As I share with members of Impakt Tribe, where we help from A to Z with everything related to fundraising, if you are going to launch a successful startup with big potential, you have to be operating at peak performance as an entrepreneur.

Here are some of the ways you can level up your personal game as a founder and keep executing at your best.

1) Start Doing

Startups evolve fast. Even subpar ventures mean moving fast, doing new things, and learning a lot on the fly.

You’ll learn so much more in a practical sense that you can apply, and will grow so much more as an entrepreneur and business person by just jumping in and starting to take action.

You’ll increase your capabilities and grow your potential exponentially as you go. And, you’ll be forced to keep boosting your performance abilities faster than your company is growing.

They say that young startups completely morph and become completely new or different level companies each year, or faster. You might be surprised at what it shows you can do once you start trying.

2)Hire Amazing People

Hire the best you possibly can. Bring in a world-class team that is the best in their fields in your industry.

Apply this to every role. Bring in the best customer service reps, salespeople, marketers, content creators, designers, engineers, and so on. Bring along the best possible co-founders and investors that you can.

The most successful startup founders also don’t wait to hire and bring in top-notch, experienced executives. Don’t hold back on hiring a CTO, CFO, CMO, and even a CEO.

Don’t be afraid of being the least smart and accomplished person in the room and on your team. Leverage human resource assets to their fullest.

They’ll make you level up. Learn from them. Empower them to do their best work.

Let them free you up so that you can perform at your best on the highest value tasks that will really move things. These are only the first of the several ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

Furthermore, when thinking about surrounding yourself with the right people that means to also choose the right investors that share the same agenda you have.

3)Go To School

Of the hundreds of hyper-successful entrepreneurs that have been featured on the Dealmakers Show who have raised the most capital and have achieved the largest exits, most seem to have invested in going back to school.

Not all, but probably the majority. The majority of those who have gone back to school have attended Ivy League colleges. They’ve often studied engineering or computer science, or have returned to get MBAs.

It is true that many say it was more about gaining confidence than practical knowledge, and that they learned a lot more in their first year actually doing a startup than in lectures.

Yet, there is a pattern there. Perhaps most notably, that they’ve made great connections. Many of which have led to investments or finding co-founders.

 

4)Join A Startup Accelerator

The best startup accelerators now give what some call ‘the new MBA’ in startups. Some like Y Combinator are now harder to get into than Harvard.

They combine a great amount of hard to get practical knowledge, with education, hands-on doing in a fast-paced environment, and often some funding, as well as expanding your network with high-level players.

5)Get A Coach

There is a reason that elite performers in all fields have coaches. Whether it is top athletes, world leaders, or business executives they all seem to have this in common.

You won’t find one that doesn’t have a coach or mentor, and often multiple advisors and consultants. At the bottom of non-performers, it is rare to find them.

There definitely seems to be a correlation. There are many kinds and they can offer a variety of benefits. In addition to leveraging their years and breadth of experience, you can often tap into their connections.

They show you what you don’t know that you don’t know. Which are usually the things that get you and cause you to fail. They put you on the fast track and help you avoid the hidden pitfalls. Just as valuably, they are an accountability partner.

They force you to make progress and show up. These are the professionals that will help you in countless ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

6)Grow A Diverse Network

Invest in developing a rich and diverse network. You never know what doors and ideas it will open for you. You can’t just network for your needs this week, you want to be planting those seeds years in advance.

 

7)Surround Yourself With People That Make You Level Up

Through your personal and professional network, surround yourself with people that make you level up. People that keep the pressure on to be the best you can be, that inspire you, and show you that you can achieve even more.

This applies to the people you hire, have lunch, dinner, and breakfast with, and take your kids to playdates with. It applies to your workout partners, and even those you choose as neighbors.

Be intentional in this, and you may be surprised at how much of a difference this one factor makes in your own performance.

8)Build Deeper Relationships With Your Network

Building a network isn’t about how many people you shake hands with, the number of business cards you put in your Rolodex, connections on LinkedIn, or people who follow you on Instagram.

 

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The real value in these human connections comes with time as you build real relationships. You’ll find they will open up and help a lot more as you nurture those that know you, like you, trust your trifecta.

9)Embed Yourself Somewhere That Makes You Want To Level Up

This is why startup hubs like Silicon Valley and New York City have become so popular. They are magnetic.

Not just for the capital, and certainly not for the cheap rent and good weather. It is the meeting of the minds that pulls people regardless of these factors and makes them want to stay.

It may not be a place to live either. Or, it can be an organization. Like working somewhere such as Google, Amazon, Apple, or Facebook where you are surrounded by top-level talent and can see what scale looks like from the inside.

Where people think in billions of users and tens of billions of dollars increments. Choosing the right location is just one of the ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

10)Travel

Perhaps even more common of a pattern than having attended business school is the number of top-performing entrepreneurs who have spent time traveling.

There is just something about it that equips people for entrepreneurship. It provides new perspectives which can be the source of great innovation, as well as providing more objectivity on your own business.

So, take a vacation, travel for business, or venture off full time. Make sure you give your teams the same opportunities.

11)Find Your Zone

Find your sweet spot for doing your best work. This may be where you choose to live. The view you have when you wake up. The way you design your workspace. It can also apply to finding the best times to work when you are at your most energized and productive.

There are a lot of little tweaks you can make here for productivity and performing at your best.

12)Exercise

There are numerous studies and reports which show the direct correlations between exercise and performance. Savvy entrepreneurs know that taking time out to exercise each day can actually catapult their activity, rather than reducing their output.

You’ll get more done in less time, and will enjoy all of the other health and mental benefits that come with it.

There is something different that works for every entrepreneur. It may be yoga and meditation in the morning.

Running a few miles before the sun even comes up. Hitting the gym to lift heavyweights in the afternoon. Walking on your treadmill desk while you code or answer calls.

It could be random breaks to go surfing, play tennis, swim or get in a round of golf during the day. Find something that works for you. Getting adequate exercise is possibly one of the most improbable ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

13)Sleep

Next to exercise sleep is recognized as one of the most powerful factors for achieving and maintaining peak performance.

It may even be far more important. If you are rested and energized, then you may have more energy to exercise and get the benefits of both.

Napping during the day works for some. Though there are two main elements of this. The first is getting enough sleep.

Don’t cheat yourself. You’ll pay for it in performance. If hitting snooze for another 30 minutes helps you achieve twice as much in the rest of the day, do it.

The second part is getting quality sleep. You need that really deep sleep to get the best benefits from it, including letting your body and mind heal.

14)Read, A Lot

It’s hard to find any significant business leaders who don’t spend a lot of their day reading. Some spend hours reading each morning before they do any work.

In fact, it seems the more legendary CEOs read, the more successful they are. Compare that to most people who are stuck on the wheel in the rat race, or never really see their startup attempts become more than a small business, and how little they read, if any at all.

15)Study The Successes & Failures Of Other Entrepreneurs

You don’t have to figure it all out from scratch. You don’t have to make everything a lengthy and expensive trial and error process.

Most of it has already been figured out by others. Why go through all of it again and all of the stress, when you can follow the success clues and warnings of what not to do that have already been laid out by others?

These are some of the best hacks and ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

16)Think & Aim As Big As Possible

Your performance may only be limited by your imagination. Are you thinking and aiming so high that it scares you?

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So big that others think it is impossible? That’s how you really push the limits of your performance.

17)Persevere

Nothing will work out if you keep on quitting at everything. That doesn’t just mean your business as a whole.

It can apply to many different things you’ll try within your startup, from acting on the best business ideas you get, hiring, to marketing, to fundraising. You only fail when you quit.

You may have to tweak and pivot some things. Though overall you must commit to grinding it out, day after day, no matter what.

It’s the few that have the grit to do this longer than everyone else that become those big overnight success stories that make it look easy.

18)Be Optimistic

You get what you think about. If you are negative you’ll often find you are gravitating towards your fears and fall into a downward spiral.

Your decisions suck you down. In contrast, if you find a way to be consistently optimistic you may be surprised at how well things turn out.

This doesn’t mean losing all handles on reality. Instead, start practicing seeing every challenge as an opportunity. Focusing on the positives is one of the best ways to reach peak performance as an entrepreneur.

19)Focus More, Multitask Less

Rather than trying to juggle more things at the same time, try focusing more. Hone in on completing the next task. You’ll get more done, faster, and will feel better about it too. Try it.

If you can’t do that, then why should they trust you with their time and capital?

Please let me know in the comment box below which of these tips you are going to use to become the best version of yourself?

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts.

Your biggest fan,

Jeroen van der Heide Co-founder & Ecopreneur

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