Be Willing to Suffer for Success and Other Must-Read Business Tips

Success doesn't come easily to most people, not even to talented entrepreneurs who are willing to work hard. "Doing something you love will make you work harder at it, but that alone doesn't mean you have a good business," says Aliya LeeKong, the chef and culinary creative director of the restaurant Junoon in New York. "Hard work, ultimately, has to meet with the right opportunities, and that's where entrepreneurial spirit can come in, allowing passion to meet real business sense."
Even so, the road to success is a toilsome one. You will need to accept and even embrace the suffering when it comes in order to achieve success. LeeKong relates how she agreed to write her first cookbook while pregnant and working at a full-time job. She was terrified of how challenging it would be to "write, cook, test and photograph the entire book," she says. During the process, she adds, "There were days when I was so exhausted it was hard to get off the couch." But she pushed through, and her cookbook will be published later this year. Adopt a similar attitude of perseverance, comfort be damned.
Identify your presentation anxiety, and let it go.
A single presentation could change your life. So it's important to put aside your anxieties and knock it out of the park, says marketing and business-development expert Lewis Howes. You may think you fear public speaking, but in reality what you're feeling may be fear of rejection or the unknown. Hone in on what is holding you back, and release it. "Once you see what you're truly afraid of, and that you'll survive even if you mess up, the fear can subside," Howes says.

Find opportunities in annoyances.
Barry Nalebuff, a professor at Yale University's School of Management, co-founded Honest Tea after failing to find a beverage at the grocery store that suited his tastes. Realizing that a tea-based drink would be less sweet than soda, and that less sweetener meant not only fewer calories for the consumer but cheaper production for the manufacturer, he co-founded Honest Tea in 1998 to take advantage of that simple fact. From concept to execution, it took less than a month to set up. He and his co-founder, Seth Goldman, a former student, sold Honest Tea to Coca-Cola in 2011. And it all started with something that bothered him personally. "If something out there's annoying you, that's an opportunity," Nalebuff says.
Refuse to be distracted from your goals.
One thing that sets high achievers apart from everyone else is that they make better use of their time. They don't have more hours in the day than other people, but they are more disciplined about setting and achieving goals, says Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, a business coaching service with offices in 34 countries. Successful people refuse to let themselves be distracted. "They may not enjoy it, but that is irrelevant," Sugars says. "What matters is that it gets done." As for down time? There isn't much. "Sure, there are vacations and time spent with the family, but that comes after success has been achieved," Sugars says.