The Entrepreneurial Mindset
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
E.O.Masinde
Who is an Entrepreneur?
• An entrepreneur can be described as “one who creates a new business in
the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and
growth by identifying significant opportunities and assembling the
necessary resources to capitalize on them” (Zimmerer & Scarborough,
2008, p. 5).
• An entrepreneur is a person who sets up a business with the aim to make a
profit.
• This entrepreneur definition can be a bit vague, but for good reason. An
entrepreneur can be a person who sets up their first online store on the
side or a freelancer just starting out.
• The reason why they’re considered entrepreneurs, though some disagree,
is because where you start out isn’t necessarily where you’ll end up.
Who is an Entrepreneur?
• An entrepreneur is someone who starts a side hustle that can
eventually create a full-time, sustainable business with employees.
Same with the freelancer. If your entrepreneurial mindset is focused
on creating a profitable business, you fit the entrepreneur definition.
• But the entrepreneur meaning involves much more than being a
business or job creator.
• Entrepreneurs are some of the world’s most powerful transformers.
From Elon Musk sending people to Mars to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
making computers part of every household, entrepreneurs imagine
the world differently.
• And the entrepreneur definition rarely ever talks about the enormous
impact these thought leaders have on the world.
Entrepreneurs see possibilities and
solutions where the average person
only sees annoyances and
problems.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Entrepreneurs help bolster economic development, create jobs, and invent
products or services that can make the world a better place. Being a
successful entrepreneur requires outside-the-box thinking and larger-than-
life ideas. Anyone can come up with a new idea, but building a successful
business around it is the entrepreneurial challenge. The entrepreneurial
mind-set is unique in that one must be creative, communicative, and highly
motivated to succeed, yet open to risk and failure.
• The key word for Entrepreneurship is RISK
• Often times, the success or failure of an entrepreneurial venture is
determined by the characteristics of the entrepreneurs themselves.
• Suffice it to say that there is no magical formula to succeed in business (if
so, Harvard Business School would have patented it). However, there are
certain characteristics which all aspiring entrepreneurs should cultivate to
dramatically boost their own odds for success.
1. A Positive Mental Attitude
Why is a Positive Attitude Important for Entrepreneurs?
• A positive attitude and outlook is a must for successful entrepreneurs.
The mindset of the head of the company sets the tone for the rest of
the company and influences corporate culture.
• Being positive is something which, like all life skills, can be learned.
Becoming an entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted. The long hours
and erratic demands of heading up your own company can negatively
impact both your personal life and mental outlook.
2. A Creative Mindset
• Think of Steve Jobs and the iPhone. Edison and the light bulb. The
Wright Brothers and the airplane. Each of these ground-breaking
inventions would not have come to fruition were it not for healthy
doses of creative gumption.
• Defining Creativity: Creativity is the act of turning new and
imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterised by the ability
to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make
connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to
generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then
producing.
2. A Creative Mindset
• Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how
they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really
do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a
while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve
had and synthesize new things.” – Steve Jobs