An Entrepreneurial Mindset - Part II of II) - How to get it?

Hello all. Welcome back.  You could be anywhere in the world, but you're hear reading this right now. I appreciate that... (I always wanted to say that,..shout out to Jigga man).  Last week, we discussed the entrepreneurial mindset.  We defined it and discussed why it's important to have if you desire is to see ultimate success for your life. The increased success you would see at work, the increased flexibility for your future, and the fact that it only takes one idea to be a hit were the main reasons of choice. This week, let's dive into the HOW TO DO IT of the series by discussing some simple ways of thinking that will create a paradigm shift that will help you get there.  While most people would like some kinetic-related task to get them there, often the change that has to take place in an individual before any physical action is more in the way this person thinks, as opposed to what they do. As it seems most life-changing ideas are, they are simple but not always easy to do.

SPEND MORE TIME "THINKING"

Thinking is put in parentheses because you have to understand what true thinking is. In the automated lives in which we live today, very few of us go through the day and actually do much of this.  Due to the fact we have become routine at doing various task, i.e. working out, doing our day job, spending time with our significant other, we often don't think through the task as we do it to understand why we are doing something and if we can do it even better. When you are an entrepreneur, you are always looking for an angle. Generally, every business is focused on doing two things to be more profitable - either make more money or save more money in some capacity. When you are an entrepreneur, you are constantly thinking about everything you do to analyze if it is the best way to do it. You are asking the question, "Is there a more efficient way that you're missing that could be a better use of your time?"  Are there opportunities in the market that you are missing that could be that huge "eureka" moment for your company that could take you to becoming the next Google?  Because an entrepreneur's business and ultimate success is based on their ideas, they find themselves constantly thinking about these types of things.  When you do this in life, you will find yourself consistently identifying ways that you could improve the quality of your life by stopping some things, doing more of others, and changing the way you do some.  As I shared in the post about iterative career planning, good entrepreneurs are consistently assessing and reassessing how they approach something and identifying how they can make it better.  In life, having this type of mindset to assess how much sense something makes versus what could be a better use of your time will be HUGE in you differentiating yourself from the "majority" - who just don't do this every day, if ever.

DON'T ACCEPT THE STATUS QUO

Often entrepreneurs are known as innovators, pioneers, harbingers of the future. The reason many of them get this title is because they don't accept the status quo that already exist in the world. They are always looking for a different and better way to do something. They are always asking "why" and "why not" when problems arise. They are always looking at things from a different lenses to identify the angle or truth that no ones has yet been able to identify, yet it's been sitting there the entire time. It's this inquisitive and curious type of approach to life that keeps these "thinkers" thinking and looking for ways to push the envelope.  Most people are familiar with the sheep and herd mentality.  Most people get their beliefs based on societal norms and what has been generally accepted as the "way" to do something.  Very few people stop to think why are these things accepted as truths and why doesn't someone challenge these assumptions. When individuals just blindly accept the status quo without questioning why, they could be missing out on millions of opportunities to improve on a process or a way of thinking that could improve their lives and the lives of others. In relation to your job, by being the person who consistently is thinking about ways to improve the business, you will quickly become known as a person who thinks of way to make things better, rather than complaining about everything - someone who is worth her/his weight in gold in any organization.

TAKE OWNERSHIP OF MORE

The last mind shift in the entrepreneurial mind set is focused on two different ways of taking ownership. The first part is derived directly from the word ownership: OWN more at your job and in your life.  Entrepreneurs generally are the CEO, CFO, and COO all wrapped into one. For this reason, she/he is involved in everything and feels a sense of ownership in everything related to the business.  While no one has the time or capacity to take on everything at their job, someone with an entrepreneurial mindset doesn't just recognize there are problems at their job and think it's someone else's responsibility to fix it. They are coming up with ideas and suggestions to fix the most pressing problems for the company, rather if it's in their job description or not.  As alluded to in the previous paragraph, this type of person is often the minority in any company and will see their stock rise with companies who recognize and appreciate this.  The second part of taking ownership of more is related to holding yourself more accountable and taking responsibility for the outcomes in certain situations.  Often, when something doesn't work out, most people are quick to point the finger at others and say what they did or did not do. Entrepreneurs know, however, that the buck stops with them and regardless of what someone else did, they are ultimately responsible. This type of thinking creates a more proactive and helpful mindset of how to improve and prevent negative things from occurring in the future, as opposed to just moping about one's bad luck or how terrible someone else is.  This one single trait is often what separates the victors from the victims.

Entrepreneurs.  They seem to have it all.  Confidence. Success. Money.  And while we see the exterior of how great these individuals appear in their day to day life, what we don't see is the way in which they think and how they approach life that explains how they have been able to accomplish so much and continue to inspire us with their achievements.  For you to see some of the success many of these great people have had, however, you don't need to move to Silicon Valley and start your own start-up tomorrow.  You can simply implement three small simple ways of changing the way you look at things and approach life to begin to have a chance at this type of life yourself.  And while you may have no desire to ever be a CEO and run your own company, if you implement this thinking into your everyday life, you'll still become the true Bruce Springsteen, or the "boss," of your own life.

Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN