mindset

One of the coolest things about having a blog is that you can backtrack from your referral logs to see how people found you, and learn what phrase they may have typed into a search box which ended up pointing them your way.

This afternoon I clicked back to the results for “entrepreneurial mindset” that brought a reader to me via a Lycos search, and I found a book review at PowerHomeBiz.com for a new book called businessThink.

The review first gives the sobering statistics about failed small businesses in the U.S. to illustrate the need for a book like this on better “business think.”

“The core of the book is the 8 rules the authors propose to help cultivate in you a fundamentally new way of thinking, communicating and business decision-making. The authors present these rules to create a framework for cultivating this different thought process, giving you skills for thinking through decisions and day-to-day issues that your business faces.”

When I first read them through I thought they were pretty basic, but then I read them a second time reflecting back on coaching scenarios I do talk to entrepreneurs about fairly often. Just because they are business basics does not necessarily mean they are internalized in every business, and it’s good to read reminders like this occasionally so you take some time to ask yourself, Is this what I’m doing?

So the review is worth a look. In short form, these are the 8 Rules:

1. Check your ego at the door.
2. Create curiosity.
3. Move off the solution.
4. Get evidence.
5. Calculate the impact.
6. Explore the ripple effect.
7. Slow down for yellow lights.
8. Find the cause.

Read a bit more about each of these here.

In particular, I liked this about solutions:

“Remember, a solution is worthless unless and until it creates business value, prevents a problem or invents a new result the business needs. Otherwise, a solution is merely an event.”

This is just a book review, and I would imagine authors Dave Marcum, Steve Smith, and Mahan Khalsa of businessThink probe each of these eight things much more deeply, however I would throw out one caveat to small business owners before they take all of these to any extreme: Don’t be so overly cautious and study everything to death to the point that it slows you down. The innovative trend-setting entrepreneurs move quickly.

The most successful business owners today will learn these eight things (and more), but in the end they’ll trust their instincts and are brave enough to go for it. What they do is LEARN – TRY – TEST – MEASURE – LEARN MORE – TRY AGAIN, or as a friend of mine likes to say, “All day long I Rinse and Repeat.”

In case you’re wondering, my article on The Entrepreneurial Mindset was about something a bit different: I didn’t define it as the authors of businessThink have attempted to.

At the time of that writing I had been encouraged and very energized by the realization a young group of students studying entrepreneurship are coming away with, and that is this: Everyone in business today needs to have an entrepreneurial mindset, whether they actually think of themselves as entrepreneurs or not. You can read more of what I wrote here.

Another twist to this topic of entrepreneurship: Anita Campbell posted this observation at Small Business Trends two days ago:
The On-Again Off-Again Entrepreneur.

Things have sure changed, for this phenomenon that Anita is writing about is something I actually find myself recommending to people more and more often, including my own daughter.

“A trend I am seeing increasingly is what I dub the “on-again off-again entrepreneur.”

The on-again off-again entrepreneur is someone who moves back and forth between being employed and owning his or her own business — multiple times.

It’s not an either/or question: either being an entrepreneur your whole life, or being employed your whole life. More frequently these days, people are doing both at various times, moving in and out of entrepreneurship as the exigencies of earning a living force their hands.” Read the rest of Anita’s article here.

It’s a fascinating topic, and I was happy to read Anita say she intends to write more about it.

If you have more ideas on what the entrepreneurial mindset can be defined as in today’s market, I’d really love to hear them. Please do share your thoughts with us here ” let’s talk story about this.

Tag: Entrepreneurial Mindset

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking to the Hogan Entrepreneurs, a group of young men and women at Chaminade University. This semester, they had been assigned my book, Managing with Aloha, as part of their coursework. Who are the Hogan Entrepreneurs?

“The Hogan Entrepreneurial Program prepares highly motivated students for entrepreneurial careers in business, government, and non-profit organizations. This interdisciplinary preparation builds their capacity to innovate, their willingness to take risk, and their sensitivity to the social significance of their business activities.”

You can read more about the program here.

I love talking to young people who want to explore the world of business, because I believe youth and business are good for each other. This time my talk had been customized especially for them –I was ready to talk about how the MWA values align with the entrepreneurial mindset.

However after looking into the young faces waiting expectantly for me to begin, I decided to wing it. Perhaps I was being selfish, but I could not resist the opportunity to let them lead me to what they wanted to talk about, and I was glad I did. This was not to be my normal “presentation.” It became a solid two hours of Q&A because “inquiring minds want to know.”

However this was the curious thing: they had a lot of questions for me, but not on the one topic I expected to talk about: entrepreneurship. I finally brought it up myself, to then learn that barely a third of those in the room expected to one day go into business for themselves, and be the entrepreneur. So what were they doing in a class called the Hogan Entrepreneurs?

These bright young minds, preparing themselves to enter business, understand something most people already in the work world need to realize: Everyone today needs to approach their job with an “entrepreneurial mindset,” —even if they aren’t the one recognized in the business as the entrepreneur who had the big business idea and got the ball rolling.

Think about it. Even if you are working for someone else, you need to think like, and behave like, an entrepreneur to achieve the greatness you are capable of.

The young men and women in that classroom fully expect they will have to “pay some dues” before they are taken seriously. If you are the one lucky enough to see their potential and hire them, take them seriously now. You’ll enjoy witnessing their entrepreneurial mindset just as much as I did.