3 Things I’ve learned about Personal Development as an Entrepreneur

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When I first decided to become an entrepreneur, I didn’t know much about personal development. When Black Knowledge was created I was a Junior student pursuing my bachelor’s degree in college when I began my entrepreneurial journey. I didn’t value or understand the importance of personal development. 

 

You may ask yourself what is personal development and why is it so important?  According to Wikipedia, “Personal Development covers activities that improves awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhances the quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development takes place over the course of a person’s entire life (2019).”   It wasn’t until as Black Knowledge began to grow and develop as an entity that I started to understand and realize the importance of personal development. I now value and understand it and I always make sure that I educate and express the importance of developing yourself on a personal level when I’m talking to entrepreneurs.  I think many entrepreneurs don’t know about personal development or haven’t put much thought into the subject matter. 

 

Here are three things I’ve learned about Personal Development

1.Personal Development enables me to create my personal vision and help guide my business.

Black Knowledge LLC was created in 2016.  At the time, I had an idea for what I wanted to do with the company and which direction I wanted to take but, I didn’t know how to go about creating things. As my company began to develop and grow, I realized that I had to develop and grow with it. I remember thinking to myself,  “What is my vision for Black Knowledge?” Not only that but, “What is my vision for my life?” I was beginning to define and understand what I wanted my personal vision to be. I would ask myself questions like, “What type of change do I want for myself and the world around me? What does my vision actually include? What type of change am I trying to create exactly? Do I want to help others with their entrepreneurial journey?  Start a podcast? Build an educational platform? What do I love to do?” All of these are important questions you should ask yourself when you’re creating your personal vision. 

When Black Knowledge Reached roughly 100,000 followers on our Instagram page @officialblackknowledge I had a clearer understanding in which direction I wanted to take the company. I created the company and a year later obtained support from people worldwide. I had to focus on my personal vision and what I wanted not only for myself but for my company.

 

Here’s a Knowledge Bomb: I’ve learned when creating a personal vision you’re creating a blueprint for your life. Creating a personal blueprint enables you to understand the direction you want to take.  I use my personal vision to help me stay on a track and obtain my goals. When I developed my personal vision I was able to define what I wanted to be and how I wanted to impact the world.

2.Personal Development helped me understand my personal values also which helped me develop my business.

 

When I first created Black Knowledge, I began to realize I needed to  understand what I value personally. As the company began to grow people were telling me how I inspire them to pursue entrepreneurship.I realized that people valued a lot of the things that I valued. I began to ask myself questions like, “What are some of the values that I want to embody?”  I believe our personal values help guide our decisions in life.

What are personal values? Here’s a few examples:

·  Education

·  Learning

·  Love

·  Peace

·  Unity

·  Success

·  Understanding

·  Wealth

 Here’s a Knowledge Bomb: I had to create my value list based on my experience in life and my personality. I had to think about who I am and what I really wanted in life. I had to reflect and really think about what I desired in life. Everyone's values are different. My values guide me towards my vision.  Like a compass, my personal values direct me and help me stay on track. Personal values help me hold myself accountable. I needed to identify and understand what I valued and prioritize what was important to me.

3. Becoming an entrepreneur helped me identify my weaknesses and areas I needed to develop.

When I first created Black Knowledge, I was so excited about creating something that I wanted that I didn’t understand or realize that owning your own company requires more than just paperwork. There were many things I didn’t understand or have knowledge of when I created my company. For example, the importance of separating your personal finances and your business finances. I had to get an accountant to help me understand what I needed to do now that I am a business owner. 

I realize now I had many weaknesses. Black Knowledge made me realize there were many skills I knew I had to acquire in order to obtain the goals I wanted to achieve with my company. There I was with all these followers not understanding how to get articles created, how to develop content, or how to set up my shop correctly. I knew that I had to learn and grow personally.

 I value personal development greatly because I did not understand Facebook or Instagram when I first created my company. I did not even have an Instagram page or know how Instagram worked exactly. I was becoming very aware of my weaknesses from an entrepreneurial perspective. I knew I had to educate myself on social media marketing and content creation. At first, I would get frustrated because I didn’t know how to create quality content but now I value my weaknesses because I realized I can learn what they are and focus on making them strengths. 

Here’s a Knowledge Bomb: My weaknesses could have held me back from obtaining things. I’ve learned that weaknesses are areas that I have the power to improve. Many of my weaknesses at first were social skills, entrepreneurial skills and management. I’m not saying they are 100% strengths but I realize now that I have them. Realizing  what my weaknesses are gave me a better understanding of things that could have held me back from creating this company. I was able to strategize and learn new ways to not let my weaknesses hold me back.

 

Knowledge Seekers, have you thought about your personal development?

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