Formality is boring and tedious.  People want to enjoy their work.  If someone address me like a computer, I’ll respond in kind — by hitting delete.  But if someone demonstrates they have a real personality and a good sense of humor, a connection is far more likely.

8.  Sacrificing your personality quirks.

In the early years of running my games business, I took myself too seriously and assumed that I had to act “businesslike” … whatever that meant.  Being self-employed was a weighty responsibility, and other people were counting on me.  Sink or swim, right?

I started my games business in my early 20s, and people in their early 20s are invariably weird.  But I assumed that as a business owner, being weird wasn’t appropriate or acceptable.  So most of my business letters and emails looked like they were written by the same people who created Microsoft’s EULAs.  The job title of “President” really went to my head.  I learned how to function without a personality.

It took a number of years, but eventually I became comfortable just being myself, especially after my games business became profitable.  Now that I’m a blogger, my personality quirks and unusual experiences are strengths.  My personal oddities give this blog a unique flavor.  If I were to take myself too seriously and write more formally, this blog would be very dull and would likely lose much of its audience.

It’s perfectly OK to be your own weird self and to inject your own unique spirit into your business, especially if you’re in your teens or 20s.  Don’t be afraid to be more like Steve Jobs… and less like Steve Ballmer.  Don’t pretend to be something you’re not.  Ultimately you’ll enjoy your work much more if you attract the kinds of customers and partners that want to work with you for who you are — warts and all.  Send the people who only want to work with androids to your corporate competitors.  They deserve each other.  

If other people can’t handle your weirdness, too bad for them.  Focus your energy on the people who can.

9.  Failing to focus on value creation.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the purpose of a business is to make money.  But the real purpose of a business is to create value.  While it’s possible to make money in the short run without creating much value, in the long run it’s unsustainable.  Even criminal organizations have to create value for someone.  When you know your business is just sucking value away from others without providing anything in return, it will erode your self-esteem, and the business won’t be much fun to run.

Why does your business exist?  It exists to provide some sort of value, both for you and your customers.  The better you understand what value you’re trying to provide, the better you’ll be able to focus.  The basic value provided by my games business was cerebral entertainment.  The basic value provided by StevePavlina.com is personal growth.  Too often business owners aren’t clear on what value they’re trying to provide.  They just sell stuff and hope for the best.  That’s a lousy business model.  The world doesn’t need more selling or more stuff.  But it always needs and wants genuine value creation, and that’s where you should direct your efforts.liuxuepaper.com