Daily Post #507 Why entrepreneurs need a growth mindset

Part 3 of 10 posts about The Growth Mindset

The previous two posts I wrote about the differences between a growth and fixed mindset, and in this post I thought I would explore why having a growth mindset is crucial for anyone wanting to be an entrepreneur.

First of all, with a growth mindset you realize that there is always something new to learn, which means you are always open for both new challenges which can lead to new business ideas, and you are also always open for new ways of solving a problem, which also leads to new business opportunities.

Then as you build, launch and run your business, you are open to feedback. You see your customers and users as your biggest business development resource and you don’t see complaints as something negative that needs to be shut down, on the contrary, they are issues that need to be dealt with and put on the backlog for future updates.

Being an entrepreneur is living in a constant iterative process, like the expression goes; “Always in beta, never finished”.

Having a growth mindset also makes you more resilient. When experiencing setbacks and failures, you see them more as experiments on the way to a functioning product that a dead end. When falling down, you pick yourself up and continue without really considering that you even fell down, it’s all part of the process. We can’t learn to walk or run without trying to stand and tumbling around quite a lot first.

Learning learning learning! As an entrepreneur you know that putting in the work is part of the deal, nothing beats getting your hands dirty and actually trying to prove something through a proof of concept, especially the early ones. The expression “Do things that don’t scale” comes to mind, build something super simple to prove the point, then go out and test it.

My personal favorite activity is starting a business in a market I have never been in before, and being forced to learn how that market works. Who are the actors, which are the bindings, who sells what to whom and where does the money come from and where does it go. Love learning about new business verticals!

Finally, with a growth mindset and realizing there is always more to learn, you are prepared to listen to other people, ask for help and advice and surround yourself with likeminded people that will all work together to lift each other up.

A rising tide lifts all boats.