Here is a story you might like and all stories starts with …….
Once upon a time there was a king who lives in a faraway land. This king has a beautiful daughter and for whom he hopes he will find the right man to be her husband. Unfortunately he was rather choosy about who he wants to be his son-in-law and so for number of years he still could not find the right man for the princess. The king is getting old and so in desperation he decided to organize a contest to find the right man. He decided to find a man of character; someone who can prove his bravery and determination. He ordered a huge trench to be dug and he filled it with water and infested it with crocodiles, piranhas and all the beastly animals you can think of. He then command all the single young men in his land to assemble in front of the huge trench and he declared that the first man who would jump into the trench and swim across will take the hands of the princesses. He also offered half of his 16 castles and half his gold to any one who could successfully do that. For a moment there was silence and then there was no movement at all. It seems no one would want to risk his life even for a beautiful princesses and all the promised wealth. Suddenly there was a scream and in a flash a young man was into the trench of water. He was swimming furiously across the water with half a dozen ferocious beasts going after him. He reached the other end and very quickly jumped up on to land. There was a roar of cheers and everyone was clapping their hands. The king was delighted and beaming with joy, he went to the young man and declared him the winner. He was so happy that he asked the young man if there is anything else he wants other his daughter’s hands for marriage, the castles and the gold.

The young man shivering in the cold turned to the King and say, “I want to know who push me into that trench?”

We all need to be pushed into trenches and out of that amaze ourselves with the possibilities. Entrepreneurs who are successful push themselves to high level of achievements. They are what we call; self-motivated. Their push can comes from within themselves. So what do we need, to be pushed?

1. Pushed by an Obsession, Passion or a Dream
Some are driven by an idea, which might seems to become an obsession. Whilst none around believes in them and their idea; they are lock on to what seems impossible and continue to believe that it HAS to work. A good example is when Frank Brown, founder of Federal Express came close to failure with his ideas of what become the model for courier service. His passion and dream of what is Federal Express to day was his obsession and it came through.

2. Pushed by Personal Need for achievement
Some are just motivated by an inner desire to succeed and to become bigger than what they already are. These entrepreneurs just simply want to succeed and thrive on success. If they were ever asked why they have to climb that mountain, they would answer, “Because it is there.”
Money is often used by a measurement of success and entrepreneurs are often pushed to count their achievements by the monetary results they achieve.

3. Pushed by the Customers
A smaller group of entrepreneurs are just raised to a level of success by their customers. It could because they have a great product or service and their customers love them. Their success is demanded of them by their customers. They are driven by a need to meet their customers’ higher needs and expectations. They treat their customers like a politician treats their constituency.

4. Pushed by a Dare to be different
Others could be just striving for a difference and want to stand out in the crowd. They want to go out there and do audacious things that would carve them a name in the history books of entrepreneurship. They choose to walk the path that no one does and build a legacy for themselves. These are the Steve Jobs and the Richard Bransons.

5. Pushed by a Mentor
Finally there are entrepreneurs that are pushed to success because they are inspired and guided by mentors. These are not necessarily formal. A number of successful entrepreneurs will always be able to tell you who has inspired them and who they learnt from. Some where in their journey to success would be some one who pushed them into that ‘trench’

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