Being An Entrepreneur – 7 Great Lessons Golf Taught Me

7 Lessons Golf Taught Me About Being An Entrepreneur

I wanted to talk about the seven things that golf has taught me about being a entrepreneur.  I think that all of these lessons apply to being a solopreneur/entrepreneur.    

Mindset makes a difference

The harder you try, the worse you do.

Now, I've noticed this when I get up to hit the ball,  in my mind I'm thinking this shot is going to be so good. I'm going to just smash it and it's just going to go for miles.

What usually ends out happening when I have thoughts like that is I topped the ball and just dribbles a few feet down the fairway. And the end result is nowhere near what I had visualized in my mind.

Part of that is because I was trying so hard to hit the ball a long ways. This is true also with building a business sometimes the harder you try the more difficult it is, and you end out coming across as a little bit desperate in what you're doing.

People can sense that. And so the end result isn't anywhere near what you're anticipating because you're trying harder and harder thinking it's gonna be so great. You push, push, push, and as you are pushing harder and harder, people are backing up further and further.  They are thinking, oh no, this person is really desperate. Keep in mind sometimes that the harder you try, the worse you're going to do.

I don't want to give the impression that you don't have to work because you do. But I'm trying to think of a good way to say this in that if you can kind of stay within yourself and go with the flow and stay relaxed in the process. Things will go much better for you.

Enjoy the process more than the outcome

This ties into trying too hard. Enjoy the process of what you're doing. Love the fact that you are helping people, providing value, creating videos, or creating your blog post.  When you love what you do and connect with people and enjoy the process of being an entrpreneur then you will be getting out of yourself and things will go much better.

The same is true with golfing and putting, especially if you focus on your process, and what you do each time. Focus on that instead of the outcome of making the putt. You're going to be much more relaxed and you're going to be much more likely to make the putt. Enjoy the process of what you're doing.

If you're not enjoying it, people are going to be able to tell. If you're not in the moment maybe you might be feeling desperate. If this is true then people will be backing away from you and you're not going to connect the way that you think.

What happens when your brain goes into hyperdrive

I've played tennis and soccer, field hockey, other sports as well. With the other sports, everything is instantaneous. Tennis, you don't have time to think it's bam, bam, bam,  just reacting to the shot. Your responses are more instinctual. With golf, you might have like 10 minutes between shots.

Since you have so much time between shots your brain can just go into hyperdrive. You start thinking about how that shot went really well. What did I do? How was I holding the clug? What about my backswing? Where was my elbow?

Then when you get up to hit the ball again, you're all tense and thinking about what did I do last time that you end out duffing the ball. Your brain too involved in the process and and really can mess your game up. 

Having your brain go into hyperdrive can also happen to you as an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur/solopreneur you are typically working on your business by yourself.  This gives you lots of time to reflect and second guess yourself.  It is really easy to start thinking  

• I can't do this because of that 
• I'm uncomfortable selling to my friends
• I don't know how to make friends  
• I'm shy so I can't do this  
• The list of excuses goes on

As an entrepreneur you may not have a support system. This makes it really easy for your mindset to go down or to feel blocked because you have preconceived notions that may or may not be true.

Consuming too much information

AS a golfer trying to improve your game you may read magazines, take lessons from multiple people and try different techniques that people have talked about.  You think to yourself, that sounds good, I'll give that a try.  I don't like what this instructor said about my swing so I will take lessons from someone else.

It can really mess your game up if you try and implement all of the tips and tricks you read about in the golf magazine or see on the golf channel.   

This reminds me of what is called the shiny object syndrome.  This occurs when you end out jumping from program to program hoping for success but not really sticking with anything long enough to actually achieve success.  

You may take action once or twice and if you don't experience success you think that it is the program that didn't work. You jump from program to program to program and any one of those things may have worked if you focused on it and gave it full attention. Because you're busy jumping around,  you're really not giving yourself a chance of success. 

If you are a solopreneur and you have been caught on the shiny object hamster wheel then you may feel like your business is all messed. You may be so confused now on what you should do because you think nothing works and you're discouraged and you've spent all this money and life just isn't going the way that you want.

Find a mentor

Find a mentor. In your online business, it's super, super, super important to have a mentor that has been where you've been who can really help you In deciding what activity is really going to make the biggest difference in your business. 

It is so easy to get caught up doing all these ancillary things that you think oh, I'm busy. In reality you are busy doing things but what you are busy doing is not going to move your business in the right direction.

With a mentor or a coach who has gone through what you are going through, they can give you direction on what to focus on.  They may say: don't mess around with this, just let that go, focus over here instead. This is where your attention needs to be. 

If you have a mentor you are going to experience success much sooner than you would have otherwise.

 I have found the same to be true with golf. If you decide to take lessons,  find one person that you connect with.  Stick with that person, do what they say, and take the steps they recommend and start working on it.

If you jumparound from this person said this and this person said that, you're going to just end up being confused. So finding a coach or a mentor is critical, super important to your success in golf or your online business. 

Be willing to make mistakes before you get better

I remember playing tennis and then getting a lesson to change the way that I serve the ball. Once I started implementing what the instructor said I couldn't do it the new way and I couldn't do it go back to do it the old way.

I felt like I was totally messed up for a while before things really started to sink in and start making sense.  If you have a golf  lesson you may experience frustration because you are learning a new skill.  In the end you will be a better golfer but during the process of learning your scores may go up and you may get frustrated with not playing well.

 This is this is where a lot of people just give up or  throw up their hands and say forget it. If you really want to improve then you really need to stick with it.

The same is true with doing YouTube videos. I know darn well my YouTube videos are slowly getting better the more that I do. I know darn well my first bunch of videos were horrible, but I keep doing them. I know if I keep putting in the time and the effort to make things better and do better my videos will get better.

The same is true with writing my blog. Each time I do one, I work more on finding better images making, writing better quality articles, things like that, so it takes time to get better.  Sometimes you have to go through you know getting worse before you get better.

The key is to keep at it and keep taking action.  BE STUBBORN and don't give up.  

Conclusion

The seven things I've learned are:

1. Manage the six inches between your ears. 
2. Sometimes the harder you try, the worse you get. 
3. Enjoy the process more than the outcome
4. Keep your brain from going into hyperdrive
5. Consuming too much information, also known as Shiny Object Syndrome 
6. Finding a mentor/trainer/coach
7. Be willing to make mistakes in order to improve

My final thought that I want to leave you with is that it takes time to learn how to do something new.  I know for myself, I've been through college and years and years of training to do what I do for my work. (day job)

I need to think of my online business is the same way. It may take longer because I'm doing it in the evening and on the weekends. My concentrated time on my business is a little bit less. The benefit to that is that I get to do it from home and I'm not out traveling around

That is awesome just in itself and so worth it. I love helping people. And I hope you have gotten some value from this. Golf has taught me so much about patience and life in general but these are seven tips that golf has taught me about being a solopreneur/entrepreneur 

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