What is required of an extraordinary leader on the path to building a successful, extraordinary business?

Is it as simple as writing down your vision, hiring some high-performing employees, and working hard to achieve your goals? In a perfect world, that probably would be enough. Unfortunately, life happens, and more often than not, you will encounter obstacles on your path toward success. Obstacles come in many forms: the death of a loved one, burning out mentally and emotionally, or a financial difficulty. How you handle those obstacles determines your character and your journey towards building an outstanding company.

As a leader, four essential strategies you can begin to practice right now that will help you stay on the path toward building an extraordinary business are to:

• Distance yourself from negativity
• Delegate work whenever possible
• Remember your “why”
• Stay resilient when “life happens”

Distance Yourself from Negativity

We all have that one person in our lives—you know the one. No matter what great business endeavor you have going on at the moment, regardless of how much success you’re experiencing, they inevitably will have something negative to say about it.

It’s simple—while negative energy brings you down, positivity builds you up. There will be many times in life and in business when you need to establish healthy boundaries with negative friends and family members to protect your own energy. If you’re the people-pleaser type and you have a hard time saying “no” to others because you want to protect their feelings, establishing boundaries can be difficult.

But—clearly defining personal boundaries is necessary to protect your purpose and to stay focused on the path toward building an exceptional, extraordinary business. No one knows your vision better than you.

It’s okay to accept constructive criticism from those people you trust because, as a leader, you should remain teachable. But you need to be wise enough to filter every comment through the lens of your own core values. If other people’s criticism doesn’t align with your values, it’s perfectly fine to say “thanks, but no thanks.”

Delegate Work Whenever Possible and Appropriate

There’s no shame in delegating work to your team members. In fact, as the leader of a growing company, it’s what you should be doing. What uber-successful companies do you know that are run by only one person? Personally, I don’t know of any with that description.

The most extraordinary businesses are comprised of a complex network of passionate individuals who understand the role they play in their company’s vision and live it out with purpose. If our end goal in building extraordinary businesses is to develop tomorrow’s leaders, then, after the initial start-up, the delegation of work is the most logical next step of building any great company.

Your business may initially take off, but it eventually will fizzle out if you don’t hire and delegate work to star team members. Many hands make light work—meaning your company will be more productive, in less time, for the long haul.

Remember Your “Why”

Do you remember the passion burning inside you as you first realized you had an amazing idea for a business? Why did you want to begin in the first place? Our purpose can get lost in the everyday busy work of running a company.

Four ways to remember your “why” for starting a business are:

• Refer to your vision statement often—hang it in your office where it’s clearly visible and read it daily.
• Take some time off from work—take a step back when you need a mental break. You’re of no help to anyone once you’re already burned out. Be self-aware and proactive when it comes to your mental health.
• Stay involved in your community—get to know the people in your community. It’s easy to forget the “why” in business when you stop talking to others, especially if helping others was a prime motivator in starting your company.
• Stay humble—don’t let your ego get in the way of your purpose. Remember, we’re all in this together.

Stay Resilient When “Life Happens”

You inevitably will have to clear some hurdles life throws in your path, or you will stumble over them and fall. Everything you’ve worked for can come crashing down in the blink of an eye. You will have to get back on the horse two, three, or maybe even multiple times after getting knocked out by life’s unexpected javelin throws.

Obstacles derail you from time to time, in life and business. What sets an extraordinary leader apart from the others, is the confidence and ability to rise to the occasion. As a business owner, it’s only a matter of time before your business experiences a setback—or worse, fails completely. What determines your success isn’t the failure, it’s the getting back up part.

The question is: are you courageous enough to begin again?