EE 002: Your Mindset IS Your Business
Your mindset is a complex living organism (of sorts), in and of itself. It is malleable, tweakable, and completely do-over-able. Or you can lock it in for the most part through the strategy I’ll share along the way through the EXECUpreneur’s EDGE podcast.
Who you are, what you think, your personal habits, your attitude, your thoughts and your beliefs will determine the results you get. Regardless of what you do for a living. Developing an EXECUpreneurial mindset is one of the best things you can do to stack the deck in favor of success, in all aspects of life.
You see, EXECUpreneurs are a unique bunch.
They don’t follow the crowd. They’re the ones forging a new path. Overall, their lives are very rewarding as a result. This type of mindset helps you to challenge yourself to recognize, overcome, and change what isn’t working in your life. In any, and all, of its multitude of facets.
As an EXECUpreneur, you have to quickly come to the understanding that your mindset IS your business.
It represents the path you’ll take and how quickly you’ll achieve success. The EXECUpreneurial mindset begins with your excitement about the success that is still to come. It is future-based. Successful EXECUpreneurs can see the opportunity put before them and spend hours visualizing the success they will achieve and how it will feel when it becomes their reality. They have the ability to make it feel real. This isn’t a skill they’re necessarily born with, it is something they work at. It’s what fuels the fire. Without it, the motivation for any EXECUpreneurial venture will quickly fade.
Many people believe that a successful business relies solely on the business model. However, there is much more to it than this. To truly find success as an EXECUpreneur, you have to develop an EXECUpreneurial mindset.
So, what does having an EXECUpreneurial mindset entail?
The Spirit of an EXECUpreneur
When you envision an EXECUpreneur, you probably think of a hard-working individual, who is smart and knows how to network. Someone who is creative and is able to take calculated risks. They might have outstanding leadership skills and other qualities that make them successful.
While these qualities are integral parts of every EXECUpreneur, not all successful EXECUpreneurs have these qualities in abundance. The fact of the matter is that there are EXECUpreneurs who will lack some qualities altogether, while having a wealth of others.
So, what is the commonality between all EXECUpreneurs; what is the one thing that all EXECUpreneurs possess?
They have one over-riding common trait. They have embraced the EXECUpreneurial Spirit. This means they are unable to accept the status quo. Deep down, successful EXECUpreneurs are rebels. They are rebels who are unwilling to conform to standards set by others. They push themselves past these set boundaries. It is this spirit that allows them to face a plethora of problems and see the solutions and opportunities presented. It is the same spirit that allows them to rise above the fear of failure and overcome doubts. It allows them to improvise, innovate, invent, and create new paths and businesses, where none previously existed. The EXECUpreneurial Spirit is the undying belief in one’s own ability. It is the resolute belief that we all have a role to play in shaping society through the creation of business solutions for some of life’s most common problems.
Most of the qualities that EXECUpreneurs possess are a manifestation of the EXECUpreneurial Spirit. When faced with a problem, EXECUpreneurs will exercise resourcefulness. When faced with a situation that they can’t immediately control, a successful EXECUpreneur always perseveres.
As a budding EXECUpreneur, one thing that you must understand is that the EXECUpreneurial Spirit transcends business.
How to Nurture Your EXECUpreneurial Spirit
If you are continually looking at the world around you and seeing it the way you want it to be, rather than how it is, this is your EXECUpreneurial Spirit waiting to be unleashed. This is because at the core of the EXECUpreneurial Spirit is the ability to wonder what’s possible.
The EXECUpreneurial Spirit is usually boiled down to the six P’s: Passion, Path, Positivity, People, Perseverance, and Productivity. I’m not a fan of the word passion in this context. Passion is fleeting. Ask anyone who has been “in love”…now, I’m not dissing the lovebirds, I’m merely pointing to the fact that passion comes and goes. I prefer curiosity over passion. So, I’ll dive into the five P’s with a C.
Curiosity (in lieu of Passion)
Passion is the fire that drives you. It is why you want to become an EXECUpreneur. It is what gives you the motivation to engage in whatever venture you wish to participate. It is the need that you have to make a difference in the world around you. But it won’t see you through the obstacles that lie in wait at any given moment of a day in the life of an EXECUpreneur.
Here’s where curiosity steps in. As you set out on your EXECUpreneurial journey, you need to take the time to figure out what you are genuinely curious about. When you tie your curiosity to a business idea, it will help to fuel your drive to succeed. Without curiosity, I will venture to say, you will never find real EXECUpreneurial success or freedom.
The idea behind every successful business is the need to solve a problem. By tying your curiosity to that problem, you will stack the deck in favor of EXECUpreneurial success.
Path
While it is your curiosity that motivates you, a path provides the roadmap for actualizing your business idea. This is critical. If you bounce from shiny object to shiny object, you’ll crash and burn. A written path (business / marketing plan and supporting milestones or goals) will ensure that when you run into challenges and experience setbacks, you will persevere.
When you have a path to follow, and you follow it, you will be able to attain the success you desire. A clear path allows you to take impactful action and be productive. This is where a mentor is invaluable.
Business success doesn’t come easy. When you have a roadmap, taking action is more natural. This results in being able to achieve business success with greater ease. Your path should detail all the things that you need to do to manifest business success. Channel your inner detail diva (or dude), or have a partner who is adept at the details stuff.
Like a strong “Why”, this is not optional.
Positivity
Positivity touches and influences everything we do in business, as well as life. If you establish a company then anticipate, expect even, for it to fail, you’ve ultimately created a self-fulfilling prophecy. There’s a lot of science behind this, but it boils down to attracting what you manifest through your thoughts. If the views about your business are negative, you will see negative growth as a result.
Practicing the power of positivity, especially when you face challenges and setbacks, will permeate every aspect of your business. Your positive thoughts will help you find innovative solutions to even the most demanding of problems.
People
To be a successful EXECUpreneur, you have to look for and build strong networks. Your success as an EXECUpreneur hinges on your ability to connect and interact with people. This includes suppliers, employees, business colleagues, mentors, and other people around you. Without a support system, your passion for your business will falter, along with your motivation to implement the steps on your path. Curiosity will outlive passion, but unless it is fed, it too will wane. Your support system will help keep you motivated, cheer you on during difficult times, celebrate the good stuff, hold you accountable, and mentor you. This will help make your journey to EXECUpreneurial success worthwhile.
Throughout your EXECUpreneurial journey, you need to build a robust support system that consists of more than your employees and immediate family. You need to learn how to become a proficient networker and understand the importance of attending social networking events, along with connecting online. Networking like a pro takes a ton of practice, but given enough time you can become a networking star and build a strong group of connections for your business success.
Perseverance
EXECUpreneurs who are successful, got that way because they have never given up on their dreams. The very nature of an EXECUpreneur is not complementary to the spirit of giving up or giving in. If you lack the ability to stare hardships in the face and shrug off challenges you encounter, you will never achieve business success because hard work and perseverance are what it takes to be successful.
Your business success hinges on your ability to look failure in the face and find the courage to trudge forward until you’ve accomplished your goals. This requires you to increase your grit and perseverance.
Productivity
The one thing that will determine how fast or how slow you achieve business success, is your ability to use your time well. If rather than working on the steps outlined in your path, you aimlessly scroll your social media feeds, watch videos on YouTube, or spend your day surfing the web, it will take years to achieve success as an EXECUpreneur…if you ever even get there.
Achieving success as an EXECUpreneur takes a lot of hard work. The hard work that you do has to be laser-focused because if you lack focus, achieving success will take longer. And you’ll more than likely spin your wheels for a very long time. You have to focus on completing one task at a time, along with minimizing distractions and procrastination.
When you foster these 6 EXECUpreneurial behaviors, you will begin to see business opportunities everywhere around you. More importantly, you’ll be able to capitalize on these opportunities because you will be in the right mindset. The EXECUpreneur’s EDGE will prepare you to take advantage of these opportunities when the timing is right.