Think Like a Boss: Developing the Mindset of a Successful Entrepreneur
I bet if you’re reading this, I can guess a few things about you.
I bet you’re feeling stuck in the current position you find yourself in life. Maybe it’s work-related, maybe it’s more big-picture (like your relationships, time-off, fulfillment in your work, etc.)
I bet you’re either thinking about starting a new business or you have recently and have hit your first “growth-wall” in terms of sales, revenue, or customers.
I bet you’re fighting to have faith in what you’re doing right now. Maybe you did a quick Google search to find some inspiration to keep going. Hopefully, you’ve come to the right post ;)
I’ve worked in management for a long time, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way, is that the way you think about your work can have an incredible effect on the quality and quantity of work you’re able to accomplish. And to be an entrepreneur takes a special mindset that you have to create for yourself in order to be successful.
I wanted to highlight a few things to consider about the entrepreneur mindset that were helpful to me as I started this business, and hopefully it inspires you to rethink how you view your own role in your organization.
Introduction: Shattering 3 Myths & Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Let me quickly take you a trip to the past about 6 months ago.
My wife and I were sitting at our kitchen table going over our finances. Not great, not terrible. We had been getting by for about a year and a half since we had our baby. Kayla hadn’t gone back to work so she could stay home with our kiddo, and because of that, had lost half our income…
They say diamonds are a product of pressure and time, but I’d argue that a lot of times some great ideas come out of pressure and the lack of time. We wanted to change our lifestyle and live more sustainably.
Basically, I needed to make more money and also create a better work-life balance.
Okay, I thought to myself. Those two things normally don’t work together at the same time. But what would it look like if it did?
I quickly headed to my favorite used-book store and bought a copy of any entrepreneur, time management, and marketing books I could get my hands on. I read them quickly, underlining and highlighting anything I thought might be useful. I read books about Gino Wickman’s EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), Michael E. Gerber’s Entrepreneurial Myth System, Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus System and started to realize that there was one significant overlap in all three of their models for business.
The fam after we decided to start the Good Today Co. There’s nothing like a neighborhood walk to decide to start a business.
The overlap was this: Being successful doesn’t require you to be a once-a-generation business wizard, it usually just takes an focused-effort of intentional planning for it to succeed. Have a successful and thriving business doesn’t mean that your life has to be all-consumed by work. If done right, it can be the opportunity everyone wants to experience: A life where your passions are aligned with your work, and your time is dispersed to include all of the things that mean the most to you.
Myth # 1: The Entrepreneur’s Life has to be consumed by the Work.
No doubt, starting a business from scratch is no easy task. There’s an ENORMOUS amount of work that must go into it, and realistically, a lot of that work is done in areas you are not going to be proficient in.
Take me for example, I have a history in management, graphic design, website building, and social media marketing. Those are key tools that can and should be utilized in the creation of the Good Today Co. But, when it cames to accounting, finances, and product development, I quickly found myself getting stuck in the mud.
“There’s a risk that, in an effort to launch a business, side-hustle, or passion project, if we try to shoulder the burden of every role on ourselves, we’ll not only be crushed by the weight of those responsibilities, but we’ll lose the vision and excellence that we’re trying to pursue.”
The solution? Learn how to either delegate or minimize your weakness so that you can stay focused on what you’re passionate about. Cultivate a passion for problem-solving.
I realized that, with my limited time to actually work, I needed to maximize the effectiveness of my time. That looked like me asking some accounting friends to look over my books and make sure that I’m getting started right.
When it came to deciding which project to prioritize, I created a group text of people I’m friends with (who also fit the "ideal customer” I was trying to reach with my products), and sending them ideas for feedback. I think that this group text has saved me countless hours as I tried to get things started.
This pivot freed up a ton of time for me. It helped me to balance the load of the entrepreneurial start-up experience and was very beneficial.
I’ve talked in past articles about my workflow for the GTC. I have roughly 10-14 hours each work-week I dedicated to this website, and have learned some useful tips and tricks along the way to make sure I’m using this time as effectively as I can.
If you’re hustling like me and trying to get some traction on your current project, I highly recommend you outsourcing the problem points to people who either:
Know what they’re talking about and could crush those tasks in half the time it would take for you to do it or
Find some skilled friends who “buy-in” to the idea of your success, and get them to help share the load.
This takes a lot of trial and error. You’ll get told no from your buddies. You’ll realize that some of the things you’re trying to do just aren’t very good ideas. You’ll be faced with the hard truth that entrepreneurship is challenging. There will be nights when you’re discouraged about where you’re at. Which leads us to Myth #2.
Myth # 2: The Entrepreneur should avoid failure and risk.
After a month of website building, social media creation, and blog writing, I realized I had barely made any progress in terms of getting found online. It sucked. I expected insta-success, and found that I must not have been gifted with the once-in-a-generation genes of business success. It was hard for me to believe that all that hard work had been for (what felt at the time like) nothing. It felt like I was failing.
I admit this to encourage you. Because, six months down the road, I realize that this time taught me two things.
It taught me, most of the time, failure isn’t really failure. Failure is a teaching opportunity. It shows you what you did right and what you did wrong. It teaches you skills that will benefit you in the future. Learn to embrace failure as a stepping stone.
It taught me that failure teaching your a unique perseverance that you’ll carry with you for the rest of your life. Even if your business never succeeds, the experience of your efforts will benefit you no matter what you do.
The question when it comes to entrepreneurship is not if you will fail, but when. You will have bad ideas that get no support. You’ll make a product with a glaring issue. You’ll run into logistical problems. You will!
So know that, and give yourself some grace. Learn from those issues as they come and grow from them.
It’s impossible to wake up one day and just become the person that you’ve always dreamed you would become, but it is very possible to make slow, methodical progress each day so that, when you stop and look back at your life, you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come.
So try new ideas. Take risks. Don’t be too afraid to fail that you’re unwilling to succeed.
Myth # 3: The Entrepreneur can’t slow down.
Fast-forward back to the present: six months into the Good Today Co. journey. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve failed a lot. And i’m sure I’ve just found the tip of the iceberg in terms of growth and development.
I think I’ve been at this long enough to see that there’s really a crossroads always looming ahead in terms of what the next step as a boss should look like.
On one side is a road that is filled with urgency, stress, and concern. It is dominated by the feeling that “I’m not doing enough, I’m not executing well enough, or I’m not being profitable enough. This road leads you down the path of being reactionary (“What sells the best? Okay, we’ll just do that). It might be good for the short-term, but it isn’t sustainable or wise.
The other path is one where you, as the boss of your entrepreneurial effort, has to take on the burden of vision-casting.
It’s easy in the day-to-day grind of entrepreneurship to forget what you’re trying to accomplish and get lost in the weeds. That’s why a boss must cultivate a visionary mindset. This includes things like:
Thinking Big: Setting Ambitious Goals: It’s crucial to set achievable goals to propel your business forward.
On a piece of paper: Write down a list of goals for the next 6-12 months AND a list of goals for the next 2-3 years.
Look over the list and circle the most important goal from each list (2 goals total).
Make these be the “north-star” of your organization. Use those goals to keep you on track and heading in the right direction.
Visualize Where You : Visualizing success is great for motivation and focus. Remember that what you’re working on today isn’t futile. You’re trying to build a life for yourself that will benefit you for years to come.
Learn from the past: There’s a lot of value in learning from successful entrepreneurs and seeking mentor. Like i said earlier, I read what felt like a million books to prep for this business, and I continue to cultivate time each week to read a broad-range of material to help me continue to learn and grow.
Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit: Think Big, Move Intentionally, Reflect Often
If you’re in the entrepreneur game, I encourage you to recognize that you probably have already done a lot of things that are worthy of feeling good about. Enjoy those moments.
I think the key to being an effective boss comes down to three major categories: Thinking big, moving intentionally, and reflecting often.
Thinking Big : You can’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. You are that person. You have to be the one who’s making those hard choices (again, don’t forget that you’re going to mess up. Be ready to learn from it). Take time to be strategic about the direction you’re trying to move in. This will save you tons of wasted time and help you stay focused on the future.
Moving Intentionally : You have to be decisive in what you invest your time into. You can’t be distracted or scattered in your work. Figure out what’s most important and go after that with all you got.
Reflecting Often : Don’t forget that one of your most valuable tools are the experiences you’ve had in life. Prioritize looking back at what you’ve learned, what takeaways you’ve figure out from your success, and what potential opportunities come your way because of what you’ve done in the past.
I think if you’re able to do these three things, it will unlock a new level of leadership and success for you in wahtever you’re trying to accomplish. If you can do this, I believe that you can be the boss.
