How To: Develop An Entrepreneurial Mindset [Chart]

If you have recently launched your own business for the first time, you probably feel like you are expanding into uncharted territory. Being an entrepreneur is very different from being an employee, and there is definitely an entrepreneurial mindset that you’ll need to develop in order to secure your success as a self-employed person. Entrepreneurs see the world differently, but what I’m talking about goes far beyond that.

It doesn’t matter how you get there in your mind. Some people feel like they were born with an entrepreneurial mindset, and others develop it. I’ve written about this many times before, and the most recent was in an article called What It Takes To Become An Entrepreneur. When I saw this chart, which maps out the basics of entrepreneurial thinking in the form of a subway map, I thought the analogy was fun.

Just like we get lost on the subway sometimes (Have you ever been to Penn Station? Enough said), sometimes we lose our way with our own thinking and self-talk. But just like we eventually find our way on the subway, we can always find our way back to our entrepreneurial mindset when we go astray.

This chart is called The Mind Subway, and it was created by Anna Vital at Funders and Founders. It reminds us that asking ourselves questions like, “What if I fail?” and “What if I don’t know enough?” will only paralyze us from moving forward – as will comparing ourselves to others (which I could write a whole article about).

In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to unlearn some of the things you learned in school, catch yourself when you think these negative thoughts, remember what’s important and develop an entrepreneurial mindset. I can tell you from experience – once you get the hang of it, it will start coming naturally!