Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset?

In this article, I hope I will be able to help you cultivate an Entrepreneurial Mindset, Help You develop an ability to pick and lead people in such a way that they will do things they did not think they could do. This is what defines the quality of a great business leader.

To help you develop this attitude I would like to emphasize several important factors. First, you must train yourself to be imaginative. You must look beyond to see objects which you can improve. To do this, you have to realize the needs for which the object is made. In other words, you have to determine the functional requirements of the object- learn to think about how it was made, why it was made, who is going to use it, and how it is going to be used. Then on the basis of these functional requirements try to see how you could make the object better in a different form and with different process/material. Be critical of what you see but do not stop at criticism. Attempt to improve.

Next you must be able to get correct information. I do not expect you to know many specific facts but I will insist that you must have enough general information to stay abreast of new business developments. You must have this technique of staying informed in order to be a entrepreneur. In order to develop it you have to start now determining methods of finding out what is going on in the world and who is getting things done in the world.

You have to find out who you can rely upon for correct facts. And when you need to know something next year it may be too late to get the background information you need. The most critical part of running the business is to be aware of the world around you, if you have been aware of the world around you, then you will be able to meet new problems as they come along.

Finally, you must be able to prepare yourself for crisis. The shoe-shine operator on bus stand can operate his business without taking into account a multitude of factors that might lead to disaster. He has a simple business with few problems. Raw materials and advertising do not worry him much. But for all the rest of us in business we must expect a continuation of crises. You cannot face these successfully until you have the imagination and the right information beforehand to prepare yourself. However, on the threshold of the crises it takes courage, stamina and fortitude in order to be successful.

You must decide now whether or not you have these qualities essential to the make-up of a good startup founder. It takes a lot of hard work and a tough minded individual to produce daring startups, but if you have these qualities and the determination to do well, if you will not be soft in the face of trial, if you will never be halfhearted and will never shirk your duty, then you will have the privilege of the greatest profession I know: Converting dream into useful, beautiful, helpful products.

This takes some of the greatest qualities man possesses, but it also pays high return in creative satisfaction.