Do You Have the Ultimate Entrepreneur Mindset?
How do your entrepreneurial skills, personality, motivation and drive stack up against your peers? Do you have the qualities of the best in the business?
Check out the highlights from our roundup below. Explore what 15 of the hottest entrepreneurs do every day to keep on schedule. Learn the five must-have skills for every top businessperson. Then see if you’ve adopted the entrepreneur mindset to take full control of your business – or if you’re actually thinking like an employee.
Are you starting your day off right?
From Medium
It’s fascinating to see how some of our favorite entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders spend their time every day. What are their morning routines like? What time do they rise in the morning? When are they most productive? How do they relax? …
Some wake up by 4am; others don’t start the day until closer to 11am. Some exercise every single day; others write or meditate. … What’s clear, is that having a routine of some sort matters. Routines help us get into a flow state that unlocks our ability to be happy and effective every day. While there weren’t any across-the-board consistencies, there were some themes:
- Get a decent amount of sleep
- Read things that are interesting to you
- Try to break a sweat daily
- Spend time with people you love
- And when you really need to kick into gear, there’s nothing that a good cup of coffee (or an ice plunge) can’t help with 😉
Read on for a glimpse into the daily routines that successful entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders swear by.
Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator
I try to do the things that I think are important, and be ruthless about not doing things that I don’t think are important. This sounds easy in theory, but requires a lot of discipline in practice. I generally have about three big goals and 20 small to-do items for each day.
Steve Schlafman, VC at RRE Ventures
I’m up every morning at 6am. Hot yoga at 6:30am. Breakfast meeting by 8:30am. Back-to-back meetings from 9am–6pm. I might get 30–60 minutes for email in between. Go to a work-related event or dinner with a founder, executive, friend, etc. Spend time with my wife. Read a book from 10:30–11ish. Bed by 11pm. Rinse and repeat.
Joel Gascoigne, Co-founder & CEO of Buffer
These days, I generally have a lot of quick meetings with different people on my team. I’m mainly focused within product/engineering, customer service, hiring, and then on the higher level. My calendar is open to people on the team, and it generally gets quite booked up. I have quick 20-minute sessions to give advice on a specific challenge. I also have 1:1s with several people on the team, so I usually have one of those each day, too. Other than work, I try to exercise several times a week (either strength training at the gym, running, or doing a bodyweight workout at an outdoor gym).
Read full story & all routines…
The 5 skills of the most successful entrepreneurs
From Influencive
In today’s economy, workers cannot depend on having a stable, full-time job with benefits until they retire. Most people will go through times in their career when they work freelance or are considered an independent contractor. Many of us will also begin our own business at some point. In a gig economy, everyone needs to know how to create their own brand. We are all entrepreneurs. …
Most people who go into business have entrepreneurial figures they admire. … Look at what they do and figure out what works for them. You will notice how many entrepreneurs have similar skills. Once you notice that, you can apply those skills to your own work.
Concentration
Concentration is an important skill for successful entrepreneurs. For our purposes, concentration has two meanings. The first is your ability to focus. Our digital world is full of distractions. We have all experienced the time suck of the internet. Moreover, we are constantly distracted by our phones and keeping in touch with family, friends and co-workers. …
Leadership
Leadership is a vital trait for entrepreneurs. After all, anyone who wants to succeed in building their own brand and/or business should expect to be in a position of authority and to have other people working for them at some point. That means that you need to be able to lead. … Most people need to work at developing leadership skills. Even people who are natural leaders can benefit from working on improving their leadership skills. …
Organization
Organization is a significant trait of successful entrepreneurs. You need to have your ducks in a row if you want to accomplish everything you need to do in a timely enough manner. Organization is another skill that you might have a natural aptitude for, or it might be something you struggle with. Either way, you should view organization as a skill you can learn and improve upon. …
Read the full story for all five skills…
Do you think like an Employee or an Entrepreneur?
From Eric Tippetts
While every human being is different, we do have certain similarities that can set us apart from other groups of people. One of the primary items that group people together are their mindsets.
Entrepreneurs must have mindsets that are quite different than an employee.
Herein lies a common problem I have recognized with new entrepreneurs… They jump into the entrepreneurial world with an employee mindset.
The Key Mindsets of the Entrepreneur:
- Entrepreneurs focus on the important things: A large percentage of employees are focused on the job they have to do whether it is important or not. The mindset of the entrepreneur requires them to focus on what is the most important, profit making task.
- Entrepreneurs do not procrastinate: While an employee may put off a task until tomorrow, the entrepreneur is all about doing it NOW! Procrastination is NOT in the entrepreneur dictionary.
- Entrepreneurs rely on their “gut”: The entrepreneur has to make split-second decisions on a daily basis.
- Entrepreneurs own their failures: Many employees tend to find excuses for failures, but successful entrepreneurs have learned the success only comes because of multiple failures. The entrepreneur mindset is to own the failure and not put the blame elsewhere.
- Entrepreneurs set high, but reachable goals: Personally, I believe every person should set goals, but few do. Successful entrepreneurs understand that each day, week, month and year must be a series of high, but reachable goals.
See the full article & all 17 entrepreneur mindsets…
Entrepreneurs also need to have their sales pitch perfected and polished – ready to sell their products and win new customers. Learn how to craft the ultimate 60-second elevator pitch that will capture attention, generate interest and grow your client base.
