D
Deleted50669
Guest
I don't claim to be an expert on entrepreneurial psychology yet, but I do think the past few months has taught me a couple valuable lessons.
As someone who maintains a full time corporate job and puts in almost as much time building my digital product, I've found it necessary to adopt a few mindset conditions to enable my ability to be effective in both environments. I am writing this as I know many people on the forum are in a similar position.
My first lesson is that you have to be able to flip a twitch to toggle between two different identities. One identity is the self at your job, the other identity is your self working on your business. Why? Because the personality and value requirements demanded by a job and by an entrepreneurial pursuit are VASTLY different. Consider this;
Job Requirements (these obviously vary based on the job)
1. Ability to complete tasks handed down from a manager.
2. Ability to communicate well and stay organized.
3. Ability to take orders.
4. Willingness to go against what you believe to be best-practice to do what your manager or client requests.
5. Willingness to agree to things as a team that go against what you want for yourself.
6. etc.
As you can see, a job environment demands obedience, communication, sacrifice, and negotiation. Some of these things are the very reason we seek entrepreneurship. And at the same time, some of these things are REQUIRED for entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Pursuit Requirements (again, varies based on pursuit)
1. Ability to develop tasks for your project
2. Ability to set deadlines and stay organized in your work
3. Ability to be honest with yourself when you aren't doing enough / taking the easy way out
4. Willingness to sacrifice the comforts generally afforded to someone with just a job (social activities, video games, binging netflix, etc.)
5. Willingness to go where a lot of people just wouldn't go effort wise. (example, I rarely sleep more than 5 hours a night).
6. Willingness to maintain an objective lens of your work and the value it provides (so you can continue to improve it).
7. etc.
So, while some mindset requirements at work reinforce the entrepreneurial mind, others antagonize it. This is an important thing to be aware of, because awareness allows you to control it.
Lesson two, do not discuss your business efforts with work colleagues. For a number of reasons.
1. They most likely lack the same drive / perspective you do. You will often be met with skepticism, doubt, pessimism, etc. Unless you have an iron-forged mind, this will impact your belief in your chances of success.
2. They may spread rumors that you're trying to make money outside of work, out of spite or envy. If that makes it to the wrong person they can launch an investigation, fire you, sue you for your product or service assets, etc. Have to check the contract you signed for that one, obviously.
3. They will continue to pester you about your progress, since they have nothing important happening in their own lives. This will add unnecessary pressure to your efforts.
Lesson three, when you meet a hurdle that seems impossible to pass, seek advice and read. Unless it's physically impossible, it's possible. You may have to travel to some obscure places on google, read books written in Russian with a translation tool, or ping people on LinkedIn until someone takes mercy on you, but you can figure it out with persistence.
That's it for now, just wanted to drop some things I've learned on my journey.
- Cheers
As someone who maintains a full time corporate job and puts in almost as much time building my digital product, I've found it necessary to adopt a few mindset conditions to enable my ability to be effective in both environments. I am writing this as I know many people on the forum are in a similar position.
My first lesson is that you have to be able to flip a twitch to toggle between two different identities. One identity is the self at your job, the other identity is your self working on your business. Why? Because the personality and value requirements demanded by a job and by an entrepreneurial pursuit are VASTLY different. Consider this;
Job Requirements (these obviously vary based on the job)
1. Ability to complete tasks handed down from a manager.
2. Ability to communicate well and stay organized.
3. Ability to take orders.
4. Willingness to go against what you believe to be best-practice to do what your manager or client requests.
5. Willingness to agree to things as a team that go against what you want for yourself.
6. etc.
As you can see, a job environment demands obedience, communication, sacrifice, and negotiation. Some of these things are the very reason we seek entrepreneurship. And at the same time, some of these things are REQUIRED for entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Pursuit Requirements (again, varies based on pursuit)
1. Ability to develop tasks for your project
2. Ability to set deadlines and stay organized in your work
3. Ability to be honest with yourself when you aren't doing enough / taking the easy way out
4. Willingness to sacrifice the comforts generally afforded to someone with just a job (social activities, video games, binging netflix, etc.)
5. Willingness to go where a lot of people just wouldn't go effort wise. (example, I rarely sleep more than 5 hours a night).
6. Willingness to maintain an objective lens of your work and the value it provides (so you can continue to improve it).
7. etc.
So, while some mindset requirements at work reinforce the entrepreneurial mind, others antagonize it. This is an important thing to be aware of, because awareness allows you to control it.
Lesson two, do not discuss your business efforts with work colleagues. For a number of reasons.
1. They most likely lack the same drive / perspective you do. You will often be met with skepticism, doubt, pessimism, etc. Unless you have an iron-forged mind, this will impact your belief in your chances of success.
2. They may spread rumors that you're trying to make money outside of work, out of spite or envy. If that makes it to the wrong person they can launch an investigation, fire you, sue you for your product or service assets, etc. Have to check the contract you signed for that one, obviously.
3. They will continue to pester you about your progress, since they have nothing important happening in their own lives. This will add unnecessary pressure to your efforts.
Lesson three, when you meet a hurdle that seems impossible to pass, seek advice and read. Unless it's physically impossible, it's possible. You may have to travel to some obscure places on google, read books written in Russian with a translation tool, or ping people on LinkedIn until someone takes mercy on you, but you can figure it out with persistence.
That's it for now, just wanted to drop some things I've learned on my journey.
- Cheers
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