Yes, I know you probably don’t particularly love Trump if you were born in Latin America. However, in this article I will convince you why you should vote for him.
Real entrepreneurs don’t complain. One of the things I’ve learned while building my company is that you can be either a successful entrepreneur or someone who complains. YOU CAN’T BE BOTH!
I come from Argentina where every government in the last 40 years has implemented at least 4-5 major tax restructurings, changed the rules for exports and imports, made the local currency fluctuate like a roller-coaster, and caused an “ECG-style” inflation.
In a perfect world, your government will introduce measures to help businesses; reduce taxes for small businesses to allow them to grow faster; grant subsidies for high tech, and many more things. I’m sorry, my dear Latin American entrepreneur…welcome to the real world!
However, even in all these conditions, I managed to never transfer this chaos to my company (BairesDev), my clients, and my employees. Ultimately, if the problems are here, spending today complaining about yesterday simply won’t make tomorrow any better.
Easier said than done, right? Well, the truth is that all the entrepreneurs I know have a common factor: they all went through market-related problems and even so, I’ve never heard them complaining!
I’m not saying they aren’t sometimes under stress. They are. But as I once read, “the perfect no-stress environment is the grave.” When you commit to action, to actually doing something inside your company, rather than feeling trapped by external events, that stress disappears and you start looking like a real entrepreneur.
You probably know a guy that plays tennis with you and whenever you win he says he’s sick, it was too windy, or the conditions of the court were not the best. That guy will never, ever become a successful entrepreneur.
Whatever happens to your company is ultimately your fault. So here’s a list of tips I can give you to make sure you become a successful non-complaining entrepreneur.
- Think how you can actually become better than your competitors. They play under similar conditions, but if you understand what your clients really want, you will beat them every time. No matter if the court conditions are not the best.
- Don’t complain, even to yourself. If someone in your structure is not getting the results you wanted, make sure you either train them better, set the right procedures, define control mechanisms, or let them go if you’re left with no other alternatives. But don’t ever complain about what’s happening to your company. There is nothing less motivating than seeing your boss complaining about what’s happening with his own company. Imagine what it feels like to listen to the one person who could actually make a change complain about how things are going south.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If your “local Donald Trump” won the elections (or even if he didn’t), it’s always a good idea to work in different markets (I’ve done this when we started opening Engineering Centers in other countries outside Argentina).
- Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I know this looks like a cliché, but not many entrepreneurs actually put it in practice. Especially if you come from Latin America or other less privileged areas, it is important to always have a plan B. That will save you a lot of future complaints.
- Provided you had access to basic needs and a relatively good education (which covers 99% of our readers), always keep in mind that if you can’t make it and others can, most likely it’s not the environment or bad luck, it’s you. Work harder and try to make it.
I probably haven’t convinced you to vote Trump and the truth is that I don’t want to. I just want you to understand that it doesn’t really matter who wins the elections, what market conditions are set, or what external challenges lie ahead. These conditions are the same for other entrepreneurs too. Your success as an entrepreneur ultimately depends on what you and only you are doing.
If you really, really want to become a successful entrepreneur, forget about complaining and start learning to play the cards you’re dealt.
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