What To Expect When You Become An Entrepreneur

When you become an entrepreneur a lot of things change. It’s very easy to see the external changes. You don’t receive your salary at the end of the month. You receive income as often as your business model allows you. You don’t receive money from one source, but from multiple. Your agenda is defined by you and not by your boss. You don’t work in their premises, you work where you want to. Taxes and administration are no longer invisible. They are your responsibility.

My dear friend Harma had the dream to set up her own business one day. Now the day has arrived. Her business is now being born. She has her first customers. She has her registration in the Chamber of Commerce. The changes around her are very noticeable. Now she’s wondering what is happening inside. She’s wondering who is she becoming. She asks,

Just a question, when you started your business in 2007, and I know in the times before that was also a huge transformation in many areas in your life, did you also have the feeling as if you were entering a total new area of course in the outside world but also in the inside world. Parts of yourself you did not know yet or not even know that did exist? Just wondering. I feel like totally re-inventing myself and my life, in all aspects of life.

The short answer is yes. Yes, my entire world changed. Clearly the outside changed and definitely the inside also did. Indeed I discovered many aspects of myself that I never knew they even existed. And I’m not alone in this gigantic transformation. This is a pattern I see repeated in all my fellow entrepreneurs. In fact, those entrepreneurs who inspire me show us that the inner transformation is the cause of their massive success.

In order to thrive as an entrepreneur you will need to trade employee inner traits and allow entrepreneurial traits to emerge. You will change your mind: let go of patterns of thought and adopt new ones. In fact, these new patterns of thought are already latent in you. If you are choosing for entrepreneurship, you have these inner qualities already, even if they are in a latent form.

These inner changes will not only protect you from the dangers of the entrepreneurial jungle, but also they will allow you to actually fulfill your potential.

1. Adios Belonging. Welcome Soaring Like an Eagle.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t belong to any group. They are on a mission. Concentrate on your personal mission and your success will be unavoidable.

2. Adios Pleasing. Welcome Caring.

Your business is here to solve a problem. If not, you’ll have a very hard time making money. If you please your customer, you won't solve his problem. Go beyond pleasing your customers and care deeply for their own transformation, for the meaningful solution of their problem.

3. Adios Common Sense. Welcome Uncommon Sense

Great businesses didn’t make sense until they had proven wrong everyone. Think of DHL or Dominos Pizza. Who would have thought about delivering packaged in less than 24 hours? Or pizzas within 30 minutes? Allow yourself to be and act weird. Uniqueness leads to success. Listen your inner guidance.

4. Adios Blame. Welcome Radical Personal Responsibility

No one is coming. This is true everywhere. Security is a fallacy. We just tend to forget it in a corporate setting. There it’s easy to blame your boss or the economy and wait for your salary. As an entrepreneur you don’t have that luxury. You need to take the driver's seat and make choices.

5. Adios Fearing Mistakes. Welcome Embracing Learning

If you are afraid of making mistakes in a corporate setting, you won’t be promoted. However if you do that as an entrepreneur, you’ll go bankrupt. On the contrary, if you embrace all opportunities you have to learn, you and your business will bloom.

6. Adios"I have to". Welcome "I choose and I want to"

Obligation generates limited energy. It brings you from Monday to Friday. True motivation excites you. It carries you 24/7. True motivation charges you of energy and enthusiasm, that leads you to thrive no matter what the challenges are.

7. Adios Procrastination. Welcome Speed of Implementation

In the entrepreneurial jungle you don’t have time to think about it. You must be fast in implementing your projects. Will this lead you to mistakes? Of course! And that is terrific. Mistakes will teach you. Mistakes will accelerate your success.

8. Adios Security. Welcome Fear Friend

When you are safe, you have no incentive to move. When you fear (failure, bankruptcy, ridicule…), you will put your act together. Don’t be afraid of fear. Fear can be your best friend. Listen to your fear. What does he say? Does he have recommendations? Make it your best advisor. You’ll see you’ll find a great ally in him.

9. Adios Knowing. Welcome Learning.

Knowing can be devastating for entrepreneurs. Maintaining a beginner mindset will allow you to see the nuances of the changes that will affect your business. Keep curious. Keep learning. Keep growing.

10. Adios Certainty. Welcome Resourcefulness.

Do you know that the Romans were never able to conquer Germania? Why? The Romans were the military might of their time. In Germania there was not even one city. Germania had no resources to fight a war with Rome. They were resourceful. They brilliantly used the resources they had. It’s is never about how little you have. It’s always about the imagination to do whatever it takes with what you do have.

11. Adios "Fine". Welcome Hunger

Don’t be fine. Be hungry. Don’t ever be satisfied. Keep looking for the next frontier. Keep that fire burning inside you. You will touch more lives. You will make more impact in the world. Keep hungry.

12. Adios "The Blues". Welcome Resilience.

Make it your business to learn resilience. There is no time for the blues. You are on a mission. You must learn to bounce back. You must learn how to love rejection: it’s always an invitation to be more creative. You must learn to love all results: so called failures and so called successes. Resilience is the one skill that will make your business great and you happy.

How can you develop these inner skills?

​To build this strengths you have to embrace the idea of building the plane while flying. You won't ever have the perfect entrepreneurial mindset. You'll have moments of genius and moments of learning. How you have more genius moments? Having more learning moments. So you'll need to implement the action / reflection cycle. Remember that the one thing that changes your neuron-pathways is action.

• Take on projects that fit your mission and expand you.
• Do your best.
• Analyze the results. See what is working. See what you need to learn.
• Look for the mentors that will accelerate that learning (if you feel that's me, let's talk)
• Choose a new project that will expand you and will fit your mission.
• Continue repeating this cycle forever.

When you do this you will not only build a business that is of great service for humanity, but also a vehicle of personal transformation, a vehicle of to become better than yesterday.