the world over.

Over the last 8 weeks, I’ve been really sick. I mean very, very, ill. (No, I’m not pregnant, promise). Because of this, I’ve had to retract from nearly every facet of my life that doesn’t require my absolute presence. Essentially this equates to every ounce of my available energy being focused solely on breathing in and out and loving on my children—there hasn’t been any time left for blogging, shooting, writing, (cleaning, eh hem) . . . or running around like a glorified chicken with her head detached and tucked pridefully under her wing.

And guess what? I finally remember.

I remember that life isn’t about anything except for what’s right in front of you. Oxygen—breathing it in and out, all day long. People—loving them with every last beat of your heart. God—trusting his will and timing, even and especially when it’s confusing and seemingly unfair. Everything else is merely peripheral to what matters most. No, everything else MUST exist solely to SUPPORT the things that matter most.

None of this to say that Emmys (and fancy shoes) aren’t amazing! Last night really was a dream, not to mention an incredible honor! But waking up to that drippy, freckle faced, little boy reminded me, for the trillionth time, that if I want to not only survive but THRIVE in this thing called life, I have to turn down the volume on the things that matter least and emphatically embrace the things that matter most, for therein lies real life joy.

PS. Speaking of fancy shoes, I couldn’t walk in mine. I may be the only person in history ever to walk up on stage to accept an Emmy. . . in bare feet. (Just keepin’ it real.)

THE QUALITIES OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR

 Business Success

Successful entrepreneurs have the potential to radically improve the world on multiple fronts.

Not only can they meet economic needs and please customers, but they can also help their employees achieve their full potential.

If you dream of making a difference in this way, you just might make a great entrepreneur. But first, it’s important to know what an entrepreneur is and the qualities that set successful them apart from the rest, Visit website.

Are You An Entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur takes an idea and makes a business out of it.

Successful entrepreneurs have a passion they want to share with the world and turn it into a business they profit from.

Because you set up your own business instead of working for someone else’s, you take responsibility for all the risks, but you also benefit from all of the rewards.

Most entrepreneurs venture into the unknown. They are innovative and hone important entrepreneurial skills to overcome challenges, fears, and doubts to become fearless, think big, and dream big.

Entrepreneurs set up their businesses with their own money, loans, or by partnering with venture capitalists to fund their dreams.

Aspiring entrepreneurs are often attracted to this venture because they get to build a career that aligns with their interests, talents, skills, passions, or beliefs.

Entrepreneurship allows you to have autonomy and the opportunity to improve your standard of living and quality of life.

You can often set your own schedule, connect with like-minded people, and have many opportunities to grow and learn new things.

Many entrepreneurs have the desire to change lives and a strong sense of adding value to their communities.

11 Qualities Of A Successful Entrepreneur

Aspiring entrepreneurs may have visions of turning their creative ideas into reality, having their own business or multiple businesses, becoming independently wealthy, or being great philanthropists. Whatever your ultimate goal, if you endeavor to be a successful entrepreneur, you must cultivate certain key traits that will set you above the rest and allow you to achieve real success.

Becoming a successful entrepreneur means developing entrepreneurial skills that help you create long-term success. Consider the following qualities that most successful entrepreneurs possess so you can start living your dream.

Goal Oriented

Successful entrepreneurs regularly define their business goals and come up with detailed plans to achieve them.

This allows them to focus their actions toward a consistent, positive outcome for the company.

A penchant for planning means you will always have a clear sense of what to do next and can better assess individual decisions based on how they fit into your broader strategy.

If you’re not used to setting goals, try setting SMART goals.

Conceptional chalk drawing – SMART Goals

Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer company by being an avid goal-setter. He set both long-term and short-term goals to achieve his ultimate goal of building an enduring company that prioritized people.

Entrepreneurs require vision and a business plan that includes steps and reachable goals to get them from the idea stage to their own businesses that are fully functioning and thriving.

Passionate

One of the most important elements of successful entrepreneurship is loving what you do.

This means not just a love for doing business but also a passion for your specific field.

Not only does loving your work make it easier to carry out your daily duties, but it can make those actions seem like they aren’t even duties at all.

You are likely to spend your free time brushing up your skills or thinking of ways to attract more clients.

Those who love what they do are also more likely to deal with failure constructively, learning how to do better rather than getting discouraged.

To be a successful entrepreneur, know your purpose in life and then strive to achieve it. When you enjoy what you are pursuing, you will have greater resilience to overcome failures that inevitably come and continue striving forward.

Oprah Winfrey has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in our modern time by cultivating self-awareness. She believes everyone has a calling and that it is vital to take the time to find out who you are and why you are here. And then go for it.

Successful entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, counsels, “Some 80% of your life is spent working. You want to have fun at home; why shouldn’t you have fun at work? You are far more likely to be inspired and have great ideas if you love what you do, and can instill that spirit of fun throughout your company.”

Takes Initiative

Effective entrepreneurs and business leaders spend every moment of their time taking productive actions.

They constantly look for opportunities to enhance their business and act decisively whenever they find one. A very important quality for successful entrepreneurs is the ability to take initiative.

Constant action doesn’t mean deciding without thinking; careful thought, after all, is a necessary action in business.

What it means is remaining productive so that all you do contributes to your goals.

Elon Musk is currently the richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of nearly $152 billion. He has made billions by being extremely decisive. He thinks quickly and takes action without hesitating.

As the co-founder of PayPal, Tesla, and many other business ventures, this famous entrepreneur advises, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

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Flexible

As important as it is to make plans, commitment to a long-term vision or strategy should not come at the expense of flexibility.

Sooner or later, something will happen that you did not expect, and you will have to respond to it without hesitating.

A successful entrepreneur is able to adjust her plans when they prove impractical, quickly making the changes necessary to deal with any new development.

When you are taking on new opportunities, you will inevitably meet roadblocks and even failures. If you do not, you are not being innovative enough.

Expect difficulties on your road to becoming a successful entrepreneur, and have the flexibility to change course when it means greater customer satisfaction, increased sales, better service, or greater long-term success.

Self-Disciplined

To start and build your own successful business, you need special discipline. Self-discipline is practiced by all successful entrepreneurs and self-made business millionaires as it helps put you on the fast track to accomplishing your goals.

Learn and practice self-discipline early in your entrepreneurial career. The sooner you incorporate self-discipline, the sooner you will create positive outcomes for your business, including higher sales, a higher rate of accomplishing your goals, and keeping life-long customers.

Being self-disciplined means avoiding distractions and staying focused on your goals. Envision your long-term goal and stay laser-focused on it so that all of your actions will lead to your success.

The fourth richest person in the world, Bill Gates, revealed that when he was a student at Harvard University, he had a terrible habit of procrastinating. While it seemed comical to his classmates for him to cram the night before each test and not even attend his classes, he found that this did not translate to success in the business world.

Through self-discipline and additional key entrepreneurial skills, Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen, traded this habit to become one of the most successful people on the planet.

Has Integrity

Honesty is not just a moral virtue; it is also a practical necessity in the business world.

Employees, suppliers, customers, and regulators all have to know that they can trust you.

If they learn that you misrepresented yourself, they will refuse to cooperate with you, dooming your business.

You have to have a reputation for honesty and integrity to be a successful entrepreneur, and there is no reliable way to secure that reputation other than by actually being honest.

Warren Buffet, one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors with a net worth of $118 billion, says, “Look for three things in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother.”

At the early age of 20, Sir Richard Branson became an entrepreneur by starting a mail-order record business and then running a chain of record stores within two years. Eventually, he founded the Virgin Group and today controls more than 400 companies. He is known as a man with high integrity, valuing people and their unique, creative ideas.

On the topic of building a successful business and integrity, Branson says, “Building a business is not rocket science, it’s about having a great idea and seeing it through with integrity.”

Emotionally Intelligent

Emotional intelligence is indispensable in the business world.

Your own emotions can easily get in the way of decision-making, causing you to view an incorrect choice positively or overlook a correct one.

You must recognize your emotions but not be controlled by them.

It is also important to be sensitive to your employees’ and partners’ emotions, understand how your decisions impact them and strive to keep them happy and healthy. By following these steps, your success as an entrepreneur is virtually assured.

Larry Page, co-founder of search engine and company Google–which is worth nearly $1,200 billion–is known for his emotionally intelligent leadership style. He says, “My job as a leader is to make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities and that they feel they’re having a meaningful impact and are contributing to the good of society.”

Risk Tolerant

To be a successful entrepreneur, you must be willing to take risks.

Without taking risks and venturing into the unknown, you will remain where you are instead of accelerating toward something better.

However, you must understand how to take intelligent risks. You do this by assessing your options, thinking through the possible outcomes, making a plan to meet challenges and deal with a potential worst-case scenario, and taking action.

Andrew Carnegie, founder of the Carnegie Corporation and one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of the early 19th century, risked losing his family’s home by investing in an express delivery company. The risk paid off, leading to multiple subsequent investments and an eventual fortune.

Steve Ballmer took the risk of dropping out of Stanford University to join a new technology company called Microsoft. He eventually became CEO and has a net worth of $78.6 billion.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg shares, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

I had to take some time off to do just a little bit of this, living that is.

I needed to fall apart just a little.

I needed to have a good, long cry—to face the messy parts of what is.

I needed to shake some of the sorrow up to the surface, and exhale it away. . . or inhale it in. (I’m not sure there’s much of a difference with grief.)

It’s been 2 years now, almost 3, but usually it feels like last Thursday.

I go through this madness, thinking I shouldn’t be falling apart anymore. It’s foolish. What will people think? How will they react when they know the truth? What will they say when they know that sometimes, no often, it still hurts like Hell? That sometimes, no often, I still feel like I’m suffocating underneath it all?

. . . and then the sun comes out.

And then despite the rain, despite the thunder and the lightening, despite the begging and the longing and the bargaining and the pleading . . . through all of that weight. . . there’s light. And you know, somehow, someway everything truly is OK.

Out from under all.that.pain, you’re watching a miracle unfold. Right there in front of you. Layer by layer. Breath by breath.

And the miracle. . . is you.

You breathe in deep, flooded with inexplicable gratitude—oxygenating your very soul. Suddenly, for the first time in months, your feet hit the ground. You see all the pieces of yourself—the pieces of your sanity— and you know you can put it all back together again.

A day ago, or even a moment, you wouldn’t have believed.

Now, here it is. . .

Right in front of you.

The miracle of you.

34 things. From my heart to yours.

There are cooler things than the internet.

Sometimes listening to the sound of the rain on the pavement is the best music there is.

Sticking your nose into a pile of warm laundry, fresh out of the dryer, reduces anxiety.

Cell phones are pretty lame.

God loves you. A lot.

Television is NEVER cooler than being outside.

Good fuel = happy living. (Trash in, trash out. Mind, body, spirit.)

True friendship is better than therapy. (Or at least the VERY best alternative.)

A good night’s sleep is totally underrated.

This too shall pass.

Be where you are. (Aka try to do something in the past, try to do something in the future: YOU CAN’T.)

Meditation is more powerful than you could ever imagine.

Kindred friendships exist in places and packages you’d never imagine. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover (or it’s Twitter avatar).

Deep breathing should be celebrated as a consistent part of one’s daily routine.

Life is short. LIVE it well.

Anxiety and worry are useless, unproductive and downright dangerous. LET GOOOOOOOOO.

Worry is nothing more than praying for what you don’t want.

You can heal.

Eye contact with actual humans is waaaaaaay cooler (and more emotionally satisfying) than text messaging.

Plus, text messaging when you’re around living, breathing human beings just makes you lame.

Being in the ocean is the best practice in mindfulness there is.

It will all work out.

We could all live with about 3/4ths less junk.

Purging clutter does wonders for the creative soul.

There’s nothing quite as reassuring as getting up early to watch the sunrise.

A good nickname goes a long way.

Be nice.

There is enough to go around (more than enough, really).

Water a plant. It does something inexplicable for the soul.

Letting people in isn’t as dangerous as you think. It’s actually pretty miraculous.

Life is too short not to get rid of your baggage.

Complete faith and total surrender are mighty powerful things.

It’s never to late to change your ways, to heal what you’ve broken, to try again.

No one’s life is as clean, pretty, or perfect as it appears on their blog.

The Road Less Traveled.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this. . .the long way, the road less traveled, the river deep, the valley wide.

So many things in our life have taken us, well, the looooooong way. The mountains have been higher and the valley’s lower and wider than I could have ever anticipated (in my wildest of dreams). But in retrospect, this really has made all the difference in the world. I’ve seen more, I’ve done more, I’ve learned more than I ever could have otherwise. The lessons have been as deep as the mountains have been high.

You want shallow lessons? You take the easy way. You want surface level understanding and fulfillment? Short cuts will serve you well.

I don’t want these things. I don’t.

The trick (and yes, there really is one) is letting go, leaning in, and not wasting your life in worry, doubt or fear. As long as you’re tuned in, and committed to what’s truly best for you (not what you WANT, or think you NEED, but what’s best), everything really does have a way of working itself out. (Yes, even THAT. You know, that thing you’re worrying about right this very second? Yes, even THAT will work itself out, in the perfect way and at the perfect time for you.)

Someone I really love once said, “You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you.” And I believe him. With all my heart.

PS. Love this pretty little stretch of highway between Wahiawa and Waialua.  Kaukonahua Rd takes just a little longer than the “standard” route through the pineapple plantations (Kam Highway), but it’s soooo totally worth it.

PPS. This post took a thousand years to write. 3 kids, one frazzled momma, a studio apartment, and all kinds of sleep deprivation. . . snerk. SOS! I’m d-d-d-drowning. Can’t wait for Richie to get here next week!