How entrepreneurs unconsciously inhibit themselves in their growth
We have an outdated view of entrepreneurship. Unconsciously, this inhibits our growth as entrepreneurs and we ourselves remain our biggest obstacle. Fortunately, you have everything you need to turn things around. Here I tell you why you need to leave that outdated vision behind you, what shift you need to make as an entrepreneur and how you can become a better entrepreneur.
Unconsciously, an outdated view dominates how we look at entrepreneurship. When are you successful as an entrepreneur? There are many measures of success, but often they have to do with business results, profits. Rarely do we look at the entrepreneur himself.
Even when we encounter challenges on our path, this outdated vision makes us focus on the "what and how. In doing so, we forget the entrepreneur as a human being, however, the foundation of the company. Like the "what and how," the "who" is crucial to successful entrepreneurship.
We believe there is an urgent need for a shift: from focusing on the business to focusing on the entrepreneur, as a person. Enrich actions with self-reflection. Time for focus on the person behind the entrepreneur.
So the solution lies in the shift from competencies to understanding our beliefs and personal obstacles. Because on the road to growth, we ourselves are often our greatest obstacle. We believe that an entrepreneur can achieve his wildest dreams and overcome himself as his greatest obstacle when he surrounds himself with like-minded people, dares to question himself and others, creating awareness about his beliefs and mindset.
Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you have 3 crucial to-do's:
- Create awareness around your beliefs & mindset
- Surround yourself with other open-minded entrepreneurs
- Ask yourself and others powerful questions in a safe environment
1. Work on your mindset
As entrepreneurs, we are constantly getting ahead of ourselves. We are usually alone, constantly living in our heads, telling ourselves a self-made story and ending up in tunnel vision, with or without our team. "It's just the way it is in our market or our business."
Or how about these outdated mantras that many entrepreneurs still regard as true?
- Success can only be achieved through hard work. "Doorre do," as they say in West Flanders.
- Realize a nice exit from and then you are free to do what you really want.
- Thinking big means more risk and misery.
- I am just who I am. I can't really change. I'm not a salesman, a leader, or while we're at it: "not a real entrepreneur."
An example: Jan has believed all his life that he is not a salesman. According to him, selling is pitching, hustling and telling a charismatic story. Like that classic slick car salesman who prefers to foist the most expensive car on you. It can also be different: a good salesman is curious and really wants to understand what is going on in the customer's mind. Asking questions is something Jan can do, and this belief about sales doesn't feel pusillanimous at all. Thus, the conscious and unconscious often clash.
There are still a lot of traditional clichés and mindsets about entrepreneurship that unconsciously work against you as an entrepreneur. The mental aspect of entrepreneurship is heavily underexposed, while it is just through the right insight and mindset that we are capable of great things. We need to develop that mindset.
2. Ask powerful questions
Too often we still think of coaching and self-development as something "fluffy. Whereas proper peer-to-peer coaching is about powerful questions that are brutally honest and straightforward.
In doing so, we break through the school-based one-way learning, where an "all-knowing teacher" comes to explain it all once.We still do not sufficiently utilize the power of learning from other entrepreneurs.
And we do this through the technique of asking powerful questions. We bypass our reflex to give advice thanks to this technique. Well-intentioned, but superficial. When we ask questions the right way - honestly, openly and without judgment - we get to the real, deeper obstacle, which we can then address.
3. Surround yourself with the right entrepreneurs
Many entrepreneurs are assisted by family, friends and possible co-founders. Although they obviously mean well, they are often in the same tunnel vision AND have the wrong motive: to protect you.
So who can you surround yourself with? As an entrepreneur, you are the average of the 5 entrepreneurs around you, so you need to look for the right entrepreneurs. People who are in your league , who have done it themselves, who you can trust.
Some key focal points of this are:
- Can they ask powerful questions to force you into self-reflection?
- Do you believe them? Do they have the authority and experience to be allowed to name certain things?
- Are they themselves open to self-reflection? Can they leave their own ego at the door, and really help you with brutally honest feedback?
Next step
Actually do these to-do's? Come test it out at Rubicon. We provide the right match, so you get together with entrepreneurs from your league, in the form of sounding board sessions. In a safe and confidential environment. Always under the guidance of a professional and experienced moderator, who leads the conversations to the necessary depth. This way we avoid lapsing into a talking shop.
Thanks to these sounding board sessions, you can uncover your own obstacles and find concrete solutions, while drawing inspiration and energy from the challenges of others.
Time to see the person behind the entrepreneur.
