How should an entrepreneur define success?

Here's the top -10 list, in descending order, for success:

You must be passionate about what you're trying to achieve.

10 This means you’re willing to sacrifice a large part of your waking hours to the idea you’ve come up with. Passion will ignite the same intensity in the others who join you as you build a team to succeed in this endeavor. And with passion, both your team and your customers are more likely to truly believe in what you are trying to do.

9Focus intensely on your opportunity.

This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions.

Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation—in other words, companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well. Stay focused on the mission.

8Success only comes from hard work.

We all know that there is no such thing as overnight success. Behind every overnight success lies years of hard work and sweat. People with luck will tell you there’s no easy way to achieve success—and that luck comes to those who work hard. Successful entrepreneurs always give 100 percent of their efforts to everything they do. If you know you are giving your best effort, you’ll never have any reason for regrets. Keep your focus on things you can control.

7 The road to success is going to be long, so remember to enjoy the journey.Everyone will teach you to focus

on goals, but successful people focus on the journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Is it worth spending a large part of your life trying to reach the destination if you didn’t enjoy the journey along the way? Won’t the team you attract to join your mission also enjoy the journey more as well? Wouldn’t it be better for all of you to have the time of your life during the journey, even if the destination is never reached?

6 Trust your gut instinct more than any spreadsheet.

There are too many variables in the real world that you simply can’t put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense of security. In most cases, your heart and gut are still your best guide. We’ve all had experiences in business where our heart told us something was wrong while our brain was still trying to use logic to figure it all out. Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct resonates far more strongly than overpowering logic.

5Be flexible but persistent.

Every entrepreneur has to be agile in order to perform. You have to continually learn and adapt as new information becomes available. At the same time you have to remain persistent to the cause and mission of your enterprise. That’s where that faint voice becomes so important, especially when it is giving you early warning signals that things are going off-track. Successful entrepreneurs find the balance between listening to that voice and staying persistent in driving for success—because sometimes success is waiting right across from the transitional bump that’s disguised as failure.

4Rely on your team.

It’s a simple fact: No individual can be good at everything. Everyone needs people around them who have complementary skill sets. Entrepreneurs are an optimistic bunch of people and it’s very hard for them to believe that they are not good at certain things. It takes a lot of soul searching to find your own core skills and strengths. After that, find the smartest people you can who complement your strengths. It’s easy to get attracted to people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not like you but who are good at what they do—and what you can’t do.

3Execution, execution, execution.

Unless you are the smartest person on earth, it’s likely that many others have thought about doing the same thing you’re trying to do. Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling. All of us have seen entrepreneurs who waste too much time writing business plans and preparing PowerPoints. I believe that a business plan is too long if it’s more than one page. 

2Be honest and show integrity.

These two qualities need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a conscience—but too many people stop listening to it. There is always that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that voice.

1Appreciate your success by giving back.

By the time you achieve your success, lots of people will have helped you along the way. You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help the people who helped you because in most cases, you don’t even know who they were. The only way to pay back the debts we owe is to help people we can help—and hope they will go on to help more people. When we are successful, we draw so much from the community and society that we live in, we should think in terms of how we can help others in return. It’s our responsibility to do “good” with the resources we have available.  

5 Successful Entrepreneur In The Philippines

Now, here are the

Manuel or “Manny” Pangilinan is the top honcho of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT). Under Manuel Pangilinan’s watch, PLDT slowly amassed full or majority ownership on a number of key Internet, communications and broadcasting related corporations. This has made the Wharton-educated Pangilinan one of the Philippines’ top telecommunications magnates.  Pangilinan is also engrossed in propelling Philippine basketball back to its old glory days.  This successful entrepreneur currently owns a professional basketball team bearing the name of a mobile phone company he also owns, which competes in a Philippine based league. He has also almost exclusively bankrolled the entire Philippine national basketball team which represents the country in international basketball competitions.

Manuel Pangilina

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Henry Sy

Recognized by Forbes as the richest man in the Philippines, Sy’s name is synonymous with the Philippine retail industry. The company he founded and owns is the largest retail and shopping mall operator in the country. His company built and operates three of the ten largest shopping malls in the world. Henry Sy’s business acumen is so sound that professors in college and graduate programs in the Philippines frequently use his business model to teach students and budding entrepreneur the fundamentals of business.

Lucio Tan

The self-made Lucio Tan is another Filipino of Chinese descent who is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Philippines. He amassed his wealth (he is currently valued by Forbes at over $1.7 billion) from a variety of sources including tobacco, beer and alcohol, air travel and banking. Although still takes a hands-on approach when dealing with his companies, many close to Tan say that he is no longer concerned with material wealth.  Tan, they say, is more excited about bigger challenges and the pursuit of intellectual endeavors. 

Jaime Zobel

de Ayala

Jaime Zobel de Ayala is the CEO of the well-established Ayala Corporation. The Ayala Corporation is a holding company for the Ayala Group of Companies which owns a diverse group of companies that range from telecommunications and real estate to automotive and financial service.

This Harvard alumni is also involved in a number of charities as well as being a patron of the arts.  This successful entrepreneur is also an avid sportsman who regularly enters local marathons.

Tony Tan

Caktiong

The recipient of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2004, is firmly established as the leader in the Philippine fast food industry. He founded the hamburger fast food chain Jolibee in 1978 and turned it into one of the largest fast food chains in the world. His company has purchased a number of locally prominent fast food restaurants and has even ventured into opening outlets outside the Philippines. Areas with a strong Filipino community  such as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and the United States were some of its first international outlets. Not only is Caktiong recognized as on one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Philippines, his Jollibee foundation has been very active in helping out the less fortunate.  

Successful entrepreneurs in the Philippines are a dime a dozen. The truly exceptional are those able to become more than executives. The successful entrepreneurs on this list were able to use their achievements in the business world as a springboard for bigger and better things. A truly successful entrepreneur is not just fixated with the bottom line. Instead, they find equilibrium in ensuring a steady growth for their respective companies as well as being socially aware of the needs of the people around them.

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Submitted by:Annie PanahonQueen Almira IlaganMaritess MacasoElvie Joy Dela Cruz--BSE-3A--