One of the biggest challenges young and first time entrepreneurs face is thinking that you have to come up with all the answers. After all, this is your start-up, this is your idea and therefore you must know everything about your business.

The problem is that's impossible. 

One person can't know everything, therefore some entrepreneurs set themselves up for failure by accident. Don't make the same mistake. But how can an entrepreneur avoid making these common mistakes?

The answer is become the CEO of your life first. 

When you become the CEO of your life, you realize that you're just in charge and that other people are there to help you turn your vision into reality. Therefore, its your job to work on communicating your vision to people and stop trying to do all the work.

This was very hard for Cole to do. After all, Cole built his business from the ground up and he knew how to do everything better than new people he brought on. But that's why Cole needed to learn how to become the CEO of his life.

As CEO, you realize that you need training programs, so that new people can learn your way of doing things. Therefore, you have to spend more time showing people what to do than actually doing it. And not only that, but teaching them how to do it the right way every time, so you only show them once and then trust they can do it.

The problem is Cole never learned how to teach in school. So how was he supposed to change from being an entrepreneur into now a teacher of other people?

What Cole needed was a mentor or a guide to help him become the entrepreneur he always wanted to be. And that guide became Leaf Academy.

When Cole started to learn leadership skills, he quickly realized that he wasn't spending enough time reflecting on his business. Who was doing a good job? Who needed more help? And what was falling through the cracks?

As the CEO of your business, you need to be on top of everything without doing all the work. But when you forget that you also need to be the CEO of your own life, that's when life/work balance gets out of whack.

It's very easy for entrepreneurs to lose track of time, to not get enough sleep, to not eat healthy and to run themselves into the ground. But who does that help? It doesn't make you a better leader and it also doesn't help the business. Therefore, that's why Cole needed to take a step back and start reflecting on what he was doing.

CEOs have to make smart decisions and every decision you make has to be intentional. When you become the CEO of your life, you stop making split-second decisions that could end up costing you more in the end. Thinking ahead, planning and being intentional only leads to better outcomes.

And once Cole started to implement his CEO mentality into his own life, did his business start to grow. Within two years time, Cole doubled his business and he now has plans to double again in the next 14 months.

This is the power of leadership skills in the 21st century and why entrepreneurs should not ignore or neglect their own lives. When you become the CEO of your own life first, it becomes easier to be the CEO of your startup company.