Having a Positive Mindset

In my business class, Intro to Entrepreneurship, each student got to choose what they wanted to learn about in entrepreneurship. One of the first things we did was make a list of concepts, facts and procedures in entrepreneurship and business that we wanted to learn more about. Recently in class we had an assignment where we had to identify if we had a deep understanding of the material we have learned. In that assignment I focused on the concepts and facts I have learned about. The concepts and facts that I chose in the class mainly have a negative attitude. For example, one of my concepts is “knowing that you will fail and fail until you succeed”. I understand that you are supposed to take these thoughts and learn and grow from them, but there are better ways to do so than phrasing them negatively. Many things that we are told and learn about come in negative ways. Some are good and some are bad, but it can also be up to us how we interpret them. I think that it is extremely important how you think that can greatly affect the outcome of whatever is happening. For example, you can go into a job interview thinking that they are not going to like you and that you probably won’t get the job. Or you can be positive and have faith in yourself and next thing you know you got the position. Your actions and how you think can determine what happens next. I think this relates a lot to what we are learning in class because entrepreneurship is all about trial and error. Entrepreneurs have to work extremely hard to achieve their goals, and it is never easy. Like I mentioned previously, the concepts and facts that I wrote down for our first assignment have negative emotions. It can take away your confidence and leave you doubtful in your success. We have met with a lot of entrepreneurs and learned from fellow classmates that have discussed a lot of the negative hardships in the entrepreneurial world. The speakers from one of our classes mentioned that people who don’t take criticism from their pitches have the worst presentations. Another speaker said that you need to stick with something for 8 weeks or else you will fail, because you want to turn it into a habit. Now I am not saying that this is not valuable information (which it is valuable), but there are different ways to think about it that can be more impactful; more positive. The way you think (positive or negative) greatly affects the things that you do. If you have a negative mindset you tend to be the type of person that doesn’t want to do anything or thinks you will always fail. If you think in a positive manner, you are the person that pushes yourself to be better and focuses on your goals and accomplishing them. You can take criticism because you are not the type of person that pushes that kind of advice away, instead you learn from it. In the entrepreneurial world, this is the type of person you need to be to succeed. You will learn more from it, make better connections, have better learning experiences, and more. Even though being an entrepreneur is not easy and failure is a very common thing, you do not need to take negative advice or failures as a bad thing. They can be more positive than anything else because you can learn from those mistakes and it will make you a more knowledgeable person in that field. Although it is one thing to know you need to be positive and another to actually force yourself to do it. Sometimes it is important to think of the negatives, but you need to know when and how to do that. You cannot let your failures take over. As a class we have been able to learn a lot from each other. Some of the information other students have mentioned fit perfectly into this whole idea. One student mentioned that “if you tell yourself, you cannot do it, you won’t do it”. This is a perfect example of being positive minded. Another student stated, “learning from failures helps you fix them and recover”. This lets you know that it is okay to fail, and the most valuable part is that you now know what to do or have a better understanding. One common fact that many students have mentioned is “90% of startups fail”. As previous examples were positive, this one is not at all. What can be done to make it more positive to have a better mindset is to say for example “10% of startups succeed”. It gives a different perspective that does not sound as harsh and off putting. One concept I used in an assignment was “there is always someone trying to be better than you”. This could be rephrased to “work hard to make yourself stand out because there will always be competition”. Instead of sounding like something you don’t want to get yourself involved in, it challenges you to do better and be stronger. Another speaker from class who presented, mentioned that opinions about you from others do not matter. I believe the way this was phrased was well done because it makes you know that you do not need to worry about what people think of you. There are many concepts and facts in the business world that contain negative connotations, but you can rephrase them to be more pleasing and acceptable. Instead of saying “one of the biggest reasons why businesses fail is because there is no market needed”, you can say “one of the few reasons businesses succeed is because they have found the right market for their business”. This gets your mind thinking about the market that fits your business perfectly or adapting your business to a new market that you can thrive in. If you hear that businesses fail because of a lack of quality and effective leadership, think about how you can improve your leadership skills instead of it being hard to do so. I believe having a strong mindset is extremely important in succeeding in the entrepreneurial world (or really everywhere). It may not be the easiest thing in the world, and it definitely is not, but if you can put your mind to the right motivation, it can take you to success. Looking back at a lot of what we have learned in this class, I have realized that this is something to definitely take into consideration if you are an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is not easy at all, it takes putting yourself out there, and having crazy ideas that many people might not believe in. It takes lots of hard work and dedication, but if you can be positive while you do all of that it will give you motivation and it will significantly help. It is all up to you though. Nobody but you can change the way that you think, and it takes a lot of work to change how you think. The benefits of understanding this though, can change your life forever and help accomplish whatever goal you put your mind on.