7 Mindsets at the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Success
This article comes from Entrepreneur.
7 Mindsets at the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Success
Do you ever wonder why some entrepreneurs have the ability to bounce from success to success, without falter? To be clear, no one has that ability, but from afar it can seem like that.
These are the seven mindsets that will dramatically improve your business.
1. Believe in yourself and your business.
“You have to be resilient and able to continue building what you believe is the next best thing. Things you build will often not succeed, but ultimately, those losses will add up to a win, based on what you’ve learned,” said Todd Garland, founder of BuySellAds.
Todd didn’t just put out BuySellAds and start earning $10 million a year. The process took seven years and was full of struggles, hardship and things not working the way they were supposed to. Those struggles are necessary to achieve success.
2. Think three steps ahead.
“I follow my gut. I don’t play chess, but I imagine that if I did, I would think of every opportunity three steps ahead in every possible direction. Even if it seems like something would benefit me in the now, it might not benefit me in the long run. ” – Jessie Shternshus, founder of The ImprovEffect and co-author of the book CTRL Shift: The Book for Any Day.
I love the comparison between entrepreneurship and playing chess. You always have to think three steps ahead. Don’t just ask yourself, “What is happening right now?” but “What will happen three steps from the action I’m going to take today?” You don’t succeed expecting one thing to be your winning ticket in the big entrepreneurial lottery. You have to think long term and have a vision of where you want to be.
3. Do the hardest thing.
“The hardest thing is usually the thing you should be going after. Chances are nobody else is, or at least very few people are. Personally, I feel comfortable and even thrive when I don’t have a clue what I’m doing.” – Josh Pigford, founder of Baremetrics.
It is essential that you get used to the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing what you’re doing. Whether it’s getting on stage to speak, launching your product or writing a book, we tend to see others doing it and (falsely) assume they’ve always been good at it. We all have to do everything for the first time, and none of us does anything very well the first time.
4. Think big and small.
“You have to learn to think big and small. You have to go in the same direction with small day-to-day decisions, as well as big actions. Once you are on your way, you will mostly have to occupy yourself with little things, which can be tedious. Nevertheless, you are the one who has to do them right.” Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo.
This ability is what makes us entrepreneurs: at times, we have to do the work that has to be done (the small things), even if we’re not great at it and don’t like doing it. Yet, we also have to be able to step back, look at the big picture and give direction to the overall vision. This is the duality we need to harness for business success.
5. Create your own luck.
“So-called lucky people aren’t necessarily getting more advantages than other people. The universe doesn’t favor them, but they’re putting themselves out there more. They’re creating more connections that could lead to other stuff. That is really how I interpret luck – creating more of a mathematical probability that you’re going to get what you want.” – Russ Perry, founder of Design Pickle.
Luck’s a funny thing, isn’t it? As Russ says, it is about creating a mathematical probability by putting ourselves out there and trying more things. When you start a business, it might fail. You might have to create 10 businesses before one will be successful. We make our luck with the decisions we make and the actions we take. Plain and simple.
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