Mike Thatcher — February 28, 2017 Follow @jobrack1What’s your reason for wanting to become an entrepreneur? Have you even bothered to identify your key reasons for wanting to escape the J.O.B. grind?
Mine was to escape the laborious 9-5 I had been raised to strive for my entire life.
Or at least to enjoy the freedom of being in charge of my own destiny. Wouldn’t life be grand if such a dream were to come true?
However, like so many things in life, entrepreneurship has more to do with your mentality; the thoughts that run through your head most often, than any other factors.
To be a successful entrepreneur, you first need to get your head right and stop believing that the following 5 beliefs will always get you where you want to go:
1. Success is all about the hustle.
Hammering away 24/7 is the key to the American dream, according to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He makes hustle-related posts about it on Instagram at least once a week.
So is hustling or “clanging and banging” as he puts it, all that’s needed to become your own version of a successful entrepreneur?
Nope!
You’ve got to maximize the time you’re using, so you can get important things done while your mind is fresh full of brilliant, actionable ideas.
Otherwise, everyone who hustles endlessly with no clear direction ends up burning out at some point.
2. Do what the greats have done and I’ll get there too.
How much money do you have?
President Donald Trump got immediate fame from doing mega real estate developments early in his career.
He also came from a rich family, who sent him to Wharton, and handed him their real estate and construction business, The Trump Organization (then “Elizabeth Trump & Son”).
It’s unlikely you can follow his exact path, though you can strive to emulate his traits to the best of your own abilities.
You have to ask yourself the hard questions when formulating your plan for taking the business world by storm.
There’s no question you can learn plenty of things along the journey. But what are you capable of now, or in the future?
You can’t follow the path of the greats, unless your personality and circumstances are exactly the same as theirs.
3. It’s all about who you know.
At this point, it probably seems like I’m bashing every entrepreneurial success mantra ever uttered. I’m really not, you have to hustle.
You need to try to emulate the greats in whatever ways you’re capable. And, who you know is very important in business and life in general.
It’s just not all about who you know like many people will tell you.
You have to produce something that people want, personalize the way you present it, and have a personality which influences other professionals to help you.
The “you” in “who you know” is just as important as the “who”!
4. If it doesn’t feel like a job, you’ll never work again a day in your life.
Oh sure. If you thoroughly love what you’re doing, you’ll never ever find yourself dying to jump in the car and go for a midday round of golf instead of scanning those endlessly boring sales reports!
The worse thing about believing that which truly satisfies will never feel like effort (ie., work) is that it leads us down the path to trying to create a business that runs effortlessly, without the need for our input or management.
Unless you’ve been in business, successfully, for 10 years or more, you’re not getting off that easily. Work is work. Whether you feel good or bad doing it is all up to you.
But don’t think you’re going to be pulling off a 4-Hour Workweek anytime soon.
5. Once I get some money, I can grow any business.
This mistaken belief is the bane of many entrepreneurs who’ve failed in what many of us have called the Golden Age of Entrepreneurship. The thinking here is that all your startup worries will be gone once you secure a low-interest loan from the bank, or find some wealthy angel to hand over their investor money.
The thinking here is that all your startup worries will be gone once you secure a low-interest loan from the bank, or find some wealthy angel to hand over their investor money.
The reality is that while money will always be one of your biggest business worries, no amount is going to save a poorly planned and executed business venture.
If you don’t understand your customers and if you don’t have great mentors to learn from, money (or lack thereof) is the least of your worries at this point.
If you don’t understand your customers and if you don’t have great mentors to learn from, money (or lack thereof) is the least of your worries at this point.
Takeaway
The thoughts that go through your head day in, day out, can either propel you to your version of entrepreneurial greatness, or sink you like an ocean liner lost in the middle of the iceberg-riddled Greenland Sea.
“Soon my ship of thought is sinking, slipping through the thinking knot.” Meat Puppets
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