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26 June 2014

By Pedro De Abreu

@pedrodeabreu

Nobody wants to be an average entrepreneur,right? You want your start-up to soar, making apositive change to people’s live and a handsomeprofit. If these five charactersitcs describe you,then you might just be on the right track...

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1. You reject deep seeded truths.

One of the most important – and conspicuous – characteristic you possess

is your ability to reject deep seeded truths about work, career, life and

relationships that are passed on from generation to generation. For

example, you reject the absolute truths that: 1. You must have a normal job

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and a normal career (You can’t perform well when constrained by strict

rules and by the – corporate – inability to use your creative and innovative

faculties.), 2. You must be like Johnny and Susie. (You are too busy to even

care about Johnny and Susie at all.), 3. You can’t start your own business.

(You know that people who are used to playing it safe and always following

others will never understand how the extraordinary person will be able to

succeed at a venture of his or her own).

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You know that in order to begin a journey towards being extraordinary, you

must reject the soul-crushing, back-bending societal truths and start

thinking for yourself. As Ralph Waldo Emerson explains: “To be yourself in

a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest

accomplishment.”

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2. You believe there is something special in you.

You know that there is something deep inside that distinguishes you from

the masses. Perhaps it is your ability to develop a lofty, intricate and

detailed vision; perhaps it is your ability to sell exceptionally well; perhaps it

is your ability to ask profound and refined questions. Whatever it is, you

know you have it in you. In a previous article, I mentioned that I came to

America at 15 without knowing how to speak any English. What helped me

overcome those linguistic and socio-cultural barriers was the fact that I

knew that I had something inestimable within. That special it was crucial in

helping me keep pressing forward.

3. You act like you’re not average.

More important than believing you are not average, is acting like you are

not average – that is, you let your actions speak on behalf of your beliefs.

While everyone else is racing towards the next big thing, towards their

family’s professional expectations of them, you are quietly and carefully

working on your craft, on your big vision or business. You have an uncanny

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desire to create, to produce your own unique work, and you spend your

time constructing a solid bridge that will connect it – your creations, your

work – to profits. You despise herd-like mentality. You critically think about

your actions and act likewise. You know that doing what everyone else is

doing, at the end of the day, brings nothing but contempt and un-

fulfilment.

4. You keep great company.

You left behind all negative, self-defeating and angry people who used to

bring you down. You understand that people will often tell you that you

can’t achieve what you set out to achieve because of either love or jealousy.

You know that those who love you try to talk you out of your vision because

they want you to maintain the status quo and have a ‘safe’ life. You know

that those who are a jealous of what you’ve got going on will do anything

they can, sometimes even making use of psychological and verbal abuse, in

order to keep you from moving forward. For that reason, you keep

company with winners. You keep company with people who want to see

you succeed, who tell the truth, who have big dreams and – most

importantly – act in accordance to those dreams. Consequently, because of

better input, both your self-esteem and your output are exponentially

greater than an average person’s.

5. You have a vision that transcends your current state.

When I was a 15-year-old immigrant who spoke no English, by society’s

standards, I was supposed to grow up to become, at most, a gas station

attendant. Instead, I confabulated in my mind a vision compelling enough

to make me think I could achieve great things. I acted in accordance to that

vision and ultimately ended up, in some years, becoming an entrepreneur,

international speaker and Harvard student.

No matter the present circumstances, you, too, have an undeniably

gorgeous vision for who you can become and for how much you can grow.

You, too, believe there is something special in you. You, too, act like you are

not average and keep great company.

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You know that you don’t necessarily have to be extraordinary because you

live an extraordinary life with riches and fame. Quite on the contrary. You

can be extraordinary because, although you are not there yet, you have the

fruitful aptitude to see your situation and reality for what it could, and one

day will, be. You work harder than anyone you know because you have

something to look forward to that no one has. You have a compelling vision

that keeps propelling you forward with gusto, with positivity and primacy.

Most importantly, you know that your day is coming.

-This is a guest blog and may not represent the views of Virgin.com. Please

see virgin.com/terms for more details.

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