10 Tips to Nurture Your Entrepreneur Personality
So you’ve decided to embark on a career as an entrepreneur.
Congratulations! Entrepreneurship is an exciting career path that can take you many places.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, entrepreneurs are among the happiest people in the world.
And it’s really no wonder why entrepreneurs are so happy. As an entrepreneur, you get to set your own schedule, be your own boss, work for something you’re passionate about, and see your work change lives.
You should definitely be excited about your chosen career path. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that you are more than just an entrepreneur.
And just like businesses need to grow in order to succeed, so too do you need to grow as an entrepreneur.
How do you do this exactly?
You need to nurture your entrepreneur personality.
Yes, that special personality that makes you say “I can do this” even when the cards are stacked against you, needs to be nurtured on a constant basis.
Why?
Well, if you don’t nurture your unique entrepreneur personality, you will end up standing still. And if you stand still for too long, you’ll get left behind by all the other entrepreneurs who are nurturing their personalities.
So how exactly do you nurture your unique entrepreneur personality so that you and your business can grow?
Read on to find out the top ten tips.
1. Do What’s in Your Heart and What You Know
Do you have something people constantly tell you you’re good at doing? Or something that you are super passionate about but have never told anyone?
If so, this should most certainly be the focal point of your business as an entrepreneur.
You will undoubtedly find way more success as an entrepreneur doing what you love and what you do well.
For example, let’s say you’ve worked for a hotel chain for years and one of your main roles was planning meetings and conferences. You could definitely find success launching your own meeting-planning business.
Conversely, let’s say you decide to start a handmade soap business, even though you know nothing about soaps. The learning curve would be massive, and you likely wouldn’t know the “tricks of the trade” like you do with another business.
Pick something you know nothing about and don’t really care about, and you’ll probably end up frustrated and unsatisfied with your work. But pick a business that you value and cherish and you will be able to nurture your positive entrepreneur personality.
2. Seek Out Diverse Viewpoints
So, you’ve picked an entrepreneur career path you have knowledge about and passion for. You are now considering hiring a mentor to guide you along.
Hiring a mentor can be a tremendous help for nurturing your entrepreneur personality. However, it can be even more beneficial to seek out multiple viewpoints.
A single perspective just simply isn’t enough. Seeking out the viewpoints of a variety of people with different experiences is a much better route.
However, this doesn’t mean you need to hire a whole network of mentors to meet up with throughout the week.
Instead, keep it simple. Allan Lau, a successful entrepreneur who founded Wattpad, utilizes peer group to grow as an entrepreneur.
Every couple months he meets with some fellow CEOs. They shut off their phones, lock the doors, and spend several hours conversing in a free environment to create new ideas and solve problems.
You could form your own peer group or make it even more informal and grab a coffee or go for a walk with a colleague.
3. Read, Read, Read
People aren’t the only ones, however, who can serve as mentors in your entrepreneurship journey.
In order to nurture your entrepreneur personality, you should also be reading on a constant basis.
In fact, one survey found that 88 percent of the world’s richest people spend 30 minutes a day reading.
Seek out books, blogs and other articles related to entrepreneurship to learn new ideas and skills.
In the beginning, you should read a wide range of material until you find something that resonates with you. Once you find this author, you’ll find yourself returning to them time and time again for inspiration and answers.
4. Analyze Yourself
Holding a mirror up to yourself and analyzing your strengths and weaknesses isn’t something that’s easy to do.
Consider performing a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. This will make holding up that mirror much easier.
Performing a SWOT analysis is pretty simple and straightforward. All you need to do is grab a pen and paper and create four separate quadrants for each category. Then, you fill up each quadrant with notes and details.
For example, you could write down “punctuality” as a weak point. Then, expand on it by writing down ways to improve this weak point.
Typing this note into your computer is a good way to hold yourself accountable. Every couple months, you can check in with the note and see if what you are doing to nourish your entrepreneur personality is working.
Maybe eventually you will even be able to bump over some of your weaknesses to strengths and threats to opportunities!
5. Focus On How You Occupy Your Mind
Take a moment and examine what you spend your time thinking about throughout the day?
Do you dwell on failures and injustices you suffered?
If so, it’s time to turn that thought process around to more positive thinking. Don’t focus on the negative. Instead, appreciate what’s going well and work on building a confident vision for your future.
The way you shape your mindset is inevitably going to be the way you shape your life.
6. Take a Break
Nurturing your entrepreneur personality and growing your business is a marathon, not a sprint.
If you forget to pace yourself, you are on a path to a quick burnout.
I mean think about it, who looks back on their life and thinks “I wish I had taken fewer vacations?”
No one, right?
Taking downtime allows your body and mind to recharge their batteries. Not to mention, downtime also allows an opportunity for your mind to wander and reach new creative places. Some of the most innovative ideas have come to people while going for a walk at the beach or running through the park.
7. Choose Good Company
Who you choose to surround yourself with can have a major impact on how well you are able to nurture your entrepreneur personality.
Negativity in your mind is something you can work on controlling and changing. However, negativity from others is contagious.
If you hire employees or collaborators who are negative, there will be a ceiling to your success.
Don’t be afraid to rid your team of toxic people immediately. It only takes one toxic personality to destroy the morale of an entire team.
Surrounding yourself with successful, happy, and like-minded individuals will nurture your entrepreneur personality.
8. Set Goals and Visualize Them
When you select your own goals instead of having them selected by others, you will be more motivated to achieve them.
Every time you achieve a goal, you attain a new desired component of yourself that will aid in the growth of your entrepreneur personality.
A great technique for achieving these goals is to make them visible in some way. Some like to mark dates in their calendar for when they want to achieve their goal by. Others swear by vision boards. Some like to simply write their goals down on a sticky note.
Find what works best and stick to it.
9. Charge What You’re Worth
If you think that making your product or service the least expensive will help you generate clients, think again.
You should always be charging what you’re worth. Charging what you’re worth helps display the inherent value of your product. But also, charging what you’re worth shows yourself that you are valuable and that what you do is valuable.
This display of value will help to nurture your entrepreneur personality. This is because it prevents you from viewing yourself or your product as cheap or replaceable.
10. Find Balance
Learning to balance you work with your personal life can be the greatest challenge for an entrepreneur.
As an entrepreneur, you are often going to feel like you have a thousand things to do. However, no matter how busy you feel, you need to make sure to schedule time to spend with your family, friends, and yourself.
Quality time with loved ones will nurture your entrepreneur personality. An individual who is happy and healthy is always more successful and productive.
Conclusion
Bottom line? In order to nurture your entrepreneur personality you need to make sure you are nourishing your whole self, not just your business self.
A career as an entrepreneur can offer you more stability and happiness than any job you’ll find anywhere. Following these tips to grow and nurture your personality will lead you on this road to success.
