Would you like to know how successful entrepreneurs think?
In this video and article, I share with you three ways to grow an entrepreneurial mindset.
You might be wondering, what is an entrepreneurial mindset?
If you Google it you get all sorts of things that people say are an entrepreneurial mindset.
If you compare it with the 9-5 mindset, you’ll see that there are some crossovers.
Being a high performer, working hard, having excellence in your job, being great at what you do. These are some of the crossovers between whether you’re working for someone else or you’re working for yourself.
But there are some unique things that entrepreneurs have in their mindset if they’re going to be successful.
When I’ve been asking this question to people, I ask them – what do you think is the actual mindset that’s different?
Based on my research and my own observations, I’ve come up with the 3 that I think are the most important.
1. Be Committed
If you want to grow an entrepreneurial mindset, you must be committed.
Committment covers a lot – resilience, the ability to figure things out the ability to go through, failure – the ability to just keep going and not give up…
If you’re committed to figuring things out, no matter what it takes – you’re going to figure it out, then that means that you’re going to have a mindset of growth, right?
You go all-in on it, rather than just dipping your toe in the water and saying “I’m just going to stay safe. But if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll go back to another job”.
If you’re committed to being the identity of an entrepreneur, then it’s amazing how the resources flow to you – how the people flow to you how the money flows to you.
When you’re committed, you say “This is what I’m doing. This is who I am. And no matter what it takes, I’ll figure it out:.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the entrepreneurial mindset and watching a lot of videos of people talking and TED talks about the success entrepreneurial mindset, and people are saying – it’s not that I’m any smarter, it’s not that I’ve got a super personality.
Which is good news!
It’s an even, equal playing field when it comes to entrepreneurship.
In fact, a lot of entrepreneurs, say that they don’t feel smart and that they haven’t got a traditional education or had great marks at school or anything like that. Any of us can choose to be an entrepreneur because everything can be learned.
With technology the way it is, with courses, with the amount of information that we have access to, any of us can choose this, as a venture or a vocation is something that we get paid for. But we’ve got to be committed, we’ve got to be committed to no matter what happens because it is going to be tough.
Be committed to what you want. Be committed to that vision that you have, of your future best self, have your dream life, of your vision.
When you know yourself when you know your vision, your goals, when you have a plan, and you’re working towards it every day and you’re committed to it.
It doesn’t matter how you feel. It doesn’t matter whether you wake up in the morning and you say, I kind of can’t be bothered today.
Because you’re committed, you’re all in and you’re saying, I’m going to set deadlines and I’m going to stick to them because I don’t have a boss telling me what to do.
When you’re the entrepreneur, you are the leader, you’re the CEO. And you’re also the person doing the grunt work until you have a team. You must come from that mindset of I have to show up no matter what, I must be committed.
There’s some research that shows that when we set a deadline It doubles the likelihood that we’re going to achieve it if we have a deadline.
If we set a goal that’s specific and not ambiguous like…
I’m going to make 10 phone calls every single day for a month. That’s a clear goal.
Or I’m going to get five clients by the end of this month.
Or I’m going to run three meetup events for webinars in this quarter.
Those goals that are very specific they have a deadline.
With a deadline, you double the likelihood of achieving it than saying my goal is to have a great business.
Ambiguous goals don’t work. Goals without deadlines don’t work.
2. Be Curious
Number two is to be curious.
When you’re curious, you will ask yourself a lot of questions. You will also ask other people a lot of questions.
I get quite surprised sometimes when I ask people questions, and they don’t know the answer to it, and I know that they haven’t been asking themselves that question.
For example, I’ll ask someone to tell me about their dreams. Often people fumble over the answer and they don’t really have their dreams articulated or they don’t have any goals.
I’ve always set goals and it’s always really helped me; it doesn’t mean I achieved them all. But the pursuit of a goal is what makes you stronger.
When I was working nine to five it was; you learn your job, you get good at it. And then you just rinse and repeat every day.
I wasn’t having to bring creativity or innovation or growth to it. I was having to just turn up, do my job and go home. And for me, that was hard. Because I’m a very curious person. I like learning why I like figuring out how to do things better.
I was working for this insurance company, and we would have to post people a claims form. I remember saying to my manager at the time, why don’t we scan it in? Or why don’t we go paperless?
And she was very opposed to the idea – she said no, this is the way we’ve always done it. This is the way we do it.
I wasn’t trying to rock the boat; I was trying to bring in some new ideas and I was curious about how to do things better. But that kind of thing got shut down. It was more this industrial mindset of just churn out the factory linework and just get it done.
When you’re an entrepreneur, you can get curious – you think, how can I do things better? How can I plan better? How can I be this person, is this best version of myself?
Entrepreneurs constantly think, who’s the best version of myself that I’m working towards, and they start living that out on a daily basis.
For example, let’s say you want to be a great speaker.
Instead of saying, I’m going to do that in three years, you start turning up on a smaller scale, you start doing Facebook Lives now, you start getting in front of groups of people and practising and being that identity of a speaker in order to live that best future self now.
Rather than thinking – I’ve got this goal I want to achieve in the future, start living it now. Start acting as if you’re that now, because you’re not going to get better until you show up as that person and practice and get better.
Successful entrepreneurs, they don’t mind showing up and getting it wrong. They are not attached to perfectionism.
A friend recently told me; perfectionism is fear in high heels. It’s just doubt and fear and keeping us small and keeping us stuck.
When you’re curious, you think, what’s an even bigger goal?
What’s an even cooler thing that I can aim towards instead of just staying stuck at that status quo?
Being curious is thinking – how can I update my skills? How can I get more knowledge? It’s being hungry to learn; it’s placing yourself in learning environments all the time.
If you have curiosity naturally, it’s an asset as an entrepreneur. If you don’t have it naturally, how can you start incorporating it into your life is just start asking yourself more questions – more quality questions and write them.
Questions like – How can I make this week better than last week? How can I make this event the best event that I’ve ever run? How can I be the best version of myself for people today? How can I show up differently?
Always be curious and ask questions and do your research.
3. Be Outstanding
Number three is to be outstanding.
When I first heard this concept of being outstanding, Tony Robbins was talking about it and when I was at his “Unleash the Power Within” event.
I thought that it was almost like better than excellence. I researched the word outstanding. The definition of it, it talks about being the best, you’re being almost a level above great, because good enough, is not good enough anymore with a competitive marketplace we have now.
We can’t just be great, and we can’t just be excellent. We’ve got to be outstanding.
When I heard that I thought, wow, I’m already working hard. I’m already trying to push excellence in working on improving. What else do I need to do?
But I realised it wasn’t about necessarily going up, but it was more going lateral.
How can I go laterally, to be different to stand out? If you’re not willing to stand out, which has an element of risk and has an element of fear. If you’re not willing to do that, you’re not going to make it as an entrepreneur.
Outstanding means you show up and you’d be visible consistently. Even if it’s not going to be perfect. Because you will never do a perfect Facebook Live video, I’ve never done one.
You’ll never do a perfect workshop; you’ll never do a perfect speech. It’s never finished. You never arrive. If you’re creative, if you are high-achiever, you never arrive.
But you can just keep showing up and standing out and be willing to have a voice, which is not always easy because you’re going to get judged. You’re going to get some doubters some haters.
The most successful people have the most people not liking them. If you see anyone that’s doing well, you’re going to see people that don’t like what they’re doing.
But if you want to be successful, you’ve got to be willing to be outstanding to stand out. And that means being truly authentically you.
You don’t have to go and change. You don’t have to go and do crazy stuff. You don’t have to do anything crazy. You just must just be yourself. Because if you’re being yourself, you’re being outstanding, but I mean truly being you.
That means showing up in your full authenticity, which can be tough. It’s vulnerable, especially in this world where we can Photoshop everything, where we can edit everything, to be willing to stand out by just being who you are.
It is one of the bravest things that you’ll ever do.
There was a study done of over 20,000 people who are extremely high performance. Through this study, they discovered that the most outstanding people are the ones who really understand who they are and perform out of their own authenticity.
A lot of people are trying to change themselves to be someone that they’re not.
You just must turn up. Be the best version of yourself. Meaning, you’re always curious, you’re always pushing the boundaries.
You’re committed. You’re always learning, you’re always trying your best.
And you’re willing to just keep showing up consistently.
Not easy, but it’s doable, and worth it.
Success Secrets of Successful Female Entrepreneurs
On Thursday, I’m running an event in the city called ‘Success Secrets of Successful Female Entrepreneurs’.
If you haven’t registered, it’s nearly full. Make sure that you register your space because we’re just about full up.
Learn More about Secrets Of Successful Female Entrepreneurs
How to Create Content that Connects
I also have a workshop on Saturday called How to Create Content that Connects. It’s all about how to write copy for your business and how to create consistent quality content through your blog, articles, workshops, webinars, and on video.
Learn More about How To Create Content That Connects
I’d love to see you at one of the live events soon!
And remember – be curious, be committed and be outstanding.
Kat xo
Leave a Reply