You don’t have to start your own business to benefit from the mental habits practiced by the world’s most wildly successful innovators.
Here are eight entrepreneurial shifts you can try today, regardless of your profession or designation, guaranteed to help you ditch the employee mindset and:
“…Maximise your potential, starting where you stand, and to bring about the creativity, agility, flexibility, tenacity, and resolve needed to succeed wherever your personal, professional, and inventive journey takes you.” – Clifton Taulbert: entrepreneur & author of Shift Your Thinking: Win Where You Stand
Establish your own personal metrics board
Entrepreneurs know exactly what makes their business, and themselves, tick. Pay close attention to your own health and happiness metrics: What makes you feel accomplished? When are you most inspired? Be mindful about tracking those moments, so that you can create more of them, more often.
Look for efficiencies, everywhere
The world’s most successful businesspeople don’t tolerate poor processes. Challenge the status quo: What’s the “red tape” that’s holding you back right now? Whether within your organisation or your personal life, it’s time to find a way to cut it down.
Work hard, play hard
There’s a reason whiteboards are still so popular amongst progressive, tech-dependant companies in 2015. Complex breakthroughs often start with a simple sketch: Brainstorming can be just as good for your career as it is for big businesses. Set aside some time to play around with an idea that’s been on your mind. See what you come up with.
Live your values
Entrepreneurs turn values into habits that increase their personal effectiveness and inspire those around them to flourish.
Ground your behaviour in non-negotiable principles: When you demonstrate a commitment to independent thinking, integrity, teamwork, or having constructive attitude, you’ll also encourage those around you to follow suit.
Spend wisely to increase your returns
Not all strategic moves have to be directly profitable. Always look at the bigger picture. Many strategic decisions work to improve your product or service, or put you in a more powerful position so you can compete with your competitors. Delay gratification to maximise return:
Financial restraint not only means spending less than you earn, it also means spending money on real assets and initiatives that increase enterprise value.
Be mindful of time and attention
Successful entrepreneurs tend to be highly organised, time-optimisation rockstars, with a capacity for laser-like focus where it counts. Time and our attention are our only truly finite resources: Would you wear the same outfit every day (à la Zuckerberg) if it freed up your time and attention to focus on more impactful decisions?
Turn your ambitions into achievements through strategy
Entrepreneurial business leaders unite their teams behind a common purpose by communicating their strategic vision. Answer the question “What is my mission?”. Articulate your answer to that question, loud and clear, and watch people give you all they’ve got to help you achieve it.
Shape the experiences that shape you
Because they understand the importance of working to make themselves into the type of person who would be wealthy, entrepreneurs are often self-taught, and rigorously so.
Develop skills that compound: Whether it’s learning to code, write copy, or handle your own accounts – an investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Are you ready to adopt an entrepreneurial mind-set when it comes to your career growth? Browse UCT and GetSmarter’s portfolio of over 55 online short courses and propel your professional life forward through part-time, online skills development.