What goes on inside the mind of an entrepreneur? Why do entrepreneurs do what they do? It is because they possess an entrepreneurial mindset that they believe that they can achieve something greater and bigger than themselves. They don’t believe in living within their means; they believe in expanding their means.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Most people have big dreams but most people don’t become entrepreneurs.
Most people want to have a life full of wealth.
We all want to live our dreams. Want to have big houses.
Have supercars and we want love.
We always want something.
But it’s never enough to just want something. How badly do you want it? How far are you willing to go to get it? This is what separates some people from most people.
Some of these people are called entrepreneurs. A lot of people will tell you that they hope to become rich one day and that they want to quit their jobs to be their boss. How many of them do it? How many make that happen?
Don’t just want something; make it happen.
Change this:
I want to become a millionaire.
To this:
I have become a millionaire.
If you don’t put in the effort, you will forever be stuck with the want. To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to master 3 key elements.
Believe that you can do it
The first one is the belief that you can make it happen. Who you are today is a reflection of all the choices that you’ve made up to this point.
Think about it. It’s true. We all become who we believe ourselves to be. Everything you are is a result of the choices that you’ve made.
1. If you’re not in shape, it’s because you don’t care for your diet or exercise.
2. If you’re broke, it’s because you don’t manage your finances properly.
3. If you’re unhappy, it’s because you’re not doing the stuff that you like.
You see, everything that you are is a result of your choices. You have the power to positively change your life as long as you make better choices.
4. If you’re not in shape, you can choose to better manage your diet and exercise more regularly.
5. If you’re broke, you can choose to make more money and manage your finances more wisely.
6. If you’re unhappy, you can choose to do something that you like instead of something that you hate.
Little by little, these small changes of choice can add up to become a massive life transformation for you. It’s all possible as long as you believe it to be possible. Remember, you are what you believe.
When it comes to being an entrepreneur, you have to have the belief that you can create a business that can make a difference in the world. Choose to become an entrepreneur. Choose to work for your dreams instead of working for others.
Just because you’re not a successful entrepreneur yet, doesn’t mean you’ll never become one. As with all other things in life, becoming a successful entrepreneur is a skill that can be learned and mastered over time.
You learned to read and write and learned to calculate. You learned to play basketball and learned to drive. Can most certainly learn to become an entrepreneur.
But the problem is, we’re not wired to do that. As in, we’re not taught to become an entrepreneur. We don’t learn how to become rich in school. Our teachers never taught us about money. They never taught us about how we can be our boss, they only taught us to work for others.
It’s not their fault because they are just as clueless as we are when it comes to entrepreneurship and money.
That’s just how the world’s education system works.
But then again, that alone is no excuse for not becoming an entrepreneur. In this day and age, there is an information overload. The internet is a massive pool of both good and bad information.
There are thousands of podcasts to listen to and thousands of videos to watch.
There are millions of articles and books to read.
In short, there is no lack of resources today. If you truly want to become a successful entrepreneur, you most certainly can. It all comes down to how badly you want it to happen.
In any case, you’d first have to believe that you can do it.
The only person standing in your way to entrepreneurship is YOU.
Some people might say that it takes money to become an entrepreneur. That’s nothing but their excuse. There are so many examples of great entrepreneurs who started from nothing.
These are some examples of entrepreneurs who went from rags to riches.
1. Steve Jobs (Apple)
2. Richard Branson (Virgin)
3. Sam Walton (Walmart)
4. Henry Ford (Ford)
5. Kevin Plank (Under Armour)
6. Howard Schultz (Starbucks)
7. this list can go on and on ……
Hopefully, by now, you believe that you can be a great entrepreneur. But that’s only the first step, believing that you can do it is never enough. You must learn the steps necessary to become an entrepreneur.
Just because you believe that you can get a six-pack ab doesn’t mean you’ll get it. You need to learn the steps required to get a six-pack ab.
Always learning
The learning never stops for an entrepreneur. You’ll learn new things every single day. Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned and mastered.
However, there isn’t a fixed strategy to it. Every entrepreneur does things differently and they’re involved in different types of businesses. They all have their own stories to tell.
Entrepreneurship is hard, especially in the beginning. Similar to every other thing in life, you’ll only get better and better at it as long as you keep going. Failures along the way are expected. So you should learn from every mistake. Persevere and you’ll stand to gain from it.
Do you still remember how you first learned to ride a bike? You kept falling and bumping into stuff in your first few tries and then what happened? You magically got the hang of it and before you know it, you’re riding off without any more help.
The same thing applies to becoming an entrepreneur. The truth is, you’ll never be ready enough before you decide to take it head-on. No one can be 100% ready before they decide to try something. You only need to be somewhat ready. To go further, you’re going to need to dive into it.
True learning begins when you start doing it and guess what; it never ends.
Taking action
Let’s take another look at the six-pack abs example given above.
You believe that you can get that ab. You’ve also learned the steps required to build a six-pack ab. But is it good enough to stop there? The abs are not going to build right? You need to take action and put in the effort to build those abs.
The same applies to entrepreneurship. You may believe that you can become an entrepreneur and learn the steps needed to do so but still fail at becoming one if you don’t take any action. This is the most important step but this is also where most people fail at.
You can attend all the seminars or webinars on entrepreneurship and wealth building you want. Without taking action, you’re not going to get anywhere. The funny thing is, most people tend to think that going to these talks and seminars counts as ‘taking action’. That’s not taking action, that only counts as the first and second steps which we’ve just discussed earlier.
The other thing is, entrepreneurs take small daily actions. Entrepreneurship isn’t about a single big event, it’s about a series of small mini-events along the way. You have to set aside the time for whatever business it is that you’re planning to do.
Our lives are so busy, how does anyone find the time for that?
The truth is, you’re never going to have enough time. You have to MAKE the time for it.
Again, it goes back to how badly you want to become a successful entrepreneur. How far are you willing to go to achieve your dreams?
In conclusion, to become a successful entrepreneur, you need to possess the following mindset:
- Believe that you can do it
- Always learning
- Taking action
You’ll need all 3 of them; if either one of them is missing, the whole thing will tip over.
The Voices Inside Their Head
For any aspiring entrepreneurs out there, be aware that there will be an intense mental battle going on inside your mind every single day in your life as an entrepreneur, especially in the beginning.
There will always be two sides in your head; the good voice and the bad voice. I am telling you as it is and I am speaking from my personal experience. And, these are the voices within my head every single day:
The Bad:
Well well. Another day as an ‘entrepreneur’. Wonder if I’ll even achieve anything today. There’s so much to do and so much to worry about.
The Good:
Shut up baddie. This is the right thing to do.
The Bad:
Man, can I catch a break? I need a break. Come on, let’s go play some games. You know that the latest expansion of World of Warcraft just came out right?
The Good:
Listen up, Andrew. You don’t have the time to be playing some video games. Remember why you’re doing this? You’re doing this for your dreams man.
The Bad:
For your ‘dreams’. Hah. Gotta stop this crap. Why did you quit your job anyway? Do you know how hard it is to score even an interview these days? Have you ever considered how much money you’re losing out on every month? You got bills to pay dude.
The Good:
You’ve considered it for a long time. You know what you want in life. That’s why you chose this route. You know very well that this wasn’t going to be easy. You shouldn’t quit now. Just keep going.
The Bad:
Why are you even doing this again? You’ve been doing this for some time now but do you have anything to show for? What have you achieved so far? Nothing! Ever thought that this might not be for you? This is so hard.
All of your peers have gone up one step on you. They have a paycheck every month while you don’t. People are earning money while you’re bleeding cash here.
Remember your friend David? He just bought a house. All of your friends are moving up in the world while you’re still stuck here man. You’re working 70 hours a week and for what? You don’t even have time to do what normal people would do.
The Good:
Andrew, I want you to know that this voice is never going away. It’s always going to be there. However, the good thing about this is that you have a choice. A choice to either listen to me or the baddie.
Deep down inside, you know what you want and you know what you have to do to make it happen. Let’s just say you do nothing and you buy into your fears. Let’s just say you buy into every single thing that you’re worried about and that you decide to stop chasing after your dreams.
What happens then? Go back to your job and work as an engineer for the rest of your life. Retire when you’re 55 or 60? Then what? Is that the life you truly want to live? I don’t think so. If you quit today, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or even 40 years from now, you’re going to regret not having the courage to chase after your dreams.
You can lie to your friends and your family but you can never lie to the man in the mirror. The man in the mirror is going to look back at you and say ‘You didn’t choose to go after your dreams’ and you’ll have to be okay with that.
You should make the right choice and pursue your dreams. Face your fears and make the best out of life. You only have one shot at this. If it works out, it’s going to feel so good. But if it doesn’t, at least you have the courage to go after your dreams. No regrets.
Do you still remember your dream as a kid? Your dream was to be someone so popular and famous that everyone would know you as a successful person who made a difference in the world. It’s funny how your dreams are different from other kids at that age. Most would say that their dream is to become a pilot, policeman, fireman, doctor, or whatnot.
Are you ready to become an entrepreneur?
All of us have our dreams of a good life. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying. The only difference is whether or not you’re willing to go after it. Some people want it to happen but some people make it happen.
Some of you might have had plans to become an entrepreneur but it slowly died off. It happens to the best of us. The human nature to grow attached to something and over time, you’ve grown to feel comfortable where you’re at right now. It feels like a pain in the butt to change things.
I know this firsthand because it happened to me. That’s how I know what goes on inside the mind of an entrepreneur. I encourage you to face your fears and make the right choice for your life.
Article Written by: Andrew
