Starting a business — or even getting involved as a professional — when you\u2019re young can be intimidating. You might have knowledge about business from school, books\u00a0or practical advice from sources online, but there\u2019s a big difference between understanding business fundamentals on paper and gaining wisdom through actual experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n By the end of your career, you\u2019ll have accumulated a wealth of knowledge and hundreds of lessons, but there are some lessons that you should learn early on — ideally before you turn 30.<\/p>\n These lessons are some of the most important to learn while you\u2019re still young enough to make use of them:<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost impossible to build a successful business by yourself. Even if you\u2019re a solo entrepreneur, there will be mentors, partners, vendors\u00a0and peers alongside you helping you achieve your long-term vision. So, recognize\u00a0how valuable other people will open you up to more opportunities, help\u00a0you keep an eye out for new contacts no matter where you are\u00a0and make you more discerning in decisions like hiring and long-term deals.<\/p>\n Learning this lesson early will prevent you from wasting time on the wrong people and give you more time to work with the best people you find.<\/p>\n No matter how much you know or how much you prepare,\u00a0failure is going to be inevitable<\/a>\u00a0for you.\u00a0Your business may become successful overall, but there will be individual strategies and campaigns that crash and burn, and ideas that fizzle out entirely. Facing failure with the realization that it is, in some contexts, unavoidable, makes it. easier to accept.<\/p>\n You can view it as a lesson and an opportunity to improve<\/a>, rather than an end point or a sign that you should give up entirely.<\/p>\n The adage that \u201ctime is money<\/a>\u201d is an apt metaphor to describe the power that time can hold when budgeted and used as a resource. This works in a few different dimensions. For example, the sooner you start something, the more time you\u00a0will have to generate benefits for yourself, and the more time you\u2019ll have to work with that project.<\/p>\n Additionally, you only have so many hours in the day<\/a>, and how you spend them has a direct impact on how much value you\u2019re able to produce. The sooner you learn this lesson, the more time you\u2019ll save.<\/p>\n The power of communication can\u2019t be underestimated. Communicating proactively can prevent the development of almost any problem– by explaining things clearly, setting firm expectations and mitigating misunderstandings. Communicating well can also help you resolve any problem, whether it\u2019s making an apology, coming up with a mutually agreeable solution\u00a0or explaining circumstances.<\/p>\n Because of the fast-paced business environment we live in, waiting to move forward with a new initiative because it\u2019s not quite perfect can mean the failure of that initiative. Agile, flexible, adaptive businesses that demonstrate an understanding that things can be tested and optimized while they\u2019re already producing a return on investment are the ones that succeed.<\/p>\n You\u2019re never going to get it perfect on the first try. But be sure to balance your initiative\u2019s \u201creadiness\u201d with agility and speed.<\/p>\n No matter how good or original or appealing your idea is, it\u2019s only as valuable as it is practical. For example, if you have a vision for an amazing video, but you don\u2019t have the resources to produce it in an efficient way, you have to drop the idea.<\/p>\n The same can be said of any business idea; you may have a revolutionary new concept for an enterprise, but if there\u2019s no way to make it feasible or profitable, you won\u2019t be able to move to any form of execution. Sometimes, the best ideas have to be tabled due to a lack of practicality.<\/p>\n No matter how much you know, or how much you think you know, there\u2019s always more information to learn. You\u2019ll always have room to be a better leader and a better entrepreneur, and there will always be new skills and abilities to acquire. Maintaining a course of constant improvement will keep you at your best for as long as possible.<\/p>\n The earlier you learn these business lessons, the more time you\u2019ll have to use them in a practical environment, and the fewer repercussions you\u2019ll face in neglecting them (whether intentionally or unintentionally). You\u2019ll never be perfect, so don\u2019t worry if you make mistakes or forget things you would have benefitted from.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a difference between reading about lessons in an online article and actually experiencing them firsthand — so be prepared to do your best learning as you go through these challenges.<\/p>\n Jayson DeMers<\/strong> is founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency. He’s the author of the ebook, \u201cThe Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Article originally published via<\/a> Starting a business — or even getting involved as a professional — when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,27],"tags":[38,364,366,191,367],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1078,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions\/1078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onbecomingaman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. The right people are worth everything.<\/h2>\n
2. You\u2019re going to fail —\u00a0and that\u2019s okay.<\/h2>\n
3. Time is your most valuable resource.<\/h2>\n
4. Communication can prevent or fix almost any problem.<\/h2>\n
5. Perfection is the enemy of progress.<\/h2>\n
6. All ideas must be rooted in practicality.<\/h2>\n
7. There is always more you can be doing to keep learning.<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"