Give yourself the best gift possible in this New Year, the gift of believing in yourself. This is rule number one for the holistic entrepreneur. Nothing will give you more of an opportunity to test this rule then when you make a decision and others try to convince you that their way is better.

Several years ago a longtime client, representing several million dollars in annual revenue to my travel company, decided I should give them back a percentage of the money their company spent with me. I reminded them that we provided them with superior service. While they agreed, they still wanted a rebate. My immediate thought was NO! However, my colleagues and friends said that I would be crazy to deny such important clients the benefit of having their way with my company. For several weeks I listened while veteran business colleagues showed and told me all the reasons I should give in to the company. Yet my deepest feelings told me that to go along with the request was unfair to me and to the office staff who worked hard to please all our customers and corporate clients. While I weighed both sides before giving my final answer, I remembered a story I heard many years before:

A high-ranking swami was traveling through a small village when a strong life energy radiating from a little hut captured his attention. As he walked closer to the hut, the energy became stronger. His immediate thought was that only a swami as high-ranking as he could emit such a powerful force. He respectfully went into the hut expecting to see an important swami, but instead he saw a peasant man sitting on the floor chanting in deep meditation.

"Excuse me," the great swami said, "I was just passing by and. . ." The peasant jumped to his feet and bowed to the swami before the swami could finish his sentence and said, "Your holiness, I am honored to have you visit my humble abode. Please, come in, sit down."

The swami sat down and said, "You are generating such wonderful life energy from your chanting, but there is one small problem. I noticed that you were mispronouncing a word in your chant. Let me show you the correct way." The swami then gave the peasant the correct way to recite the chant.

As the swami departed, the peasant bowed again to the swami and thanked him for blessing him by sharing his precious wisdom.

A few months passed and the great swami decided to revisit the peasant. When he approached the hut he felt no life energy. When he went inside, he found the peasant sitting on the floor trying hard to make the swami's version of the chant work for him.

By pronouncing the words "correctly," as the swami had said, the peasant had lost his power.

Many times in business and in our private lives we are bombarded with advice from the "wise ones." Although their intentions are good, the final decision rests with you on what's best for you and your business.

Unlike the peasant in the story, I thanked everyone for his or her advice and concern and said no to the client's request. Without wasting time, I got busy and replaced the lost client with several smaller companies and managed to exceed its annual revenue by 25%.

The responsibilities entrepreneurs face are many. In order to meet all of those responsibilities, you must first believe in yourself, your values and what you believe is right. There are many swamis out there lurking around our huts, waiting to show us the way to get things done. When you can chant to the beat of your own drummer and the swami comes along, bolt the door!

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