The way to bring about change is to be proactive and active.
Mr. Neeraj Shah sets a perfect example on how to achieve your desired goals by having a proactive approach and a systematic lifestyle.
Interviewer: Please brief us a little about yourself and your company.
Mr. Neeraj:I am a business mentor. I help overwhelmed business owners and entrepreneurs to get clarity, the confidence and tools to help them grow their business on autopilot. The company through which we develop entrepreneurs is called Titan Masterminds LLP.
Interviewer: What ignited the spark in you to come up with such a venture?
Mr. Neeraj:I have been working along with thousands of entrepreneurs for the last 12 years and I have seen the kind of struggles they need to face as a businessman. I built a business network called BNI India. When I moved to India in 2004, I grew it from zero to 10,000 entrepreneurs across 21 cities in India. So I have been working with entrepreneurs for a very long time. One of the things that I noticed is that they have to struggle a number of adversities, one of them being not getting enough qualified leads.
They don’t really understand marketing and they have a lot of problems in getting the right kind of customers.
The second challenge was time management. As a business owner,they were always short of time when they were working in the business. And they didn’t actually have time to work on the business.
In the last 2 years I was managing BNI India, I was working on a 3 day work week, while we have added almost seven and a half thousand customers, which is about 384% growth in around 2 years. I realized I used a seven-step Business Success Blueprint to grow and manage the business.
When I helped other entrepreneurs implement thisBusiness Success Blueprint, they started achieving similar results. I have been working over the last year with many entrepreneurs from different fields. And they have grown to around 250%-300% in terms of revenue and they have lot more time now for themselves, and their family. They have been able to get out of the reactive mode and daily firefighting.
Interviewer: What are the three most important things for a successful business?
Mr. Neeraj: There are a couple of key things.
Number one is, I believe, is that we need to have a powerful mindset. The initiation of a business is really difficult so there are going to many difficulties along the way. There may be family matters or challenges and many others which can obstruct the growth and the success of the business.Having a strong and positive mindset along with the ability to learn is vital in in this era. With lots of disruption happening, and people who learn the fastest are able to operate in this ever-changing world.
Second success factor is energy. You cannot achieve anything unless you have the energy at multiple levels. It is important to have physical energy, which keeps you in a good shape that also impacts the mental and emotional energy. Lastly, tap into your spirit energy by doing things that you are passionate and proficient at makes you feel more fulfilled. Cultivating energy at all these levels are crucial part of success.
The last thing is focus. It is very easy to get distracted. An entrepreneur has many things going on. The ones that I found to be successful have the ability to remain focused. Social media, or emails, or firefighting doesn’t distract them. They are able to stay focused on whatever key fundamentals that are important.
I think these are the three things, which help you to achieve maximum amount of success, build value through products and services you deliver, and to be able to grow and lead a team.
Interviewer: Did you face any challenges throughout your entrepreneurial journey? What did you learn from it?
Mr. Neeraj: Yes, I’ve had my own share of failures. As an entrepreneur, you know that you are going to face them and there will be many times when you have to overcome these challenges. One of the biggest facts of success is when you think that things are going well, that’s the time, when you are most likely to fail. Nothing fails like success. It makes you complacent. Hence, I think it is always important to stay humble, grounded and willing to learn and accept the fact that it is going to require more hard work and focus. When we do fail, it is up to you to pickup and learn a lesson from it. I think if we learn something and don’t repeat the same mistakes, and then it is moving forward. There is always a lesson to be learned when things don’t work out as planned.
It is important to choose your partners and your key people carefully. There needs to be an alignment in terms of values. You have to discover and really spend time and find out. It is also important to not be surrounded by “yes” men all the time because those people have an ulterior motive.
One should be willing to learn, and not be scared of making mistakes. Follow your heart, and when you face a failure, don’t forget to learn from it!
These are some things I believe are important.
Interviewer: What are your habits which contributed in your making of a successful entrepreneur?
Mr. Neeraj: There are some key habits that I follow. I call it the “Titan Protocol”, so there are five very powerful things that I do during the day. First, I have a morning ritual and I get up early by 6 and for an hour, I have an hour of power. I divide that into three lots of twenty minutes. For first twenty minutes, I meditate, second twenty minutes, I work out and third twenty minutes I learn from things like journals, podcasts and videos. Second, after that I have a healthy breakfast to keep me powered up throughout the day. Thirdly, after reaching my office, for the first ninety minutes, I don’t check my mails instead I work on the most important task that I got to do. In that way, I am able to achieve many important things. I am not reactive, I am proactive.
Fourthly, I have an evening planning ritual, where I look at what happened during the day. I end the day uplifted followed by a plan of my next day. One of the key things that have helped me become super productive is the evening planning ritual. So instead of planning my day in the morning, I always plan it a day before. And I identify the three most important things that I can accomplish the next day. Lastly, I review my day and give thanks to 5 key wins I have had. It helps me cultivate an attitude of gratitude. I do these five things every day.
Interviewer: What would you like to advice budding entrepreneurs or students who want to start a business?
Mr. Neeraj: It is important to be really passionate about things and find ways to monetize their ideas. In the earlier times, there was a very limited and restricted access to the Internet and the social media. But now, in this modern age, the Internet and social media has democratized the ability to reach people. So it is so much easier to follow a passion and monetize it. Be really good at it. One of the key things is that you are getting paidto serve others. The better you serve and the larger number you serve, you are proportionatelycompensated at a higher level. So if you are able to find ways to be able to achieve and deploy your passion and proficiency, into ways in which you can serve your target market better, then that really creates a solid business model. Then you will always be excited about doing that work and no one would have to force you to do anything. Even if you’ll have to stay up late at night and it’s fulfilling. It creates an enormous amount of energy, you’ll be willing to get up and give it all that it needs. And also if you are able to leverage technology to run your business, you’ll be able to provide value to your customers.
Interviewer: What is your inspiration to generate new ideas?
Mr. Neeraj: I think its constant reflection and constant learning. So I am always taking new courses and reading new books, and watching videos. I find people to mentor me who have achieved results that I would like to achieve. One of those people end up being my inspiration and that always gives me new ideas, which I could relate to things I am currently doing and to things that I have learned.
Interviewer: How has becoming an entrepreneur made you a better person?
Mr. Neeraj: This huge urge of serving others has first helped me to focus on myself to become a better person, to become a better leader, a better learner, and a better teacher. It has also developed the need to take care of my health and fitness, because if I need to serve others, I need to have that much more energy. It has helped me to improve my relationship with others. So for all of that, I had to work on myself. That has had a great positive impact on my business and life allowing me to succeed.
To know more about Mr. Neeraj Shah, visit his website www.neerajshah.me