CHAPTER 5

Mindset on Obstacles

Obstacles—Anything or Anyone That Stands in the Way of a Goal

As stated in an earlier chapter, obstacles are perceived as opportunities in the mind of an entrepreneur. They are opportunities to create new ways of doing things and sometimes force reinvention for the better. Although they can threaten the way your business is going, they do not have the power to completely stop the business unless you allow them. Even if you were somehow forced to shut down operations, it then creates an opportunity to start a whole new enterprise. An entrepreneur is like a river that flows around a huge boulder in its path. It just flows right around it. Like a boulder has no real power over the river, an obstacle has no power over an entrepreneur either.

The problem-solving abilities of an entrepreneur will have to kick into high gear to assess how an obstacle is to be handled. Changing course rather than giving up becomes instinctual for an entrepreneur. There’s a bigger motivational force that will drive an entrepreneur to overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Just like a GPS reroutes you to take another way to your destination if a road is closed, an entrepreneur simply will set out to find another course to continue the journey. If you could really see how many routes there are that will get you to your final destination, you would never get discouraged or be tempted to give up. In business, your vision allows you to see the intended destination. The exact route is not guaranteed because you don’t know if there will be necessary detours ahead. So, the best option is to just keep going until you arrive at your destination.

This mindset requires a great deal of mental fortitude, tenacity, resilience, and some faith. During the early stages of my business, a lack of capital to grow was always my greatest obstacle. With no investors, little business credit, and almost no personal savings, I had to learn how to leverage my creativity, steadfastness, and unique strategy-building skills to scale my business beyond the startup phase and expand it into international markets. Rather than allow my obstacles to become an excuse or a deterrent, I chose to make another way. I relied on my faith and the vision I had for my life and business to sustain me on my journey and decided to bootstrap my business’s growth.

I got the revelation during the early years of running my business that I was not going to allow my bank account balance to prevent me from accomplishing my business goals. As it turned out, that was one of the best decisions I’ve made because my vision and dreams seemed to always surpass the current cash flow. If I had allowed this obstacle to stop me, I would have shut down my businesses long ago! Instead, I decided to bootstrap my way to success one day at a time. I began focusing on what I had instead of what I didn’t. I didn’t have a lot of money then, but I had a lot of determination and creativity. I also realized that there is no scarcity of resources or opportunities in this world. I always find what I need or I create it.

I couldn’t afford to hire staff initially, so I built a team of volunteers and interns who worked in exchange for job experience. I used free and low-cost software programs to run my business. I worked from home so that I would not incur any unnecessary overhead. I used social media and free press to market my business, and I self-published my first book to market my brand. I reinvested all of my profits into the business for a few years. These are just some of the methods that I utilized to clear the financial hurdles and scale my business. There were many more strategies that I implemented that are still paying off.

Encountering obstacles and setbacks is just a normal part of business and life, and since none of us can escape this reality, we must train our minds to come up with the best ways to defeat them, or they will defeat us. Confronting the things that stand in our path is the best way to deal with them because they will not just go away on their own. Here are some ways to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset toward handling obstacles.

• •Expect they will happen to you at some point, as they do to everyone.
• •Don’t panic! The best way to overcome obstacles is with a level head.
• •Understand that this too shall pass. Nothing lasts forever.
• •Take a step back to analyze the situation and look at it from all sides, especially the positive side. It might not be as bad as you think.
• •Seek advice and get wise counsel on the strategies you need for your next move.
• •Ask your team to pitch in with ideas to overcome obstacles. Some of your best resources are already on your leadership team or advisory board and can help the company push past the obstacle collectively. This is exactly why you should surround yourself with other brilliant people.
• •Start making plans for your next steps.

World-renowned media mogul and entrepreneur Oprah Winfrey is a prime example of overcoming obstacles in life and business. She grew up in extreme poverty and was also molested as a young girl. She managed to break through gender and race barriers and became the first Black woman news reporter in her town, but she was ultimately fired because she was allegedly too emotional in her delivery of the news and declared unfit for TV news. She later got her own show, became a billionaire media tycoon, and has been cited as the most influential woman in the world, appearing multiple times on Forbes list of richest and most powerful people. (Oprah Winfrey)

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have, you’ll never have enough,” Oprah Winfrey. What Winfrey is describing here is her mindset on obstacles among other things. It is her mindset that causes her to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. There will always be some barriers to achieving your business goals. You can choose to allow it to deter you or push you forward.

I can relate to Winfrey in that I also grew up very poor and faced severe challenges that I had to overcome. Challenges definitely make your path a more bumpy road to travel with many unexpected twists and turns. They are not always easy to navigate, but the effort is worth it. I attribute much of my ability to overcome obstacles to my top 10 tools:

1. 1.Having a positive and healthy image of myself
2. 2.Removing small thinkers from my inner circle and surrounding myself with a strong network
3. 3.Relying on my faith
4. 4.Trusting the process of accomplishing my goals
5. 5.Having a resilient spirit
6. 6.My relentless conviction to fulfill my life’s purpose
7. 7.Making a conscious effort to see the positive even in the darkest of moments
8. 8.Self-care with rest and making time to do things that give me joy
9. 9.An understanding that big dreams come with big obstacles
10. 10.The firm belief that my persistence will always pay off

If I can conceive something in my mind, then I just trust that I can somehow bring it to pass. I don’t concern myself with the details of how it will happen; instead, I choose to have faith that it will happen. Then I start planning, followed by execution. If you allow yourself to be fixated on the particulars, your goal will start to look more difficult than it really is. Many times I said yes to business opportunities that were challenging even when I initially had no clue how I was going to accomplish them. Thus, I’ve adopted the motto: “Say yes now and figure out details later.”

People whose minds perceive opportunities as obstacles repeatedly miss out on their big break or their moment to do something great, all because the opportunity was disguised as too much work. There’s a popular saying that once went viral on social media: POOR = Passed Over Opportunities Repeatedly. This is a true statement. If you are waiting for ideal conditions before you to step out into your next big moment, then life will just pass you by. You’ll be watching other people living their dreams while you are sitting on the sidelines waiting for something easy to come along. Rarely do opportunities just fall into someone’s lap. Most come by seizing them when they present themselves, regardless of what stands in their way.