Let’s say you want to leave the 9-to-5 to strike out and start a business of your own. You can take your business to the next level by transitioning from employee to entrepreneurial mindset. This will empower you for the journey if you are able to adopt the entrepreneurial mindset. To think like a business owner who is able to enter a marketplace and dominate that space with authority, strength, and honor.
Responsibility
Entrepreneurs take full responsibility for everything. They take command for the entire operation, the research and development, watching competitors and the marketplace, making decisions quickly about trying something new, and taking full responsibility for the results, whether they are incredibly profitable or a total flop. The most successful entrepreneurs don’t wait to see what competitors are doing, they are striking out ahead of the curve. If they have tried something new and it is successful, they are not counting their chickens before the eggs have hatched. They know that success is cyclical, and a new emerging trend may be short-lived, so they are constantly on the lookout for the next innovation. They set the trend(s).
Visionary
Being able to be aware and visualize the potential areas of exploration and success leads to forward-thinking expansion. To use your imagination to see and feel a potential outcome in all of its glory, and then to be able to virtually reverse engineer the roadmap necessary to achieve those wild results while anticipating obstacles and challenges that may be encountered along the way. In this way, you can be prepared (more prepared than not) to deal with challenges as they show up along the way.
Outside the Box
A huge difference between employees and entrepreneurs is “the box.” As employees, you are encouraged to perform your work within the parameters of the box, the well-defined boundaries within which you are authorized to perform your business-related thoughts and job duties. Entrepreneurs are intimidated by the box and reject its existence altogether. They are constantly looking for opportunities well-outside the box. This is where all the best new ideas, advances, opportunities, and expansive growth is found, outside the box.
Note: Outside the box is not a comfortable place to be. Many people fear the area outside the box. Your friends and supporters will try to talk you out of going there as it is perceived to be unacceptable and potentially dangerous. Yet, this is where are the best-untapped resources can be found. So, it takes courage, strength, a contrarian attitude, and explorative nature to venture outside the box.
Constant Improvement
Successful businesses are not stagnant. One of my early mentors, Tony Robbins, expresses this in his mantra for continued growth and expansion as his drive for CANI, “Constant And Never-ending Improvement” (Kaizen philosophy). As a record-breaking trendsetting entrepreneur, you have to be constantly on the lookout for what is on the horizon, growing and expanding your skillet, and those skills that are outside your calling or comfort zone, you add someone to your team that has (and loves) them. It’s up to you to know what is needed and to make sure you have this covered, in-house, or outsourced.
Attention to Detail
Entrepreneurs watch all the intimate details of profit and loss and learn from every fluctuation along the journey. Employees cannot be bothered with such details, after all, all they want is to perform their designated tasks in exchange for their paycheck. To them, that is all there is to it. But to you, it can be a matter of life and death. This is your business, based on your investment(s) and the sacrifices that you make. Be ready to be struggling to find answers and to be sweating the details while your employees could care less. And whatever you do, avoid trying to shift the weight of these details onto your staff. This only leads to deteriorating your employee’s lack of confidence in you and your business. Incentivize them to do better, but do not pressure or blame them when things are troubling you.
Know the Difference
As the entrepreneur, you are the one who will experience sleepless nights and put those extra hours in late at night and on the weekends, while your employees are happily taking your pay for putting in their minimum effort without a care of what goes on behind the scenes, all of your hard work and extra efforts just to keep your operation afloat. This is the difference. Know the difference and honor it. Keep an eye on yourself as well. Business owners who fall into the complacency of only putting in their eight hours a day and little or no effort beyond that are not entrepreneurs, they are employees, and their businesses will not likely experience expansive growth.
Today, one out of ten employees are transitioning into the role of business owner. By adopting an entrepreneurial mindset, you can achieve your highest and best in the marketplace, live a better life, your best life, and make the world a better place.