Self-esteem and the Business World

Self-esteem is important no matter the avenue of life involved. If you do not have self-esteem about general aspects of your life, possessing self-esteem in the business world is not important. You first have to possess self-esteem generally if you want the same to apply in a business setting.

Let us assume that you possess much self-esteem and that you are an outgoing person. Both of these characteristic traits will be greatly beneficial to you. However, it is easy to get discouraged if you are not careful. You have to have “thick skin” in the business world if you want to achieve greatness.

Many people advocate the “dog eat dog” ideal of business. Competition is going to be rampant during your entrepreneurial journey, however, how you deal with the competition or how it affects your self-esteem is going to determine whether you will survive as an entrepreneur.

Rolling with the punches is part of this business. I am not advocating that you not be competitive. Competitiveness is an essential element, however, when the competitive streak leads to unethical tactics or the untruthful damaging of a personal reputation, you need to step back and evaluate your actions. The truth is, these actions may happen to you. How you deal with such an event (by means of your self-esteem) will be pivotal to your success.

First and foremost, you have to stay calm. This can be easier said than done when faced with a situation as described above, however, maintaining your calm will help you think rationally. Rational thinking will help prevent your doing some action that you will later regret.

Second, fix the problem. If you have received negative feedback or are experiencing confrontational problems from co-workers or other similarly situated people, fixing the problem can be your best bet. This will require talking to the culprit. Do not confront because this could cause an unnecessary tension. Instead, explain the problem to the other and see if you two can come to an amicable solution.

Last, assess how you handled the situation. Your self-esteem about your abilities runs simultaneous with your abilities themselves. Learn to control your environment, and your self-esteem and you will do fine on your entrepreneurial journey.

Is Leadership Earned Rather than Being a Natural Attribute?

This question is similar to the nurture versus nature debate. Many of us have heard the phrase “natural born leader,” however, it takes more than birth to create a leader. Although I do believe that some people have the natural ability to persuade people or have exceptional charisma and/or personality, leaders are created either through teachings or by circumstance.

Leaders can be taught to be leaders. Examples of such teachings occur in the military, higher education, and/or personal betterment. Although each of these fields of learning can create a “leader,” each creates a different type of leader. No one is better than the other, however, each emphasizes different personal attributes in the potential leader.

Leaders are also created through circumstance. In times of great tragedy (such as a natural disaster and or a historical event) and in times of great achievement (whether financial, scientific, engineerial, etc.) people “step-up” and take the leadership role or become the “face” of the event. What makes these leaders different is that they travel their own path, and most of the time are unaware that they are going to have to assume a leadership role. These leaders, in my opinion, tend to be more passionate about their role because something personal is usually the leader’s driving motivation.

People need to be wary of leaders. When people start to lose their own ideals and passions in order to follow the ideals and/or motivations of a particular leader, that leader can acquire too much power. I firmly believe that “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” therefore we should always keep our own senses when any leader, no matter if it is political, personal, financial, religious, educational, etc. comes to power, because no matter the title of the person, that person is still human and humans are fallible.