Cultivating an Entrepreneurial Spirit

The decision to found your own business and cultivate it from seed is not an easy one, and so every week your mind is clouded with questions. Can you be in business for yourself? You know that you will be uncomfortable and you will work hard. But, in the end- do you have what it takes?

You’re standing at a precipice. You can decide to live the life that you have so far, a world of possible comfort, a job, the same coworkers, the same salary, the same daily grind. Or you could pursue your own goals, take the bravery that you possess and begin on your own path towards entrepreneurship. 

Though media often waxes poetic about the positives of becoming your own boss, creating your own schedule and finally taking the reins in your own life- unfortunately and contrarily most businesses will fail, and likely they will fail within their first year. As a dedicated entrepreneur, it is your responsibility to accept that failure as an omnipresent possibility. By focusing instead on the positive examples of those who succeeded and learned to thrive within their business, you can instead learn from the best and find what they have done to differentiate themselves from their less prosperous competition. Can you succeed at all if you never begin?

Despite the knowledge of your business’ potential failure, by preparing the correct ingredients  and cultivating your business on a hardy foundation as expounded upon within this article, you will be able to see your business truly bloom.  

There are countless skills that prospective business owners will need to learn, raise and propagate to succeed within their chosen fields. Beyond the scope of marketing, sales, growth analysis charts and possible revenue avenue increases- what is hardly mentioned is harnessing an essence of creation. 

As a business owner, you will need to embrace the chaotic problem solving of an artist, to see the joy in creating; not simply get bogged down into the minutia of facts and figures. 

The work of an entrepreneur often feels concrete and gray. These more stuffy aspects must be balanced with an innovative outlook to keep the productivity and passion that will push your projects forward and separate you from your competitors. Creativity is your asset, and you will need to harness both its positives and its drawbacks in order to establish your businesses' hardy roots. 

Once you have planted the idea, and grown the creativity that will make you unique within your field, you have allowed your business to take root. Then begins the grind! Without a dedicated and knowledgeable entrepreneur, those promising roots will whither before they are allowed to truly thrive. After all, a lazy gardener does not have the commitment that it takes to bring his whole crop to harvest. 

In order to become what your business needs to predict a prosperous future, you must first turn your gaze inward. Do you know your strengths? Are you honest about your own weaknesses? Knowing yourself and putting your most critical foot forward is often paramount to plotting success. 

Whether your start-up is a large venture or a rather small one, as the leader you must become what is needed for your business to create prosperity. You will need to embrace the opportunity to lead your company by example.

Becoming a leader requires a herculean deal of introspection, after all what often becomes an insurmountable hurdle for businesses that fail quickly is the behavior of its owner. This means not just possessing the hard skills required to oversee the day to day operations of your business, but to cultivate the positive skills within yourself that you would like to see reflected in both your business and your subordinates. 

Do you think positively? Are you confident in your own decisions? Do you stick to your guns when you need to, and hear feedback when you should improve? Are you truly ready to give your business what it takes- even if long hours, financial instability and anxiety lie in your path?

In order to see your business fruitful, you must first see yourself and your weaknesses objectively and prune and adjust your own attitude as needed. After all, we will all face uncertainty in our lives, and doubly so as a risk-taker. So, in the end the only thing that we can be sure to count on, beyond death and taxes, is ourselves. Now is the time to become confident and steadfast within yourself.

Once you have looked inward to conquer your own fears, you may begin wondering: what a successful entrepreneur actually looks like? What should I always be looking to grow in order to harvest the maximum potential in my business? What should my routine be to see maximum potential expansion from my efforts?

Though every business will look different, there are of course general rules that most successful founders share. 

Planning consistently. Develop a business model that not only generates a reliable flow of revenue and solidifies operations, but that can be improved upon when needed. Because, it is paramount that your venture is reliable and that your plan succeeds at… 

…Embracing change. Never allow your business to become a grind or old-hat to you or your customers! No idea is perfect. A process of constant iteration and learning will help your business to adapt to changing times, customers and markets alike. Change and experimentation with your plans will future-proof your business model and allow for it to thrive, all while…

…Maintaining a growth mindset. If you are not always creating room for your company to expand, you are allowing it to whither. All seeds are planted with insurmountable growth in mind, and so too should it be for your business. Entrepreneurs must grow their businesses, and so your plan must be forged with this idea always in mind. If you do not see growth being reflected heavily in the reality or plans in your business you should begin the process of… 

…Reevaluating positively and negatively. As soon as you are in business, it is important to start creating means for evaluation. How else will you know how to improve into the future? A process of continuous pruning will create a sleek, efficient business, one that doesn’t waste valuable energy on processes that hinder the success of your business as a whole. This can be helped by reflecting this process of constant assessment within your staff as you expand. Make sure that your strive for the optimal business practices seen throughout your entire company by ensuring that you are only…

…Hiring excellence. A dedicated and knowledgeable team is an invaluable asset to your company. They are the lifeblood that keeps your business alive. As an honest entrepreneur, you will need to identify your own flaws in hiring, so that you will be able to hire people who can make up for what you lack. Though modern business owners are expected to be a Jack of All-Trades, you cannot oversee and run all aspects of your business at once, especially as you approach becoming a business of notable size. It can often be an unending search to find the people that will be the positive force for good within your company, those whose input, responsibility and creativity will change your business for the better. However, having other people whom you can trust with the reins of your business when you are swamped with other duties is critical in the growth and stability of your business venture. And, finding and maintaining those people can become easier once you embrace the habit of…

…Leading by example. Do you expect the world out of your employees, when you are not willing to give the same? Of course not! When running the everyday functions of your business it is important never to lose track of the insight and joy that brought you to see your business into reality in the first place. You want to see your efforts thrive, you want to see success and  happiness in every achievement that your business may see far into the future. By bringing positive productivity into work, you will see your  attitude reflected winningly in your staff and increasing tenfold when… 

…Projecting confidence. You will see failure, you will receive negative feedback. But as the captain, taking these losses without losing your drive to move forward and improve is key. You are in a world of difficult, and sometimes costly decisions, and you cannot be conquered by small mistakes. You will need to put on a face that expresses confidence in uncertain times, that takes responsibility in mistakes while remaining steadfast. You must graciously accept feedback without becoming defensive. 

Though all of these steps are equally important, one that is often overlooked takes place far before any of them, and that is seeing the reason behind your business and never losing weight of it. You must have a burning core of truth at the center of your business that you can believe with your whole heart, or you cannot  predict its success. On your toughest days, you need to be able to point to the reason that you started your business in order to dust yourself off and continue forward.

When you understand all of these steps as a never-ending process of creation and advancement, you can learn to find joy in the process of improvement. You can see each of the flaws and hardships as opportunities and lessons. Eventually you won’t see these steps as a chore, but as air. Invisible and vital.The very breath that keeps us alive but goes unseen  as we are too busy in the process of living.

As your business grows, you will be able to breathe deeply and calmly as you traverse the bumpy, intriguing road of entrepreneurship. You will be able to see missteps as lessons and opportunities to learn, because if you see failures as the help that they are, you will no longer be held back by those failures in the future . Reflect on those lessons properly, and see you and your business honestly. You cannot help but to grow from negative experiences. Only difficulties not learned from are a defeat. 

By adhering to the principles laid out before you, by being ruthlessly creative, and an objective entrepreneur who sees their own flaws. Applying a growth mindset to your business model, embracing dynamic change, evaluating flaws and success honestly and cultivating talent you can truly create a triumphant business. 

This is the precipice, just the beginning. As you sit contemplating the, admittedly daunting, task in front of you, the path will only appear more treacherous. But these are problems that have been tackled by many entrepreneurial explorers before you. If you can cultivate the proper entrepreneurial soul within yourself soon these insurmountable tasks will feel easy. Have faith in yourself while growing your business, and find joy in seeing your idea grow, because only you can see it into reality.

You are ready to begin your journey, to embrace your own entrepreneurial spirit within. To accept and nurture your own creativity, create a habit of planning consistently, you are ready to lead your business by example. It is not time to suffer under the weight of decision making, but to make your choice and become the confident entrepreneur that you know that you can be. You know that you may be uncomfortable and you will work hard. But, in the end- you have what it takes. 

Cynthia Doucette