Tracks into entrepreneurship
As far as I know, there are two tracks into entrepreneurship:
- Those who choose it because it’s the only thing that makes sense to them
- Those who have been forced into it by life circumstances; lack of regular job opportunities, lack of flexibility or money in the regular 9 to 5 environment, etc.
Barriers to entrepreneurship
Once someone decides to go into entrepreneurship they find many barriers. Some of those barriers are external and some of them are internal.
External barriers
External barriers are things such as finding a market for products/services; learning about marketing, financing, distribution, customer service, quality control, etc.
Internal barriers
Internal barriers are things such as lack of self-confidence and having a scarcity mindset.
The importance of having the right mindset
The more I think of it, the more I realize that what differentiates a successful entrepreneur from one who just manages to eke a living is nothing more than their mindset.
Two entrepreneurs might have the same knowledge and the same tools, yet one of them could reach amazing success while the other would have a mediocre career. It’s having the right mindset that makes all the difference.
In fact, since the arrival of the internet, most of us have access to more or less similar tools and knowledge. It’s the inner game that makes all the difference.
Self-confidence
How many times, we have heard at one time or another this phrase: “You can do it! Believe in yourself.”
We throw that sentence around as if the receiver would say: “Oh, I just have to believe in myself, have self-confidence. Why didn’t I think of that before?”
But people don’t just believe in themself and have self-confidence. Self-confidence, comes slowly, over time, with practice, with many failures.
Think of the first time you rode a bike or drove a car. You were insecure of yourself, fearful. You just didn’t say “Oh, I just have to have self-confidence.” No, what you did is that you tried it, with fear, and you made mistakes, and someone was there to help you alone, and after you did it a few times, you started gaining self-confidence. Today, you probably won’t hesitate to ride a bicycle or to drive a car. No one tells you that you have to believe in yourself to do that.
To gain self-confidence, we have to be willing to make mistakes. We have to accept that our work will not be good. But if we try something once, twice, many times, our work will get better and better with time.
We have to permit ourselves to make mistakes. We have to stop worrying about other people’s critiques, other people’s expectations.
When we put our product/service out there. Some people will encourage us, some people will be indifferent, and some people will criticize us. We should not stop our entrepreneurial projects for fear of the critics. No one has ever erected a statue in honor of a critic. All the statues have been erected to the honor of the people who have been willing to fail.
Scarcity Mindset
I roll my eyes every time I heard the advice that “You have to be unique.” “You have to differentiate yourself.” as if the market was so small that there is no space for one more vanilla entrepreneur. As far as I know, my dentist, my accountant, my mechanic, or my bicycle shop have not tried to be different, they have not tried to have a unique approach. No, they just opened their doors for business and people started walking in simply because they were open for business.
My message is that if you have a product or service, there are enough clients for everyone. As long as your product or service delivers value for people’s money, people will be happy to do business with you.
When I open a dance school, or photography business, or started doing business in real estate, I didn’t say to myself, “Oh, there are other people already doing that.” Or I didn’t say “I have to be different than everyone else. “I tried to do exactly the opposite. I tried to be like everyone else, and my businesses did well.
Instead of thinking that the market is saturated and that there is no place for a newcomer like you. We have to think that as long as we provide value, there is an abundance of people waiting to buy our products or services.
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