What is an entrepreneurial mindset?

An entrepreneurial mindset means focusing on how you can make things better instead of being satisfied with how they already are. It means having confidence in your ability to figure things out, especially when you're not sure how you're going to solve a problem. It means being ready both physically and mentally to take action when the opportunity comes knocking. An entrepreneurial mindset involves focusing on what you can control, taking accountability, a growth mindset, intrinsic drive, and resilience.

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What exactly is an entrepreneurial mindset? It's the ability to think and act creatively, embrace change, and be comfortable with uncertainty. Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business. It's about applying an entrepreneurial approach to everything you do, whether it's your job, your side hustle, or volunteer work.

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The idea of thinking like an entrepreneur is linked directly to the idea of being innovative and growth-oriented. If you want an edge in any field (including your career), then you'll want to develop a level of creativity that allows you to stand out from the crowd. Creative thinking helps you find new ways of approaching old problems and come up with new solutions for them—which is essential in today's competitive landscape. The following are what makes up an entrepreneurial mindset:

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High self-efficacy

A lot of what it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset comes down to how you think about yourself and your capabilities. A person with an entrepreneurial mindset has high self-efficacy—they believe they can achieve things that might seem impossible to others. They often work very hard, sometimes harder than others would expect from them. They display a certain level of creativity and resourcefulness and often have a good amount of grit and perseverance.

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To anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset, obstacles are opportunities for growth and learning. True entrepreneurs also embrace change and enjoy working under pressure to find solutions; they're comfortable navigating ambiguity and uncertainty. They're willing to take risks, but they're careful not to risk too much in any one venture; they understand their strengths and weaknesses and know when their ideas are likely to succeed or fail.

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Taking accountability

One of the most important parts of being an entrepreneur is taking accountability for yourself and your actions. It's a state of mind that lets you approach problems creatively and take ownership of the decisions you make. Entrepreneurs take accountability for their own lives, and they make their own opportunities—they're responsible for whatever happens to them, whether good or bad.

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These are all things that anyone can do in any situation, but entrepreneurs do these things better than anyone else because they're always looking at themselves critically and asking themselves what more they could be doing to ensure their success. Entrepreneurs are proactive about their futures. They don't passively wait for something good to happen; they go out there and make it happen for themselves.

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Having a growth mindset

Having an entrepreneurial mindset means having a growth mindset. It means believing in yourself and knowing that you, as a human being, are capable of growing. You're capable of learning new things, overcoming obstacles, and succeeding at anything you put your mind to.

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When things go wrong, you learn something and keep going. When things go right, you use it as a stepping stone to your next accomplishment. You try to turn every experience into an opportunity for personal growth. And above all else, you are always striving to do better than yesterday and reach higher than what's comfortable.

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Intrinsic motivation and drive

In his book Drive, author Daniel Pink talks at great length about an idea he calls intrinsic motivation. He says that our brains have two main reasons for doing anything –we do things because we want to, and we do things because we have to. The word 'intrinsic' means something that comes from within—it's not something that can be taken away from us or given to us, but is instead a part of who we are.

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In this case, Pink is talking about the fact that some activities give us pleasure just by doing them. We experience a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction in the process of working towards having completed a goal. Drawing from the growth mindset in entrepreneurs, their choice to work hard and strive for growth then goes beyond extrinsic motivators such as money or prestige—most of the time, it is because they love doing what they do and draw motivation from their accomplishments and personal advocacies.

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Resilience

In the context of entrepreneurship, it’s the thing that keeps you believing in your idea when everyone around you thinks you’re crazy and holds you back from taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. It’s what gives you the strength to stand up for your idea when everyone else wants to go with the safe option—it’s what allows you to keep going even when everything seems like it’s falling apart.

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Resilience—or the ability to overcome failure or setbacks—is a crucial skill for entrepreneurs because of all the hurdles they encounter. For example, if an initial idea fails to take off, an entrepreneur needs to be able to regroup and try something else until he or she finds something that works.

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An entrepreneurial mindset encourages people to take chances and challenge the status quo. It challenges the norms of the world around us, pushes boundaries, and makes a way out of no way. If you would  want to start to develop this within yourself, refer back to what each concept means. You can start by choosing the one that you struggle with the most.

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For instance, it is developing high self-efficacy since you are overwhelmed with limiting beliefs. You can begin by looking back on your past successes—even the small wins. Reflect on the approach you did to get there and try to remember the challenges you faced. This is important to keep note of and to remind yourself. Moving forward, you can then practice setting daily goals for yourself. They can be the simplest things such as taking 30 minutes to read a book every day and so on. Barreling through these goals can be a good exercise to increase your belief that you can do and accomplish things.

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