Elon Musk shared a motivational secret a few years back, and it is far from what you may have imagined. 

There is a wealth of motivational information available which has helped millions of people worldwide. There is a range of motivation gurus like Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, and Jack Welsh and TV personalities like Oprah Winfrey; the industry is worth billions. 

Who motivates Who?

I have always maintained that no one can motivate me to do or become anything. If I want to achieve success, a better life, or increase my wealth, I need to find it from within myself to build enough courage and motivation to get out of bed, put on a happy face and work my backside off to get what I want. 

There is no doubt that support from my wife and family helps me achieve what I set my mind to, but in reality, the truth is that I am the only one that can keep myself motivated. 

Elon Musk – The Motivational Advice

Elon Musk shared a real, down-to-earth motivational tip that stuck with me. Elon Musk was a guest speaker at a tech startup event in Downtown Los Angeles, and as usual, he was delivering an inspirational keynote speech. In true Elon Musk style, he is Laidback and packed full of his high-IQ humour. 

It was during his Questions and answered session that this pearl of wisdom dropped. 

An audience member took the mic and explained his startup project. He had raised about 50% of the base funding requirements, and he asked Elon Musk for motivation to keep going and see his project through to completion. 

What Elon musk said next stunned the room into silence, followed by a realisation that the words were wise beyond motivation. 

Elon Musk said: “if you need motivation, don’t do it…” and in true Elon style, he repeated it, reaffirming the depth of the phrase meaning…” if you need motivation, don’t do it…”

How do you keep motivated?

As entrepreneurs in what may be the most trying economy at the moment, how do you keep motivated?

1 – What keeps you going when sales are down?

2 – What do you do to get yourself up in the morning?

3 – How do you deal with disappointments?

Here are 6 Entrepreneur Self Motivation tips on keeping yourself going:

Tip 1: Fear failure.  

In an article written for Bloomberg, Mark Cuban from the Shark Tank stated that his fear of failure motivates him to constantly put his best foot forward and aim for success. However, knowing that some projects will fail and others will succeed, you need to build a strong mindset around failure. If you fear failure too much, you may never get going once a failure occurs. Interestingly there are more failures than successes, and part of failing successfully is knowing when to move on and build the next success. Use the fear of failure to do your best and identify a failing project early so that you have the energy and mental capacity to move on.

Tip 2: Follow your passions

Chalmers Brown, co-founder and CTO of DUE, suggests that you follow your passions. To a certain extent, I agree as you need to do something you enjoy. Considering how much time and dedication you need to focus on your business, however, you need to be wise about the passions that are profitable. It may seem honourable to pack in the city life, live in a caravan and plant carrots even if carrot subsistence farming is your passion, but we know how expensive life actually is, and carrot subsistence is most likely not sustainable. Commercial free-range carrots may be, however. 

You may know that I started out as a pro musician. I loved playing the drums so much that I dedicated 20 years to it from the age of 9 and ventured into the music industry. I was really a good drummer, but as I got married and my family grew, I saw that this passion was not a sustainable career. The psychology of sales, marketing and influence became my passions as I grew out of the music phase. This became a really sustainable career. Now I get a kick of strategizing creative marketing approaches and helping business owners build successful marketing campaigns. 

Use these tips as a guideline for remaining passionate:

• Improve on something that you’re already doing.
• Figure out where you can market and promote the business you are passionate about.
• Sharing your passion with those around you that will support you and help you remain realistic.
• Maintain your motivation by delegating tasks that you don’t enjoy to someone else. 

Tip 3: Surround yourself with highly successful and motivated people.

Mark Zuckerberg’s advice and used by many successful entrepreneurs. They say that your worth can be calculated by the 5 people you spend most of your time with. This makes a lot of sense form two standpoints:

1 – you become like the people that influence you, and if your friends and family keep dragging you down, guess where you will be.

2 – financially, it is like keeping up with the Jones’s. Your circle of influence will keep you subconsciously motivated. 

Don’t disregard your family but choose your company wisely. 

Tip 4: Never feel sorry for yourself. 

“All of my best successes came on the heels of a failure, so I’ve learned to look at each belly flop as the beginning of something good,” said Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and Shark on Shark Tank.

“If you just hang in there, you’ll find that something is right around the corner. It’s that belief that keeps me motivated. I’ve learned not to feel sorry for myself, ever. Just five minutes of feeling sorry for yourself takes your power away and makes you unable to see the next opportunity.”

We all go through disappointments and slumps, but your recovery from these down periods and how you manage your mind and self is how you become successful. Remember that people are very intuitive and sense when you are not in top form. This can be detrimental to sales and negotiations, so manage your moods, even if this means attending a couple of therapy sessions. If you struggle with the ups and downs, you should learn to manage yourself. 

Tip 5: Look for inspiration.

Inspiration is all around us; we just need to be open to recognising the moments and people as the triggers or carriers of inspiration.

Lyft Co-Founder Jordan Zimmerman said that his daughter is a huge inspiration to him. Peer pressure is another source of inspiration towards your individual as well as shared goals.

Inspiration often comes from the least expected moments and people. Be aware and receive inspiration openly, and you never know how you may inspire others. Give inspiration away feely.

Tip 6: Be Grateful.

“Most of the time when people ask me about motivation, 80 per cent of the time, I attribute it to gratitude. If you want real fuel to win, be grateful,” says Gary Vaynerchuk.

Being grateful is really difficult, but channelling gratitude correctly will help you overcome many hurdles in business and life. Think of all the things you are grateful for; in fact, write a list of the things you should be grateful for. 

Caution: don’t only be grateful for the positive things; learn to be grateful for the lesson you will learn from the hard things too.

“So many people wait to feel ‘motivated’ before they do anything. Here’s a newsflash: happy, productive people do not wait for motivation; they just get on with it,” said Marie Forleo.

This ties into exactly what Elon Musk said about looking for motivation, “if you need motivation, don’t do it….”

The motivational industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, and South Africa has paid its fair share of this large bill. A few years back, we became the prime target for motivational speakers as the country was transitioning into the new South Africa. There is nothing wrong with listening to these motivation and inspiration gurus but you must understand that once you leave the hype in the hall and you rejoin the real world in your office, the feeling disappears fast. Now as South Africans, we need inspiration and motivation for difficult economic and political reasons, but I don’t want to get started on that. 

I agree with Elon Musk that if someone else needs to motivate you to start something, to do something, or to keep going, then it is probably not for you. Self-motivation is key to starting a project and seeing it through to completion and success.

Demotivated when sales are down?

It is easy to feel demotivated when sales are down, and your business is struggling. Book a free sales and marketing assessment with me, and I will help you uncover the hidden marketing assets in your business that will help you grow without wasting money on advertising.