Ask any entrepreneur and they will tell you about a great new product or business idea they have. Unfortunately, most of them will never do it. That great idea or innovation will go to the grave with them because they are afraid of failing. The number one reason people don’t start businesses or execute on great new ideas is out of fear of failure.

Failure happens. Nothing will protect you from it. But I’ve found 7 principles of business that will ensure you don’t have to fear it.

1. Time. Time is the most valuable commodity known to mankind. Time has created more successful people than anything else. Be the purchaser of time and own as much as you can. I have a saying, “the person who dies with the most time wins!” Hire people to do your work. You are only one person and there’s is not enough time for you to become successful on your own. Pay them handsomely because they are creating value for you and remember that you are working on your company, not in your company and YOUR signature is on the front of paychecks, not the back!

2. Freedom. Cut ties with bosses, bankers and become self-employed or at least self-earning. That’s how you become free. Sell off the unnecessary things, downsize everything and have a mindset of “live like the poor but think like the rich.” Use the time you have purchased to create freedom and free space. Freedom gives you leverage and advantage to be persistent and consistent on your success plans. Without freedom, someone else owns a portion of your time. It won’t happen overnight, but if you make freedom your goal, you will attain it.

3. Power. Poor-man’s power is the idea that we can move mountains without owning machinery! Use other people’s brains for ideas, use other people’s money to hire them, and build relationships with smarter people than you. We tend to think you need money to have power but the inverse is true, selfmade wealthy people were very powerful long before they got rich because they could build networks all around them making them the center of it. If you want to be rich, be powerful first.

4. Influence. You have more influence on people than you realize. Once you see it, you can begin directing their actions into your favor. Tell an employee they are doing good work and they will continue to do good work. Tell a customer or a client you’ll take care of it and they will trust you with more business. Just like power, influence comes first, then the success. The real influencers are the ones who are the hungriest for success and can create the most impact using little to no money.

5. Happiness. Have you ever heard the saying, “money won’t make you happy?” It’s true, but the good news is, happy will make you money! Find your happiness first, because money is a byproduct of happiness. A victim will never be successful. Victimization and envy are wealth-repellent!

6. Intelligence. The truly intelligent find significance in their work and find ways to impact as many people lives as possible. You already own the most miraculous thing known to the universe—the human brain. PUT IT TO WORK! You are the intelligent one in your organization because you started it. If you need a smart engineer in your company and you are not one, hire one! By not being the smartest person in the room, but assembling the other people in it, makes you the most intelligent one there.

7. Significance. Finding significance is doing work not for the money, but for the impact. If you love what you do and your passion is all about delivering more value than promised, you are finding significance in your work. If you are having fun and making a difference in people’s lives, you are developing your legacy—and a legacy is significant!

Many people think you have to have money first to have Time, Freedom, Power, Influence, Happiness, Intelligence and Significance. But the truth is that these 7 are freely available to all of us. That’s why I call them the 7 entrepreneurial superpowers. If you acquire the 7 superpowers first, before anything else, and embrace them, you have an incredible advantage, maybe even an unfair advantage!

The successful never hoped to be successful, they chose to be successful. When you bring the 7 superpowers into your life and business, you are choosing success.

So start purchasing your time vs selling it by hiring good employees and treat them like they are your greatest asset (because they are). Cut ties with toxic people that are holding you back to gain more freedom. Understand your power is not predicated on you bank accounts. Use your influence to inspire people to do business with you. Find something that you are passionate about and makes you happy. Empower your intelligence to work for you as a source to leverage advantages and opportunities. And continually look for ways to separate yourself from the herd by significantly impacting people and spreading success everywhere you go. Once you master the 7, Failure will be but a small irritation and you will begin to think like the eagle.

danbockman@bockmangroup.co

Interested in reading 99 other stories just like this? Grab The Better Business book here.