What distinguishes people, who enjoyed massive success in their lives and the majority of other people, who are wondering how to bring more success, happiness and achievement into their lives?
Undoubtedly you can come up with many reasons, but eventually it boils down to one thing: Those people chose to do whatever it takes to create the situation and the life they want. This includes exercising the effort and initiative to figure out what “whatever it takes” is. Those people don’t sit around and wait for some “Fail-Safe, Guaranteed Plan of Action” or the permission or authorization or the entitlement to get started figuring out what needs to get done, and getting it done.
Jeniffer Russel and Bryan Franklin called this concept “The Entrepreneurial Mindset vs. the Employee Mindset”. Keep in mind, this distinction has nothing to do with whether you are actually an entrepreneur or an employee.
So what distinguishes an entrepreneurial mindset?
1. Focus on contribution not on entitlement: Focus your life around contribution means paying attention to what you can contribute to any given person or situation you care about. Don’t believe that just by sucking air in and blowing it out again you’ll deserve something without any contribution. We often see this in sport when a certain players thinks she/he is entitled for playing time or respect because of a big contract. Same goes for the business world.
2. Focus on outcome not on output: Those in the employee mindset feel satisfied if they just work harder and harder and harder. But often they don’t pay much attention to whether all this effort will actually produce the specific outcome they want. Focusing on credentials and academia is definitely fine, but never loss sight of what you actually want to achieve!
3. Sort for what’s needed not what’s requested: This directly relates to our post about everyday leadership. Look for the “white spaces” and don’t wait until somebody comes around and requests you to do something. Collecting little gold stars of approval won’t get you ahead. Take care of what’s needed in a situation!
4. Work yourself out of a job don’t work to protect it: Someone who continuously makes themselves “dispensable” and “redundant” at their lower leverage roles in the organization – through good hiring, outsourcing, delegation, automation, systematization – and at the same time continuously seeks roles of greater and greater leverage and leadership is indispensable to the organization.