Entrepreneur

How and Why to Offer Words of Encouragement

You can do it. Really. You can.
Source: Chris Philpot

Encouragement. It sounds like such a small thing. Subtle. Cute. It’s what we do with timid kittens.

But encouragement isn’t cute—it’s fraught and powerful. When you’re encouraging, you’re instilling courage. That’s huge. And that’s hard. And it’s way more compelling than motivation.

Motivation doesn’t depend on circumstances. Motivation is for people who are already inclined to try to succeed.

The commencement addresses that go viral are always more encouraging than they are motivational. The speakers recognize a specific concern—like needing to get a job or facing an uncertain future—and discuss ways it can be overcome. They don’t offer some vague challenge like “surmounting an obstacle” or “seizing upon your dreams” or “surmounting your dreams by seizing upon

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur3 min read
Making the Midlife Leap
Sometimes, building the life you want requires a big risk. That’s what Keri Gardner realized when she cashed in $100,000 of her retirement savings to buy a franchise. It was November 2020, and she had just been laid off from her executive role at a h
Entrepreneur2 min read
‘I Won’t Make That Mistake Again!’
When Shizu Okusa decided to start a new business, she knew where to find the best guidance. “I wanted to reverse engineer everything I did wrong in my last company,” she says. Raised on a farm in Vancouver by Japanese immigrants, she’d founded a cold
Entrepreneur3 min read
THE Franchise 500® HALL OF FAME
This year, we at Entrepreneur published the 45th annual edition of our Franchise 500 ranking. As we celebrate that milestone, we also want to recognize the franchise brands that have been on this Franchise 500 journey right alongside us for the longe

Related