Sahar Hashemi is founder of Coffee Republic and is a highly successful entrepreneur - she has been named as one of the five most influential Britons. In her new book, she advocates that you don't need to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial. Here, she offers her ten top tips to revitalise your life at work, get ahead, and become indespensible:
1. Remember that life is too short to come in for the paycheque - you need to enjoy what you do and be 100% yourself at work.
2. Leap outside your comfort zone - your comfort zone makes you complacent and makes your work boring - youre at your best when you operate outside your comfort zone.
3. If youre bored at work it means you have untapped potential within you- its there- its just dormant-you need to unlock it - once you start practising creative behaviour youll be surprised how creative you are.
4. Youll be surprised at amount of negative self-talk going on thats holding you back - press the delete button (or at least the mute button) on your fears and doubts.
5. If you want to stand out at work, put yourself as much as possible in your customers shoes - stop seeing them as facts and figures but as real life human beings like yourself - youll get amazing insights into how you can improve things for them that way.
6. Try to get out of the office to experience your product/service from the customers point of view - be out there where its all happening - make some free time so you can literally impersonate your customer and get a good feel for what they might want.
7. Be a bit clueless - forget about the this is how weve always done things mentality. The world around you is changing fast- so they way youve always done things wont necessarily work in the future. Wipe the slate clean and look afresh at everything around you.
8. Dont let your new ideas get stuck between your ears - start trying out your new ideas by prototyping- make mock ups, try things out - play a bit!
9. Get used to hearing no - if youre not hearing enough nos it means youre stuck in status quo – if you are trying anything new youre bound to hear a lot of negative reactions.
10. Finally remember my favourite motto: Leap..and the net will appear.
Switched On by Sahar Hashemi is out now.
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