3 Tips Designed to Help Unlock the Entrepreneurial Superhero Inside of You
Written by: Kyle Musser
When it comes to idolizing entrepreneurs and the art of entrepreneurship, I think the resurgence of American Entrepreneurialism definitely leads the way in this respect.
Just look at the latest TV and web shows highlighting all the amazing entrepreneurial and small business successes that are happening around us…
Emmy-Winning “The Shark Tank…
Lebron James’ “Cleveland Hustles”…
Marcus Lemonis’s “The Profit”…
Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Daily Vee Show”…
Gerard Adams’s “Leaders Create Leaders”…
Web Series “The Small Business Revolution”…
Whether it’s a round-up blog of “The top influencers you should follow in X niche” or Instagram pages filled with lifestyle quotes that have amassed six and even 7 figure followings.
Move over Hollywood’s movie star elite because all that fame, wealth, prestige, influence, etc. is no longer just for you. The entrepreneurial superhero is here to take away your time in the spotlight. 😏
But before we go any further, let me be clear as I’m not sitting here saying that this is a bad thing. In fact, just the other night I was getting my “MBA” via Shark Tank and The Profit.
Like many of you, I love these shows because they do such a great job at highlighting the struggle, the possibility, and the reality that the entrepreneurial dream is alive and flourishing.
It’s because of this that I usually avoid watching any shows like this close to bed as I’ll end up staying up all night from the adrenaline rush that’s created while watching.
They are motivational, inspirational, and provide the jump start that we all sometimes need from time to time as we get back in the game after the shit hits the fan. (Just keeping it real)
With that, here’s a question…
When it comes to the idea of the entrepreneurial superhero, who immediately comes to mind???
While I can only guess who you immediately thought of, there’s a good chance that your answer included a guy by the name of Elon Musk.
I know my man Pat Flynn talks about how Elon is a huge inspiration to him and his endeavors over at smartpassiveincome.com.
Shout out to Pat’s because he’s not alone either.
Elon has actually been compared to and highlighted in the media as an “entrepreneurial superhero” by numerous media outlets and major publications over the last few years.
In fact, I happened to find this super creative (and funny, read the very bottom…) infographic that compares Elon to Tony Stark. Thus begging the question…
“Is Elon Musk the real life Ironman?” 🚀
Thanks TechnoBuffalo for that one. 👍🏼 🔥
I know that some of you might look at that side-by-side comparison and comment that they match up so perfectly that just maybe Elon is (in fact) a real-life superhero like the iron-suited billionaire Tony Stark.
But this idea of idolizing “Superhero Entrepreneurs” and placing them on a pedestal is a dangerous thing I think that we as an entrepreneurial community have to be wary of.
Especially if you are new to the business world where you’re just getting your feet wet. It’s easy as all can be in the digital age to idolize your fellow peers and then find yourself in a position where you’re locked in the comparison trap mindset.
And while I’m going call myself out in saying that I definitely look to people like Elon, Richard Branson, Robert Herjavec, Peter Diamandis, Arianna Huffington, etc., for inspiration and guidance in my entrepreneurial endeavors.
But I think… actually, I know that there’s a difference between looking up to someone and looking at someone with the intention of studying them in a way that begs the question…
“What can I learn from this person and implement into my own life and business to make the world around me a better place?” — Kyle Musser 💭
I know that every time I watch a Youtube video, listen to a Podcast, read a book, or even meet some of these incredible entrepreneurial peers in person whether it’s at an event or a mastermind… I’m always reminding myself that they (like me) are just people.
They’re people with fears, dreams, hopes, ambitions, habits, emotions, etc., just like you and I both.
The difference that I’ve taken away in my own experience and from hanging around some of these rock star leaders is that they just view the world differently. They make it their intention and make a decision daily to adopt a mindset that’s one of wealth, abundance, meaning, purpose, and value-driven.
A mindset that provides value to the world and solves problems in service of others.
And I can’t speak for all entrepreneurs and business owners in that they have the best intentions when it comes to growing their businesses.
But what I can speak for is my peers who have similar values and beliefs with the idea that we all have the capacity to create and impact others around us through the calling that is entrepreneurship.
It’s because of this idea that when I watched this video with Elon and Sam Altman of Y Combinator…
…I knew I could extract some valuable lessons for you guys here in the DCLabs Community. 💡👥
That said here’s 3 Tips Designed to Help Unlock the Superhero Entrepreneur Inside of You…
#1 — Do Not Focus on Changing the Whole World
Let’s just keep it real for a minute. There are some rock star entrepreneurs like Elon Musk who are really doing some incredible things to change the world. Can we agree on that?
Whether it’s trying to colonize mars…
To creating the first fully autonomous and electric self driving cars…
Or even tackling the potential risks that are on the horizon with respect to artificial intelligence…
But if you watch that interview above, you’ll notice that he deflects this idea that he’s any different when asked about his success.
He mentions that when it comes to being successful in business, and life for that matter…
“You just need to improve the lives of those around you incrementally.” — Elon Musk 💭
They focused on adding value to people’s lives and taking advantage of certain trends, timing, and technology to build massive businesses that quite honestly have changed the world. However this process didn’t happen overnight.
Look I get that many of you want to start the next Facebook, Uber, etc., but the fact is all these great businesses that started off by solving A PROBLEM that people had. I say “a problem” because they understood the power of tackling one problem at a time… at least when first starting out.
This oversold dream that your idea is going to “change the world” is a dangerous mindset to adopt especially if you’re first starting off as an entrepreneur.
Why so? Well many of us tend to forget it but it’s like Napoleon Hill described it years ago…
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile ideal.” — Napoleon Hill 💭
I get the ambition that many of you have to want to change the world with your ideas. But whenever I’m coaching someone or talking with a fellow entrepreneur, I’m quick to question many people’s ambitions to change the world as they are most times selfish > selfless.
Now on the flip side when I look at entrepreneurs that have achieved massive success by having these incredible big-picture visions for solving problems like Elon, what I takeaway is their focus on selflessness in service of a solution.
Game-changing ideas are a mix of things that come together to create something that many times seems like a magical fairytale. But the one thing that they have in common is identifying problems and coming up with solutions that solve those problems.
So just because your idea doesn’t a headline-grabbing venture exit, isn’t providing a means to save humanity by exploring other worlds, or does not land you on the cover of TIME…
…doesn’t meant that you haven’t made it or that you’re not having an impact in the world.
Peter Diamandis refers to these world-changing ideas Moon Shots. And in Elon’s case, he really is going after the moon shot by providing a vision for maned space exploration into deep space like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
So while you could just be starting out and still have a huge vision like this, I would encourage you to tread carefully. Expectations are a big part of success on the entrepreneurial journey.
And if you set the bar too high without understanding what it’s really going to take to get there, you leave yourself quite vulnerable to the comparison trap I mentioned earlier.
I challenge you to rethink your own moon shot ambitions just a bit. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have any sort of “BHAG goals” (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) like DARREN HARDY talks about.
What I’m saying is that I see too many people starting off by setting the bar well beyond their current means and talent. That doesn’t mean that you should never adjust your vision, but maybe for some… you should pair back your vision and set expectations that allow for consistency in your growth over time.
One of my new friends Jon Westenberg talks about this same thing when he shares his ideas on this very topic…
“Stop believing that billionaires are better people than you, by sheer virtue of the fact that they’re rich.
Stop believing that billionaires are role models, are aspirational figures, are the people we should be looking up to at all times.
Stop believing that billionaires’ schedules, fitness regimes, beliefs about the future, spending habits, spirituality or morning routines are the key to happiness.
Stop believing that the 10 things they have in common are traits that you could, should, or must have.
Stop believing that being a billionaire is the ultimate goal in business, entrepreneurship or life.
Stop believing that billionaires are geniuses, visionaries, prophets, gurus, or somehow pre-ascended members of a super hero team.” — Jon Westenberg 💭
I’ll be the first to applaud any entrepreneur who has a big vision to change the world with their idea(s). But instead of changing the world, start by changing the life of one person with your thing.
The market will be the ultimate validation tool as to whether or not your idea is worthy of being something that does actually change or save the world in a way that’s worthy of the entrepreneurial walk of fame.
It’s my belief that the world is truly impacted when you’re living a life in service of others in a positive way. And in today’s world, there’s plenty of need for that to happen with the problems in healthcare, climate change and pollution, education, clean water, etc.
So take the advice of Elon and start by incrementally impacting the lives of those you serve. Better yet, if you’ve yet to start… lead the way by changing your life first.
See whether or not you realize it, you’re already changing the world every single day. So if you focus on the little things over time, you’ll be amazed at how they compound into a lifetime’s worth of world-changing work.
Michael Margolis shares some good thoughts on this topic too over on his Medium page…
#2 — Accept That Your Focus Will Change Over Time
So while I believe that becoming an entrepreneur is a calling to create and lead others in creation, one thing that’s for certain is that your interests will most likely change over time.
Marie Forleo calls this,
“Being a multi-passionate entrepreneur.” 💭
So while your interests will change over time like Marie, Elon, and many other entrepreneurs share from their journey’s. The fact is they (like you) had to start somewhere and work to solve a problem before they could change the world.
And I can attest to how easy it is to fall into this squirrel mentality where you start off on one idea only to quickly lose passion and just say F%*# it because it wasn’t seeing results as fast as you want it.
But the fact is that if you want to achieve big things in the world, you have to niche down and focus your efforts, intentions, and resources in service of solving a specific pain point.
My friend John Lee Dumas refers to this as the power of “F.O.C.U.S.”, or as he likes to call it…
“Following One Course Until Successful”. — John 💭
Look the fact that no one person has the superhuman ability to switch from one thing to another, day after day, and have a truly world changing impact.
Especially when you’re first starting on the entrepreneurial journey down the unlimited profit pathway where many of you probably have a lack of resources like time, money, energy, etc.
Everything you choose to do or don’t do on a daily basis with respect to making a big impact in the world has a trade off. You’ve probably seen this referred to as Opportunity Cost where each decision has a cost tradeoff associated with it.
So as an entrepreneur that wants to have a big impact and someone who has a potentially endless number of passions, you have to ask yourself consistently…
“Where can I F.O.C.U.S. today to have the biggest impact on the future?” — Kyle 💭
When highlighting Elon and Marie, you can see this in action.
Elon started off studying one thing in school, ending up founding a sort of successful tech company by the name of Paypal. And has since put it all on the line to create not 1, but 3 companies that are literally changing the world (universe).
Marie’s journey took her from life coach, to bartender, Nike sponsored athlete, and now massively successful business coach that is considered one of the entrepreneurial “superheros” in the online business world.
The point is that while your passions will change over time, you have to be disciplined in managing your expectations of success and how you’re going to make the most impact with your gifts, talents, skills, abilities, leadership, and business.
We’re so quick to highlight the successful entrepreneurial hero’s journey of our day. But many times we’re (selectively) blind to the struggles and all the hustle that happens behind the scenes that actually does day after day change the world.
The major key or the so-called “secret” is simply the fact that for most entrepreneurs, success happens over the course of a lifetime’s worth of work.
And hustle, pain, sweat, tears, joy, happiness, excitement, etc. 😉
So embrace the fact that while you have to be disciplined in your F.O.C.U.S, also remember that there are seasons to the entrepreneurial journey…
#3 — Implement Ways to Measuring Your Success
When it comes to wanting to change the world, most people think that vision is enough to make it happen.
And while the principal states…
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” 💭
The reality is vision by itself will not unlock the entrepreneurial superhero inside of you. That’s just a fact.
You can argue with me all day that vision is the cause of great changing ideas and shifts in culture. And while I don’t discount that, there’s still work that goes on day after day, after day to execute.
If you didn’t watch that video of Elon, this principal comes from directly from there as he highlights that much of his day to day is actually spent working with his teams on the little details that make his companies so world changing.
Whether it’s engineering, new technology, design, process improvements, etc. Even in his position with all the media attention, wealth, and power he like many other “superhero entrepreneurs” understand another success principal…
“You can’t inspect what you don’t expect.” 💭
Look, I expect that there are some of you reading this that quite possibly will change the world. And I’m 100% all for that because we need people that strive for big change and disruption of the industries that are broken.
But your ability to execute effectively to the point of seeing your idea make incredible change in the world is going to come down to the profit pathway roadmap you put in place to get there.
I like to refer to this as reverse-engineering your unlimited profit pathway.
And I mention profit in there because as an entrepreneur, part of your calling in addition to changing the world is creating a profitable value exchange so you can further effect the world around you.
In Elon’s case, his unlimited profit pathway went like this…
It’s no secret that most every entrepreneur has a different profit pathway and calling with respect to how they change the world.
Even “Iron Man Elon” was at a point back in 2008 deep within the U.S. financial crisis where he nearly went bankrupt after the market crash obliterated much of his net worth that was tied up in the operations of his companies.
Just image, after working for years to build and solve a problem with a company (Paypal) that did change the banking world… You now have almost $180 MILLION from the sale.
My question is,
“What would you do with your $180 Million?”
Elon, having realized what was possible and what was happening in the world around him was called to pour it into three ventures which many of you know today as SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City.
Most people say that they want to change the world, but aren’t backing it up with true leadership in action. This is why the art and calling of entrepreneurship matters to the world as a whole.
People like him understand that with this superhero power, comes the chance to do things that have never been done before.
He was willing to risk it all and invest in the future to the point where he (and his teams) have literally re-defined the world that we live in here in 2016.
This leads me to question…
“What would you be willing and not willing to do to change the world?”
The fact is if you want to make a massive impact on a scale like Elon or like the iconic Steve Jobs has done with Apple, you have to not focus solely on your passion for massive change.
Instead, focus on your effect and resources within your own unlimited profit pathway roadmap that you put in place to make it happen.
Mark Cuban talks about this quite extensively in various interviews and on his blog where he shares this thought…
“Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get. If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.” — Mark Cuban 💭
***About 10 Minutes in Mark Cuban and Dave talk about this exact idea…
Look, I’m not a billionaire and I’m not as “successful” as many of the entrepreneurial peers that I look up to. But one thing I know is that I’m changing the world every single day with my effort.
With each new blog post, with each new idea, with every new client we bring on, with every person I connect, and so on.
“The fact is you are changing the world each and every single day. You are a hero to someone.” — Kyle 💭
Most importantly, you are your own hero. You most likely just need a reminder of how important your creative work is.
Doesn’t matter how big you think your impact is. What truly matters in my view is the call to action that we need more people focusing on the small things that lead to the big changes in our world.
And I’m not sharing this as just an ego-driven rant due to the fact I’m not as “world changing” as some of my peers. Instead, I’m sharing this as a reminder and my own call to action to continue to focus on the small things every single day.
A calling to F.O.C.U.S. on The Unlimited Profit Pathway and continue to impact people each and every day with whatever your mission is as a creator.
Then, after you make that commitment to the daily grind… remind yourself that Tony Stark is fictional and Elon Musk is real. 😏
Do this and I promise that you will unlock the entrepreneurial superhero that’s hidden inside of you…
QUESTION: What is your ‘moon shot’ or ‘BHAG’ that you envision accomplishing in your lifetime?
Be sure to leave your comments below and share this with a friend…
And if you’ve found this valuable, I’d be much appreciated if you could leave a HEART below… :-)
I’m Kyle Musser,
Founder and CEO (Chief Experiment Officer) of digitalconversionlabs.com. Come check out what we’re up to and be sure to check out our FREE RESOURCES by clicking on the link below the image…
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