The Gift of Encouragement

As entrepreneurs, we are faced with a variety of constantly changing priorities.  Personnel problems, vendor issues, customer complaints and dozens of other factors combine to rob us of our time and drown out our joy.  For a long time, I had allowed the day to day grind of growing my companies to overshadow the importance of providing consistent encouragement to others.  It was not until my own near fatal accident that I realized the truth in what Winston Churchill said:

“You make a living by what you get.  But you make a life by what you give.”

With this sentiment in mind, please allow me to suggest several practical ways that you can use the gift of encouragement to enrich the lives of others while fortifying your own:

• Never minimize the power of your personal attention to the needs of an employee

• Build a habit of sending a handwritten “Thank You” card or gift to every person who grants you a meeting with them

• Take time to sit with your employees, close vendors and customers when they have a loved one in the hospital having surgery or major illness

• Build time into your weekly schedule to call and check up on people you know who are going through struggles

• Volunteer to give free advice or services to entrepreneurs that are just getting started

• Build a culture of real caring into your business by setting the example as you go through your workday

• Exercise kindness as often as you can

I have found that there are many more opportunities to encourage others than I had ever imagined in my early career.  At the heart of the word encouragement is “courage”; and remembering that courage is an act of the will, I challenge you to take some of these first steps towards becoming an encourager to others.  If you do, I promise that it will change your entrepreneurial journey for the better!