mindset of an entrepreneur

The life and career of an entrepreneur is tough and is etched with challenges in every step of the journey. There are certain traits and qualities that an entrepreneur should possess. It is necessary to remain in the business because suffering a setback isn’t easy and trying to build a company from scratch is definitely not easy.

Here are few mindsets an entrepreneur should adopt to remain in the business:

1. Oodles of confidence

Add endless amounts of confidence to your personality but make sure the liberal dosages are confined to just confidence and don’t tend to be over-confidence. You need to be confident about your idea and your plan because if you aren’t sure, you can’t convince others. You need to be thorough and proud of your plan to pitch it to VCs in the best way possible.

2. Be fearless

Under-confidence can be a reason for being scared of adopting new ideas in any sphere. If you want to succeed in this field, you need to be fearless and try new things. Once you overcome your fear, you will learn about a world of possibilities beyond what you thought was achievable. It doesn’t matter if you fail or succeed; either way, it is a great learning opportunity which lets you explore yourself.

3. Choose your own goals

Just because the competitor is growing at a break-neck speed doesn’t mean you need to copy them. Choose your own goals and make sure they’re realistic and can be fulfilled in a set time period. You know best what you and your company can achieve in a given time period so be confident enough to have the guts to set your own goals and work towards achieving them relentlessly.

4. Accept challenges

Challenges can approach you at any time and in any form: an unhappy employee, an unsatisfied client or a failed idea. Do not shy away from the challenge. Accept it whole-heartedly and face it head-on. Try to find out creative and fool-proof ways of overcoming the hurdle and move forward.

5. Owning responsibility

For a normal employee’s mistakes, the boss and the higher section of the office hierarchy is responsible but in the case of an entrepreneur, he is the one solely and wholly responsible for all actions; good and bad. Entrepreneurs understand the value of opportunities and don’t waste them. You need to step up and be proactive in all spheres to set an example for your employees.

6. Risk-taking

An entrepreneur shouldn’t shy away from taking risks because these risks are the ones which might pay off and make him successful later. If you’re afraid of risks, you will put a limit to how much you can grow and succeed as a company and continue existing in the comfort zone. But to become bigger than yesterday, you need to go ahead and take that risk. The worst case might be that the risk you take might not pay off; in that case, you can treat it as a great lesson and continue with your life.

7. Enjoy breaking pre-conceived notions and rules

You didn’t choose entrepreneurship over a normal 9-5 job to stick to the age old rules in the company rule book. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be accepting the status quo and looking to break them creatively at all times. Learn to look at problems with a parallel and unique vision nod develop new and creative solutions to them.

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Every entrepreneur is aware of how difficult a job being one is. With a completely new idea, you need to be focused and clock in long hours to succeed. An entrepreneur also needs to come up with path – breaking strategies and a focused team to accomplish all goals. However, another important attribute for success is the mindset of the entrepreneur.

1. Self-awareness

It is very important for an entrepreneur to be self-aware. Sometimes, an entrepreneur is so passionate that he loses track of the market and fails to see the shortcomings in his idea which can lead taking uncalculated risks and eventually lead to the downfall of the business. Passion is essential; however an entrepreneur also needs to be critical of his idea and plan and be able to identify the weak points. Also, once he starts working on the vulnerabilities of his plan, he has the option of turning the negatives into positives.

Related Post: 10 Rules for a great startup idea

2. Learn to accept help from superiors

Entrepreneurs often make the basic mistake of denying any kind of help offered to them or believe that they can shine as a one-man team. However, this kind of thinking can be very short-sighted and dangerous. An entrepreneur needs to build a strong team of dedicated individuals who are willing to contribute. In addition to that, an entrepreneur should also be willing to accept help from people who are more experienced and have done wonders in the entrepreneurship field. In the process of accepting guidance, you will learn about a lot of things that you were doing wrong and can now rectify your mistakes.

3. Focus on marketing

Often entrepreneurs make a fundamental folly of ignoring marketing and sales tactics and stick to “the product is fantastic, so, it’ll attract customers” mindset. Customers don’t flock to a brand because it is a fantastic idea. They need to be explained and educated about the start-up and if they find it worthwhile, they will buy it. For instance, even though Ola is such an established brand, it focused greatly on the marketing of their new service “Ola micro” on social media platforms.

4. Be positive

Positivity and passion are the ingredients to a successful start-up. When applied in huge doses to your idea, they will only work in your favour. Until you believe in your idea, you can’t convince others to. Also, staying positive is the only thing that keeps you going on days when you feel that the venture is worth anything. True success comes to people who are hard-working, positive and are willing to think out of the box.

For a successful business, it is very important that all these mindsets are embraced by the entrepreneur. Along with these mindsets, hard work and determination also play a crucial role in start-up evolving into a global brand.

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7 mindsets an entrepreneur needs to adopt ASAP