Characteristices of a Successful Entrepreneur - Part 2

Ok - so the second characteristic of a successful entrepreneur is: 

"2. Take what you do seriously.



You cannot expect to be effective and successful in business unless you truly believe in your business and in the goods and services that you sell. Far too many home business owners fail to take their own businesses seriously enough, getting easily sidetracked and not staying motivated and keeping their noses to the grindstone. They also fall prey to naysayers who don't take them seriously because they don't work from an office building, office park, storefront, or factory. Little do these skeptics, who rain on the home business owner's parade, know is that the number of people working from home, and making very good annual incomes, has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years." *


Let's take a look at this from the library perspective.  Have you ever felt that other businesses, municipal officials or even other librarians don't take you seriously because your library is small, not as up to date as you would like, or even because you don't have an (gasp) MLS?  Let me share a little bit of old fashion wisdom with you - having an MLS makes you a good librarian about as well as sleeping in a garage makes you a sports car.  (personally, I have always wanted to be a Mustang - fire engine red).

Now do not get me wrong.  I encourage and challenge and even demand training and proper education for my staff, but having that does not guarantee that you are good at what you do - just well trained.  Being good at what you do is caused by taking what you do seriously. 

So do not allow the library naysayers to whisper in your ear that your library is too small, or too rural, or too poor to be a "real" library. Put out a professional apperance, stay up on the best practices and innovative trends and prove them wrong.  If you want others to take your seriously - you have to take yourself seriously first.

*taken from 25 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs on entrepreneur.com
http://www.entrepreneur.com/homebasedbiz/article200730.html