Regardless of the professional success you’ve seen to date, it’s important that you’re always growing, learning and improving. With the right lessons from business leaders in tow, you can gain fresh inspiration and move beyond everyday obstacles to become the best of the best. To ensure that you’re always making improvements, why not turn to advice from successful business leaders of today? Let’s take a look at four lessons you can learn from those who have already overcome some of the same struggles you may be facing today.

“Stay curious — ‘stick to what you know’ is a strict school of thought in many entrepreneurship circles. After living that for many years, I’ve come to believe just the opposite. By keeping your mind open to new ideas and embracing novelty, you make opportunities for yourself. By exposing yourself to a multitude of businesses and products, your scope expands. Conversely, if you always have your blinders on, your perspective becomes too narrow and you miss out on promising opportunities.” — Michael Alden, bestselling author and CEO of CloiXonne, a premier direct selling company.

“Be more communicative — I didn’t realize I wasn’t being clear with my communication until another employee’s ongoing questions helped me realize that I was leaving out key pieces of information they needed to do their job. Going forward, I kept that in mind so I could be more detailed each time I provided information on a project.” — Angela Ruth, entrepreneur at Calendar, the Silicon Valley calendar solution producer.

“Don’t try to do it all — Scaling a company is a constant struggle of identifying what you can let go of and who you can entrust with making decisions without your oversight. Hiring great people and giving them the freedom to create and fully own projects is the ultimate goal — and the sign of a good leader. The challenge is deciding when, after hiring, they’re ready to take the ball and run with it.” — Jordan Fliegel, entrepreneur and early-stage technology investor.

“Think about important decisions for a day or two before acting — Over the years, I’ve gained a tremendous amount of respect for the power of patience. When I was a young professional, I believed the most important characteristics of a successful leader were talent and discipline — and that was pretty much it. I thought that if you have talent and you put in the discipline — whatever your equivalent of 10,000 hours would be — you are equipped for leadership. But I understand now that making important decisions, a defining responsibility of any leader, sometimes requires patience. If I’m not comfortable with a big decision now, I wait a day or two. I don’t use this time to gather more data, a timeline, or create a list of pros and cons. I just give the decision the gift of time. Often with a little time and patience, the decision will manifest itself clearly.” — Chet Kapoor, CEO of Apigee, the predictive analytics software provider.

Learning from the best in business

Ovention provides the products and solutions you need to meet the demands of today’s customers, but it’s ultimately up to you to showcase the value to these individuals. By learning all sides of your industry and moving from a reactive to a proactive approach, you can hit the ground running and make the most of your opportunity to appeal to your prospects.

At Ovention, we offer a wide array of high-quality ovens, so don’t hesitate to explore and find the perfect solution for your customers. And, be sure to check out our new Double MiLO® oven. Bringing an unmatched quality, speed, and consistency to cooking, it’s sure to inspire.