Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

Running your own business can be an exciting and rewarding experience, but it can also be challenging. To be successful, you need to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset and be prepared to work hard. In addition, you can do many things to increase your chances of success, such as networking, learning as much as possible, and being willing to take risks.

There is a big difference between having a growth mindset and having an entrepreneur mindset. A growth mindset is all about learning and expanding your knowledge. An entrepreneurial mindset is all about taking risks and making your own opportunities.

People with a growth mindset always want to learn new things and improve their skills. They believe that intelligence can be developed and are not afraid of failure. People with an entrepreneur mindset are risk takers. They think they will never achieve anything significant if they don’t take risks. They are also not afraid of failure because they know it’s a necessary part of the learning process.

People with a growth mindset are always looking to improve themselves, while people with an entrepreneur mindset are always looking to improve their business. People with a growth mindset focus on their weaknesses, while people with an entrepreneur mindset focus on their strengths.

Similarities between growth and entrepreneurial mindsets

Albeit the entrepreneurial mindset and growth mindsets are not interchangeable, they do have some similarities, such as:

• Positivity: Regardless of what happens, an entrepreneur can present it in a positive light.
• Learn from failure: An entrepreneur mindset allows you to see and learn from your mistakes.
• Perseverance: Winners never quit, and quitters never win.
• Delegate to Others: Give out responsibility.
• Love of Learning: New technologies, concepts, ideas, theories.
• Intuitive: As you raise awareness about your limiting beliefs and mindsets, you’ll also increase your intuition and gut instincts.
• Follow-through: Following up on new opportunities is a must.
• Flexibility: Open to change.
• Non-Conformists: They stand out, and they are proud of it.
• Goal Setters: Plan and set goals all the time.
• Good Company: Keep company with other positive entrepreneurial minds like themselves.

How to Change Your Mindset

Just as you can cultivate a growth mindset, you can also nurture an entrepreneurial mindset. The steps to change are essentially the same.

Step 1: Recognize where your thoughts and paradigms were developed.

The first step is looking at your thoughts and determining where they came from. We know that the paradigms we have, can at times interfere with the well-being of your entrepreneur mindset, so we need to attempt to understand them and their origin. For example, the thought that resonates in your mind that “Only smart people succeed” can be looked at as originating from “IQ tests and other school-related tests.”

Step 2: Reframe.

The next step, “reframing,” is perhaps the most challenging because it asks us to reconsider these views as if we were speaking with a friend. You can have an idea that was fostered in school like “those in authority know best,” while reframing it as an entrepreneurial thought would sound somewhat like, “I know best.”

Step 3: Adopt an Entrepreneurial Mindset.

After you have done steps one and two, the challenge is putting these into action. To do this, you need to reach out to others and connect with a positive peer group, entrepreneurs like yourself, where you can share like mindsets. Attend a social event/networking event/ a conference where you can find like-minded people.

There is an old saying called “fake it until you make it,” which in this case would translate into getting out there and acting like an entrepreneur first, even though you may not understand everything from the get-go.

In summary:

1. Look at your business. Write down some goals for your business. They could be things like “grow my business in new markets,”; “increase revenue by 20% by hiring salespeople,”; “join an entrepreneur networking group,”; “open a larger office.”
2. Hear your inner dialogue: Close your eyes and think through the goals you identified. List them. By now, you should have a good idea of where your limiting thoughts originated. Write down the sources.
3. Reframe: Reframe your thoughts using “growth” or “entrepreneur”
4. Adopt your “entrepreneur mindset”: Take action. You’ve now exposed your limiting thoughts, found their origin, and reframed them. Now write down any steps you need to take to continue developing different aspects of the “entrepreneur” mindset. Here is a great article on “Tips to Create the Right Mindset for Success” with suggestions from a variety of business owners, entrepreneurs, advisors and experts that will help you along the way.

In conclusion, an entrepreneurial mindset is a key to success in any field. It allows you to see opportunities where others see obstacles and to take risks in order to achieve your goals. If you are able to embrace this way of thinking, you will be able to create opportunities for yourself and others and achieve great things.