Helen Zad, Administrator of Active Plus Home Health and Divine Grace Hospice, and Host of Femme Fatale by Helen Podcast.
When I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I didn’t know the first thing about owning a business. I didn’t know anything about business development, finance, marketing or managing employees. I learned it all as I went. But the one thing I did have before I started, the single most key ingredient, was the right mindset. I had a vision. I was determined, and I was ready to learn.
Willingness to learn is still the number one most important thing I tell people they need to have, because if you’re open to learning lessons from everything and everywhere you can, you can do absolutely anything.
The right mindset can open many doors for you. In this three-part series of articles, I want to share with you how to cultivate that entrepreneurial mindset, starting with the hardest part: facing fear and uncertainty.
1. Get comfortable with the chaos around you.
To succeed, it’s important to embrace chaos. I have seen many people become uncomfortable with the idea of things falling apart and going wrong. I’ve seen them give up and quit when life diverges from the plan.
To cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, however, you need to practice embracing the challenges. Expect that things will go wrong, and be prepared to think creatively to solve problems. It’s essential to remain calm and confident, knowing that you can overcome any obstacle and come out stronger on the other side. Build confidence in your ability to create your way out of a corner.
2. Get comfortable with the chaos inside of you.
This is related to point number one, but instead of your surroundings, this point is about the turbulence inside of yourself when things get rocky. Get used to that feeling of discomfort. It’s okay to feel off balance sometimes, and it’s okay to not have all the answers—in fact, it’s healthy and it’s part of growing and learning.
Practice pushing past fear by doing one thing that makes you feel uncomfortable every day, and you will strengthen your confidence in your ability to move past that discomfort when it arises. Take deep breaths, focus on the steps you need to take to solve the problem, and remember that you can overcome your obstacles, because you’ve done it before.
3. Seek ways to leave your comfort zone.
Once you’ve embraced the idea of sitting with discomfort, cultivate a mindset of constantly seeking it out. Successful entrepreneurs are always evolving and looking for opportunities to jump feet first into new markets.
In my own personal experience, my comfort zone is working in home healthcare and hospice, and I know those specific fields of the healthcare system like the back of my hand. I’m now in the middle of opening a pharmacy, which is an area I knew very little about when this idea came to me. But to keep growing in my market space, I need to expand on what I’m capable of delivering, and that means pushing myself into new territory and learning new information quickly.
Was it deeply uncomfortable feeling out of my depth in this new arena? Of course! It still is! But I’m committed to the mindset of growth, and I know that what feels uncomfortable now will eventually, as I get better at it, become my new comfort zone. At that point, I’ll find something else that’s new to learn and jump into, and the cycle will begin again.
4. Get comfortable with being alone.
There’s a difference between being alone and being lonely. People who are not comfortable with themselves often tend to jump from relationship to party to group because they’re insecure about something within themselves.
To create the entrepreneurial mindset, it’s important to be comfortable sitting with yourself, to truly know yourself inside and out. Know your strengths and weaknesses, what you like and what you don’t, and learn to embrace your flaws with love. There’s no shame in not being great at something, because at the end of the day, these are all just data points to help you so that you know what you can do for yourself, what you can do for others, and what others can help you with.
I’ve found that when you accept yourself as you are, the world will open up for you, and you’ll be in a position to choose the life that you want, instead of running out of desperation. When you make choices for yourself, you won’t be mentally dragged down, even if they don’t pan out, because it was your decision. It’s crucial to prioritize your own well-being and fill your own cup first.
5. Remember that everyone’s point of view is biased, and there is no universal reality.
Speaking of looking at hard truths as data points, the entrepreneurial mindset is about seeing other people’s opinions of you that way too. What other people think about you and your journey doesn’t need to affect you on a personal level, because it ultimately has nothing to do with you. What other people think is about them.
At the beginning of your business journey, people may criticize your vision, cast doubt or even laugh at your ambition. But the vast majority of them don’t know you and don’t have expertise about what you’re doing. Learn to see other people’s opinions as simply points on a graph—use them to have a general idea of what’s being said around you, but don’t let them permeate your mindset, distract from your focus or impact your decision-making.
When I was first starting out, people would say all kinds of things about me and my ambitions: that I was too new, too naive, too feminine. Remember that others don’t see what you see, and their comments are based on a limited view of your vision. As an entrepreneur, you have the power to stay true to your vision and not let anyone’s input derail you.
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