There seems to be quite a few people I come across who cannot help but view life as ‘hard’, and they bring this view with them into their businesses. I am not referring to people with genuine hardship, or serious health issues or any number of difficult circumstances. I am referring to people who generally expect the worst from the world and view any positive as a stroke of luck.

I am going to let those people in on a secret: if you expect the worst, you are more likely to get it! Not because there is something or someone out to ‘get you’, but because you will be too busy wallowing in your own negativity to see opportunities when they come to you.

And here is the second part of the secret: people who seem to always come across great opportunities are not sitting back waiting for them to arrive. They are actively looking for opportunities, and in fact, probably have a hand in making those opportunities arise.

We all have days where we would rather stay curled up in bed because the thought of facing obstacles or continuing to push through hard times is too much to deal with. But allowing yourself to stay in a place of negativity and letting ‘what ifs’ to fill your head instead of ‘why nots’ is a sure fire recipe for business failure.

As women, we tend to be worriers: many of us spend a lot more time than men worrying about what might happen. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that eighty-five percent (85%) of what we worry about doesn’t happen. How astounding is that! We get stressed and tired over things that haven’t happened and aren’t even likely to happen. As John Lubbock said “A day of worry is more exhausting that a week of work”. Imagine if we put that same effort into imagining positive outcomes and dreaming up solutions to negative situations.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

When you are bogged down in the day to day tasks involved with running your business, it can be easy to focus on frustrations and become overwhelmed. We have all had ups and downs in our businesses, but to keep pressing forward, it is important to express gratitude for the benefits and perks of being a business owner. Here are a few things to be thankful for:

1. First and foremost, you are in control of your business direction. You can choose what projects to pursue and work in the way that best suits you (and the way you want to). This means that you can make change happen: you don’t have to wait for red tape or for someone else to decide.
2. You get to choose who you work with. You can hire people with strengths that compliment yours and with personalities you know you can work alongside. It is far easier to achieve success with people you connect well with.
3. You can take time off whenever you choose. Yes, I know that there are deadlines, client requirements and other factors that affect your ability to do this! But essentially, you CAN take a day off, without having to justify it to anyone else.
4. Many of us can choose our workspaces and design them to best fit our creativity. And many of us can also move our workspaces around, thanks to technology. We can give ourselves a break from the desk and work at the beach or a café for the afternoon. This does wonders for boosting our creative juices.
5. As a small, local business, you have the opportunity to play a positive role in your local community. You know your clients and customers by name, you can get involved in local charity events and sponsor local sports teams. You get to show people the value of dealing with local business rather than a nameless corporate giant.

Generally, the most successful business owners are not those who have the greatest monetary success, but those who enjoy every step of the way. So find ways to be thankful every day.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Even if you didn’t watch The Oscars this week, chances are you heard about “the selfie that broke the Internet”. Ellen DeGeneres hosted The Oscars in her typical laid back, slightly irreverent, style. During the show she decided to take a ‘selfie’ with Meryl Streep, which turned into a group selfie with lots of stars jumping spontaneously into the shot. She posted it on Twitter and it apparently broke the record for re-tweets.

The reason I mention this photo, is not just because it was a great photo, but because of one person who jumped into the shot. If you are near a computer, take another look at the photo and you’ll see an attractive young black man with glasses right at the front of the shot. I assumed it was an actor I hadn’t heard of. But it turns out, he is the brother of Lupita Nyong’o (winner of the Best Supporting Actress award), a college student and not in the least bit ‘famous’.

What a great example! Instead of being intimidated by the famous people around him, he jumped right in with them. Instead of wondering if he was entitled to be there, he had confidence to take advantage of a situation. It is likely that he didn’t think it through all that much before he did it: as his sister said in an interview after The Oscars, “he lives his life with an exclamation point!”. His natural inclination was to be where the action was and jump in with both feet.

What a lesson we can learn from him: be bold and embrace opportunities. Who knows where they might lead!

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Are entrepreneurs born with innate qualities? Or can anyone become an entrepreneur if they work at it hard enough? Many psychologists and researchers believe that you need to be a certain type of person to be truly entrepreneurial, with some even going so far as to say you’re wasting your time if you’re not that type.

A US study by the Northeastern University's School of Technological Entrepreneurship showed that “nearly two-thirds of entrepreneurs claim they were inspired to start their own companies by their innate desire and determination, rather than by their education or work experience”. What this suggests is that while many people have the ability to learn the required skills to be an entrepreneur, they also need an insatiable curiosity, a sense of adventure, a love of learning and the ability to spot opportunities and make a business out of them.

But does that mean you won’t enjoy success if you don’t seem to have all these qualities? There are qualities of successful people which can be learned and honed over time, including being:

• Visionary (forward looking, dreams and aspirations)
• Passionate (spurs on hard work and motivation)
• Courageous (no rewards without risk)
• Unstoppable (unwilling to quit despite failures)
• Willing to grow (change and growth is needed to reach goals – no one has all the answers straight away!)

So are you an entrepreneur? If so, how much of your success is from innate qualities, learned skills or just good old hard work?

In the words of Richard Branson: “I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn't really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.”

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender