This is a Guest Post

“Hold on just a second! Goal setting and making plans is so important! Everybody knows that!”

You’re right, it is. It is absolutely essential to know where you’re going so that your daily efforts aren’t wasted on inconsequential activities.

But, plans and goals will get you absolutely nowhere by themselves. Nowhere.

Og Mandino said it best,

“Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground. Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime… Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force. Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.”

Action is the food and drink which will nourish your success.

Say that out loud.

I get chills every time I read those words.

Powerful right? But, unfortunately, there’s always that voice of doubt that says. . .

“But I have to know what action to take before I take it. So, let me study, dust my desk, and organize my pens for the next year, while I learn what do to. Then I’ll act.”

This is a common excuse that comes from fear and it must be overcome before success even looks in your direction.

So, let’s destroy it, shall we?

First of all, the idea that you have to learn the entire picture of a particular subject before taking action is completely absurd because…

1. You won’t retain any of the information that you tried to learn in the process because your brain assimilates knowledge through its application, not just hearing or reading.

2. All knowledge is progressive, meaning that one principle builds on top of another. Therefore, one action builds on another and without carrying out the primary activities, understanding what to do at the end of the road is close to useless.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a test.

Do you remember what you learned in English class during your senior year of high school? Didn’t think so. That’s because you never had the chance or the structure to apply those concepts.

But, how easy is it for you to cook your favorite meal? How easy is it for you to tie your shoes? You can do it like clockwork.

That’s because you have applied that recipe or process repeatedly until it has been committed to your mental and physical memory.

So, in the process of learning, apply each chunk of knowledge that you learn as you learn it. This will not only help you retain that knowledge, but you will actually begin to make progress and build on the results of your actions almost immediately.

“But what if I make mistakes?”

If you’re asking yourself that question, here’s an encouraging fact.

Experience is the most valuable asset to the success of anybody in any field and the amount of experience a person has directly correlates to their success.

And experience is the direct result of action.

Not necessarily the “right” action, but action.

You see, if you take a wrong action action that doesn’t lead you closer to your goal, you’ll learn from the results (or lack thereof), and then adjust accordingly.

There is not one example in the history of mankind of somebody who was perfectly successful in his or her chosen endeavor right off the bat.

Making mistakes and adjustments is an essential part of progress in life and it precedes success. Not only that, you will continue to make mistakes and adjustments even when you’re at a place that you consider successful.

But, what happens when you take no action? You get no experience, no results, and no success.

Action is liberating

Have you ever had a project on your to-do-list that stayed there for months, even years? Then, one day, you just got it together and finished it. How did that feel?

I know that those instances of decisive action are some of the most freeing experiences I have ever had, even if the project itself was insignificant.

Imagine having those experiences on a daily basis!

There is a magic that comes from committing to action and carrying through.

Meet the parents of success

Didn’t know that success has parents? Well she does and you’re going to have to meet them before you’re introduced to her. No exceptions.

Think of it this way.

The father gives the seed of life that is then nourished and developed by the mother.

In the same way, a clear goal is the seed-giving father of your success, but it will never come to life without the nourishment and cultivation of the mother, action.

Please, don’t make success harder than it has to be.

Stop playing your mental fear games and take action today! Commit to one specific thing that you will move a certain area of your life forward!

Sound off!

What do you think? Share your valuable thoughts with us in the comments.

Best of life,

Abhay Khurana

This is supposed to be the place where I plug myself and my website. But, honestly, I just hope that you’ve gotten some value out of what I’ve written for you. If you have and want to connect with me and read more like this, head over to my blog at www.betteryoungentrepreneur.com

Please Note: This is a Guest post from Srinivas Rao of The Skool of Life and Blogcastfm

I think every one of us has hidden potential. The problem however is that we live in a world where social programming, expectations and conformity have driven the behaviour of people in the society. We get rewarded for conformity and punished for going against the grain. Unfortunately we condition people over and over again with small rewards for fitting in and not challenging the status quo. These small rewards reinforce this behavior. It starts at an early age when you hear things like “Don’t color outside the lines, don’t talk to strangers” and whole list of “rules” that serve no purpose in adult life. Ultimately, they keep you from unleashing your hidden potential. It’s time to shatter all of that for a new way of thinking. The Skool of Life is such a different place than the schools we’ve attended and learned from.

Be willing to fail more: Failure has such a bad connotation in our society. When you get an F on a report card, that is the lowest score you can possibly get. You get punished for failing. As a result from a very early age we’re taught not to fail. As a result we take less risks, we play it safe and we don’t have any small failures. We just have one giant one, LIFE. Would you rather have thousands of small failures and one giant success that trumps all of the failures or would you rather never fail and live up to only a small portion of your potential?

Don’t listen to the naysayers: Naysayers always tend to emerge when you want to challenge the status quo. The reality is that they are afraid. They are afraid of seeing you reach your full potential because it forces them to deal with the fact they are not reaching theirs. If they can get you to stay where you are at, then they don’t have to deal with the fact they are wasting their own potential.

Trust your Instincts: Instincts are interesting. Im sure I’m not the first person telling you to trust your instincts. But the real question is how often do you do it? When you have an intuition or a feeling, what do you do about it? For two weeks I was hesitant to write this post because I had no idea what the hell it was going to be about. Then it finally came to me. When you have an intuition or feeling do you just let it go as another passing thought? If you do then read on.

Take Action: Good instincts are great. But they’re useless if you don’t do anything with them. If your instincts tell you to start a company, then do it. For the first time in history you can lay the groundwork for almost anything with virtually zero capital investment. It’s important be action oriented.

Choose to be extraordinary: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. “Ordinary lives are for ordinary people, extraordinary lives for those who are extraordinary. My life was never meant to be ordinary.” How you define that is really up to you. But, I don’t believe we were meant to live ordinary lives. We were meant to live life to its fullest.

Be Patient: Of all the advice I’ve offered you in this post, this is the one you will fail with over and over again. Unleashing your full potential takes time. Years or bad conditioning have to be erased and while you can begin the path to success over night, you won’t reach your goal overnight. Ironically, the more patient you are the faster you’ll able to unleash your hidden potential.

How do you plan to unleash your hidden potential?

Srinivas Rao is a personal development blogger, avid surfer and author at The Skool of Life. He is also the host and co-founder of BlogcastFM, a podcast for bloggers.

With the Huge Influx of start-ups contacting us at YHP and the wealth of young entrepreneurs featured on the website, we have decided to partner with a bigger platform to showcase the amazing talents emerging.

To this end, YHP is collaborating with a new Business show coming on the SKY network- “Business Dynamics” Produced by Strides Media Production!

“Strides Media Production” to host a new Television show on “Sky” named “The Business dynamics show”,

The show is dedicated towards profiling the top Entrepreneurs and Business Owners around the world. It features three core segments:

“Power Players”:

Designed to feature the “Top Business Executives and Experts in their field to give insight, share their experience; journey and tips on succeeding in business

“SME Business Features”:

This is a special platform for Small and Medium sized companies to engage directly with the audience on new and existing project & service offering.

“Dream Releasers”:

This is a special feature designed to bring to you the most exciting and most innovative young entrepreneurs who have successfully launched their businesses in divers industries

A larger platform means a wider audience, we are committed to maintaining the depth, intimacy and quality of our interviews and features. Contact us to find out more about appearing on the show.

This can be very tricky because getting someone that believes in your company, ability and your vision can be very hard, especially getting someone that is passionate enough to be a part of your company, but i urge you to try and get a co-founder on board.

It can really depend on the nature of the business also, sometimes you might have everything covered and not need a co-founder, but bringing a co-founder can be hugely instrumental, especially someone that has skills needed in your company that you lack.

Emotional Attachment

At the start of the company, i was very hesitate to let anyone near my business, as it was my first baby, i grew some kind of emotional attachment, i had offers from different friends that wanted to be a part of it, i really dint care as i knew the type of person i wanted on board, i needed someone that had as much passion or maybe more than me in the business.

Decision Making

You must have a co-founder that you can easily reach, incase you need to make a quick decision, someone that you have complete trust in making the right decisions if you’re not around, someone that will make the right decision.

Trust

If you do not have complete trust in your co-founder then there is really no point in doing business with them, although most times you will build on your trust issues with your co-founder as time goes on, the more you work together and learn about each other.
In Almost 2 years of working with my co-founder, we continue to grow in trust and having trust in business simply brings rest to your mindset.

Costs/contact

Sharing cost on the company expenses can be huge for the growth and progress of your business.
You get to share each other’s contact in growing your business, contacts and networks that you might not have known or had a chance to meet are suddenly in front of you.

Understanding

You need to understand how you both work, how the person likes to work, the personality of your co-founder, if you do not understand your co-founder, you will end up wasting valuable time on un-necessary things such as arguing, doing the same work twice which will eventually takes its toll on the business, so go out of your way to understand your co-founder, try to get them, if you’re not compactable, then you have a decision on your hand.

Time & Focus

That means you get to spend less time doing something you’re not so good with and focus on your strong points and how to improve on it, you get to do more together in less times.
For me personally, getting a co-founder has been huge to my business, we’ve been through some rough and good times together already, i really just let him do his stuff which he kicks ass in, he manages the event planning side of the company, booking of holidays, enquires, while i focus on getting more properties on the website, building relationships with companies.
Although we both come together to make decisions and run other parts of the business.

An Almost Mistake

Because of my openness with my friends, i remember sitting them all down to tell them about the business, telling them i would love them to come board to help with the business, which would have been a bad idea, so I’m glad they all dint respond in the appropriate way, i hate laziness, lack of drive and passion.
But as soon as my co-founder told me his interest and i saw his commitment, i felt at ease, it made me realise that although this company is my baby, it was not about me anymore, but about the team, the vision and everyone that constantly help to build and take steps towards that vision.

Respect

You should both respect the opinions, views and personality of one another, although i respect my co-founder but that doesn’t mean i keep quiet when things are going wrong, or when we both miss the plot, I occasionally give him a piece of my mind when i need to and so does he.
Basically don’t miss-understand respect for being soft

Final Words

Sometimes business kills friendship, sometimes it makes it stronger, pick the right choice.

If you want more information on this, Neil Patel does a good job on explaining about it further, also @Techcrunch @Venturehacks @ spencerfry

I and a friend were having a chat on how we wished we started something together in our first year at university, I mean we were all creative, ambitious and had a lot of time on our hands.

We realised how much our business would have grown by now, the traction, the support it would have gotten, instead we spent our time partying away although i admit it was fun, going to bed at 7am and getting up at 5pm were the best days/highlights of my 1st year in the university.

Only if we knew how to balance our time things might have been different, we had enough people in my halls to start at least 10 good businesses, everyone had ideas, everyone wanted to be successful, but we lacked focus and drive and i guess we dint really have anyone who gave us that exposure into the world of entrepreneurship, perhaps we didn’t have the right attitude.

Experience and failure (Start Small)

As someone that started a company in the university, i believe it is always better to start small because it gives you the time to worry less about money but more about the products and services you’re offering, ways to improve and make sure it is going in the right direction.

I started my first company and spent a lot of money constructing the website, not that the website was not worth the money, but with what i know now, i am sure i could have invested that money into something else, probably would have built up the website with cash left to invest in other parts of the business instead of focusing on how fancy i wanted the site to look.

Time

You have 3-5 years to spend in the university, that’s enough time to build your start-up into something credible, by the time you’re ready to graduate, and you will only be worrying on how to grow the business, that’s if you worry at all.

You probably spend most of your time getting drunk, facebook, twitter, YouTube, clubbing, so taking some time to build your business is not that bad.

Your Network is your net worth

I met my co-founder at university and was able to do less, which was more productive and gave me time to focus on other things in the business.

You might end up meeting an investor or a co-founder, or someone that might have the right connection that will take your business to the next level.

If you decide not to continue with your business. You will already have a bunch of contacts that either helps you in a new start-up or perhaps you’re looking for a secured job, you just never know.

Don’t forget that any business you’re going into you’ll be going there with some practical experiences of running and managing a company.

Competition/Awards/support

You can get so much support from your university , if you’re business is cool, I’m sure your university will want to brag about your success, you also have the entrepreneurial society, NACUE, FlyingStartonline, Shell livewire, Enterprise UK, Which will give you some exposures to your company, assistances, workshops and training to sharpen your skills as an entrepreneur, they also give you the opportunity to network with other entrepreneur, you never know what investor might be reading your story.

Student Loans

In total, you probably get £4,950 (Maintenance loan) + £2,906 (Maintenance grant) + Bursary (900)

1st Year – £8756
2nd year – £17512
3rd year – £26268

That is enough money to start up a business or finish up a prototype.

I would encourage you to maybe get a part-time job, and if you have a co-founder or even two co-founders, that is a lot of money and enough money to get something off the ground.

Responsibility

You have fewer responsibilities, less concerns to worry about, which gives you time to build your business.
You have nothing to lose.

Experience

Owning and running your own business is an incredible way to gain experience, it will definitely help you mature, especially as you begin to read business books and self development books to help in growing as a person and an entrepreneur.

You get to learn more about yourself, especially life and business lessons that are not taught in the classroom, you might even get more clarity on modules to choose in the next year or in your final year.
You learn how to speak, dress and act in a professional way.

The University Platform

This is your first initial market where you can experiment, get feedback, get some user experience for your products/services; it gives you such a large network to people to showcase your business to, which is invaluable. You might be able to define your target market through this experiment.

You get free advices from your university professors and tips.

You will have access to different types of people with different skills, you want your logo design- go to the design department, you want a website development – go to the computing department, thinking of getting someone that can help with admin stuff – go to the business department, you get what I’m getting at, loads of resources at your finger tips.

Tip: Everyone loves the story of a kid that started a business in the university.

These are the five websites that i believe that help any university student get the right information, network, advice, expertise, funding or backing in taking their idea and turning it into becoming a business.

Cmypitch.com (Nacueventures)

Cmypitch gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to connect with investors directly, All you do is upload your own video pitch,and that gets put out to lots of investors(The likes of james caan, Doug Richard) on the network.
Check it out to find more about it.

Smarta

Smarta gives you a platform for resources, advices for starting and running your startup, They have loads of top entrepreneurs on the site that provide support to entrepreneurs, It also gives you the opportunity to showcase your business.

Enterprise UK

Enterprise Uk are connected to almost every entrepreneur in the uk and also connect them to the right people that can help them improve their business, they also have tons of competitions to help startup with business expenses or exposure.

Shell Livewire

Shell livewire have tons of competitions in which they run to give entrepreneurs/startups the required support and exposure, check out their pitching videos section.

FlyingStartonline

They offer a lot of training and workshop to entrepreneur to help them enhance their skills.

I Mean i love that the internet has given people the opportunity to voice their opinions and address issues, i mean the real issue going on in the world, i love the fact that people have the opportunity to compare products without leaving their houses, I love the fact that people can share opinions through mediums like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, YouTube etc.

There’s a lot of don’t do this and don’t do that, I don’t believe there is the right way to do anything, that’s the reason why every entrepreneur has a different journey and a different destination but as funny as it sounds they all end up making mistakes and i mean these guys have probably read almost 8 biographies of their mentors, self help books, personal development and other “useful” books, not to mention seminars and conferences, so why does it happen, why do people still make mistakes. The simple truth is, an entrepreneur has his/her own unique idea and will put that idea into action in a way that has never been done before.

Planning is good, A business should always have a plan, but i mean planning as you go along is essential , I hear people say i will figure it out on the way, i think most of that sentence is true, but you have to plan before you start, but be flexible as your plan can change.

A Major threat to every entrepreneur is negative people, why do you have to be so negative, really you’re at the other end of the screen doing nothing or probably won’t do anything with your life, so why not applause, encourage people.

I find in the UK that entrepreneurial success is not embraced but instead shut out, which is not fair, i feel everyone going out of their comfort zone to make the world a better place or simply to make use of their hidden potential should be applauded.

Negativity is the new positive, I mean people get paid to be negative, Journalists spend most of their life on earth looking at the negative parts of people’s life, I mean it is cool to look at people and correct their wrong doings but not simply crucify them

I simply say if your criticism is not constructive, then look within yourself because i think it is jealousy.

You’re probably wondering my reasons for visiting this website so much right? I dont know myself, lets just say its addictive, just as addictive everyone is towards facebook, twitter, myspace and the rest of them.
I can’t remember the last time i checked skysports.com or soccernet.com

On all my days going on the site did i ever pause to think who owned the site, actually i did think about it couple months ago and then it came to my mind last week but i just thought it was some young dude, then after checking out their new logo behold the name of the CEO was mentioned, I couldnt believe it wasn’t some young 18-24 years old.

It just shows that tons of millions are being invested online.

Anyways, I like the new logo though, Goal.com rocks..

The shockwave that’s been hitting the world economy demands that entrepreneurs react, and react differently than they have in the past. Unfortunately, the pathways toward effective action aren’t always clear. There’s no one set of rules to follow during turbulent times that say “This is the best way to go.”

Naturally, most executives worry more about sinking the boat than missing the boat, which is why so many organizations, even in flush times, are so cautious and conservative. You don’t have to be as bold as Kellogg or as daring as Steve Jobs. But don’t use the long shadow of the economic crisis as an excuse to downsize your dreams or stop taking chances.

The challenge for leaders in every field is weather to let fear dictate your attitude and actions. Are their opportunities during a recession? There are always opportunities. The question is where are they? What sort of changes will I have to make to take advantage of these opportunities? Just remember, someone is always makes money during a recession so grasp a clear-sighted confidence about the future, develop a plan and commitment how you’ll address the challenges that come.

We have to look at a recession as an opportunity to regroup, rethink, repair, rework, renew and recommit to being at your best for your company. It starts with attitude and it is translated in action in relationships and in future development plans.

Successful leaders possess:

An ability to see things as they can be and not as they are.

Leaders understand the importance of seeing the big picture and what can be accomplished with a little bit of hard work and smart work. By focusing on things as they can be and not as they are leaders make decisions that move their business forward and can be examples for their business partners.

The ability to stay upbeat even when those around them are not. Have you ever been around somebody who is always positive? These are the types of people that are fun to be around!

Leaders stay upbeat and put out positive thoughts which attract people to them. They take the glass is half full approach to everything they do.

A few Top Leadership Traits:

• Continuous Development – Smart people have always sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and leadership. Most these days tend to be rather disappointing, but one brilliant idea that has recently captured my attention is “Developing the leader within you by John Maxwell (in fact read all his books on leadership and team work, you can never go wrong with John Maxwell). A perfect complement to this is “The Ultimate Leadership Guide” which contains all the core teachings of 30 top leadership books, which is simply an essential ‘crash course’ in the principles you need to know to further your career and even find happiness in other areas of your life!

• Fairness/Equity – Fairness is one of the key criteria by which employees measure their superiors. Fairness is one of Herzberg’s ‘hygiene’ factors from his popular leadership theory. This means that if you are fair, employees will not be inherently motivated, but merely content. Very little upside if you possess this trait but large potential negative effects on motivation if you lack it.

• Adaptability and Flexibility – A clear fact in life is that many things you enjoy will change, and many things you despise will quickly improve. As a leader, you must be able to cope with negative change, and also be able to quickly grab opportunities as soon as they appear. Less hesitation and more asking the question “Ok, so how can I make the best of this situation”.

• Human Understanding – A leader that can understand their employees and really be able to emphasis with the workforce or team as a whole will ultimately be a far more effective leader. Only by being able to put yourself in the shoes of your employees will you be able to make decisions that will enthuse and motivate your staff.

• Charisma – The skill of oratory has been perfectly demonstrated recently by Barrack Obama’s surge in popularity en route to the white house and his continued popularity now that he has gained office. The ability to speak confidently and with meaning is a rare one, and carries much merit for those few who possess it. Increased influence and persuasion is just one of the positive benefits of being a leader with charisma.

• Ability to Listen – The fantastic leaders thorough history were also good listeners. Drawing upon the expertise and ideas of all those around you will improve your decision making. It follows that leaders who listen well simply make better decisions.

• Confidence – Confidence flows through a team just like cheerfulness or a hardworking attitude. If the leader shows hesitation, self-doubt, or a lack of ambition, it will infect the rest of the team. Enthusiastically following an unconfident will really test employee’s attitude, and this is something you don’t want to be doing. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to enthusiastically follow your lead.

• Consistency – This is a similar point to fairness. If you fail to be consistent with your attitude, decisions or behaviour, you will be causing unrest in your team.

• Passion and Motivation – It goes without saying that a leadership trait that will be admired is your passion for what you do. Whatever your role, people will respect the fact that you take pride in your work, you enjoy it, and that you will therefore try your hardest to succeed. Passion and motivation will always trump formal leadership training or leadership coaching.

• Trustworthiness - Ethics and trust has to come right at the top of the most important leadership traits for one simple reason. Nobody will obey, follow, or be inspired by someone they distrust. A good reputation, likeability and respect will be absolutely impossible if you’re labelled as a liar. Regardless of their own mal-practises, people will never be able to associate with an untrustworthy character.

A simple definition of leadership is that leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal.

• Leadership is so important to business and indeed life as a whole that we are dedicating one whole day to learning High Performance leadership from leadership guru Brian Tracy at ILSG2010 (Innovation, Leadership, Sales and Growth in 2010), the recession is the best time for great leaders to emerge.

The economy will continue to grow as a problem and opportunity and there are risks that both innovation and the economy will suffer as companies engage in belt-tightening and concentrate on survival.

The current recession has had a severe impact on businesses in all sectors. You might think that this means that new ideas and inventions are falling by the wayside as everyone focuses on their core activities.

However, even when times are tough, creativity doesn’t stop – in fact, probably the opposite. Look at some of the great companies that were founded during a time of recession – IBM, Apple and Microsoft are a few examples – and you quickly realise that hard times can stimulate innovation.

Frequently, difficult times force people to make choices. For example, someone may lose their job and decide that they’re finally going to develop the business idea they’ve always thought about, but never had time to get off the ground.

I believe that good inventions will always win through, regardless of the economic climate. Open Innovation offers inventors an effective route to market in these difficult times and, when handled correctly, provides a win-win solution for both the innovator and the organisation sourcing ideas.

Here are the 3 worst mistakes you can make in a recession that will hurt innovation:

Fire talent. Cutting back on people, especially really smart, high-priced people, is a quick Way to cut costs but talent is the single most important variable in innovation.

Reduce Risk. Innovation requires taking chances and dealing with failure. Recessions push managers to be more conservative. They need to fight this instinct.

Retreat into Walled Castles. Cutting back on outside consultancies is seen as a quick way to save money. Yet one of the key ways of introducing change into business culture is to bring in outside innovation and design consultants.

• Winners always emerge out of recessions and they almost always beat their competition on the basis of something new. Apple worked on iTunes, iPod and its retail stores during the last recession and came out swinging once growth returned to destroy its competition. Apple didn’t make any of the top innovation mistakes.

I had to put this video up, it shows that more than anything innovation requires being daring, confident and fearless.

Boosting and focusing investment in innovation in areas where the UK has strength and potential future competitive advantage must be a key element of Government action during the downturn to ensure a successful recovery.

We want to make sure that Britain is the best place in the world to run an innovative business or service – this is critical to the UK’s future prosperity, our quality of life and future job prospects.

Innovation is hard to grasp, companies take different approaches to creating innovation and developing it into profitable products but Innovation will help determine how quickly companies can recover once the upturn gets under way.

While the results of innovation are often highly celebrated as in the case of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, very little is done to teach the innovative mindset in a practical manner, ILSG2010 (Innovation, Leadership, Sales and Growth in 2010) is the best opportunity to learn exactly how to be innovative,