Events
Six core values of an entrepreneur
Earlier this month I attended the Women of Silicon Roundabout Conference in London. There were many interesting talks but one that stood out most to me was Karren Brady’s motivational talk that kicked off the two-day event. Widely referred to as the “first lady of football”, she is a television personality, appearing on The Apprentice, a politician and a newspaper columnist as well as the author of ‘Strong Woman: The truth about getting to the top’.
During her talk, Karren explained how she started out and climbed up the career ladder. She is a strong believer in having mutual respect for everyone within the company, and for everyone to know what the role of other departments is. She even mentioned getting her six digit salary footballers to sit in the ticket office for a week to see what their colleagues are doing within the company!
The six core values that Karren follows in life are:
- Leadership: To be a good leader you should communicate your goal and persuade your team members to buy into your vision before you can get people to deliver it.
- Ambition: You must have spark and fire to strive for the career you want and not give up. The toughest thing is actually to keep on being a success once you’ve reached it!
- Determination: To accept that it’s okay to be knocked down but it’s how you react to it that matters - you need to pick yourself up, have a backbone to stand up and keep going.
- Attitude: If you don’t like something, change it. If it’s not in your power to change, then change your attitude. What’s the worst that can happen? You must confront the problem and be comfortable with the down side.
- Direction: This is the desire to do your best everyday. You can’t help where you start but where you finish is up to you.
- Positive: Staying positive and knowing that before you work for yourself, you have to work for someone else but true success is hanging on when everyone else has let go because having independence is when you have your own money.
So just take five minutes to ask yourself:
- Do I still want my dream career?
- Do I know the vision for my company / team?
- What is stopping me from getting where I want to be and what’s the worst that can happen?
- What can I proactively do to get to where I want to be?
Conclusion
Since Karren’s talk I have now got a new drive to become a more proactive professional and I have already started to make small changes to how I am currently working based on the talk. I will keep you all updated on how it goes over the next few months!
Want more?
Alongside Karrens talk I have found other blogs and books really helpful. I would highly recommend reading the following when you get a chance!
- If you feel your goal is too far away, change your attitude and don’t give up! Read this blog by James Clear about the power of tiny gains.
- Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers.
- The Proactive Professional: How to Stop Playing Catch Up and Start Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life!)
