10 wise entrepreneurship lessons from being an entrepreneur
My entrepreneurship lessons are based on my own experience as a business owner.
For me, entrepreneurship is primarily a matter of doing. However, it requires an entrepreneurial mindset.
As Cicero put it 106 years before Christ, “Character without knowledge has more often led to success than knowledge without character.” For sure, a man with undoubtedly a lot of knowledge and character.
Entrepreneurship is, therefore, about who you are, and your attitude partly determines the behavior you exhibit. You learn to fall and stand up, but also to stand out. What about you? Take our DISC personality test.
Due to damage and sometimes shame, here are 10 wise (read hard-learned) entrepreneurial lessons (with a brief description about each one). It has become my “business handbook” that describes my lessons learned in entrepreneurship. It may sound pedantic at times, but that is really not my intention. I hope it helps your entrepreneurial journey and gets the success you want!
Table of contents
- Wise lesson #1: Give before you take
- Wise lesson #2: Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do
- Wise lesson #3: First good than fast and then lots
- Wise lesson #4: Think from the other person’s filter, starting with the customer’s
- Wise lesson #5: Listen before you speak
- Wise Lesson #6: Whatever you really want, you can
- Wise lesson #7: Make sure you hear yourself talking
- Wise lesson #8: Do not find yourself successful, because then it will be too late
- Wise lesson #9: Stop checking, start learning
- Wise lesson #10: Never give up
Wise lesson #1: Give before you take
The first of the 10 entrepreneurship lessons is mainly about networking but also about collaboration. I have visited many networking drinks and held collaborative discussions. So, I spoke to many people. The majority takes first before giving back. Those “takers” first want to know what they can get or take from you. They will only give you back something later if it proves helpful for them. But even then, some didn’t return anything. Whether it is later or never, it isn’t sustainable. Therefore, my lesson is – before you take – to simply ask:
What can I do for you?
When visiting a networking event, simple ask this question.
Again, the “takers” get shocked anyhow. They did not expect your kind gesture. If everyone does that, you will eventually get what you initially wanted.
Wise lesson #2: Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do
Number 2 of my 10 entrepreneurship lessons is about passion, drive, and perseverance. As an entrepreneur, you are really thrown into the deep. You can no longer hide behind your position, or your colleague, or your excuses such as: “this is not my department.” You irrevocably encounter yourself in all your strengths and weaknesses. It can be confronting. Yes, It does.
Therefore, the entrepreneurial lesson I learned is, above all, to be yourself. There is no point in hiding. So, do whatever you really want to do. That one thing that you are passionate about and you can’t live without it for a day. Then it also becomes a lot more fun, even if you earn too little to live by.
Of course, there is always less fun work left to do in your business. Rather the opposite. So what is left for you to do today? Do it. Now!
Do what you can’t let, but don’t let what you can do.
Dr. Martijn Driessen
Wise lesson # 3: First good, then fast, and then lots
This third lesson of my 10 entrepreneurship lessons is about building a foundation. In short, about planning and organizing. A bitter necessity if you want to make it a real company. Because if you keep making mistakes, you’ll easily get burned out. Of course, mass is money, but without a sound basis – read: proven processes – mass becomes a mess.
Hence, this lesson is actually very simple. Make sure that what you do is right first. Please test it out in small steps and in small quantities. If that all works well, you can start to think bigger and faster. But, again, test, test, test. Only after that can you start focusing on the rest.
Do half of what you do, and do it twice as well.
René Savelberg – former CEO of McDonald’s Netherlands
Wise lesson #4: Think from the other person’s filter, starting with the customer’s
This is the biggest lesson in successful entrepreneurship I learned, however challenging to master. But I’m going to try to teach it to you. It is about market orientation, thinking from the customer, and how the thinking style of a salesperson works. It is primarily about the filter. I do not mean the coffee filter, but the filter every person has. So, your filter and that of your customer. You can view the filter as a pair of glasses that you wear.
Not literally, of course, but a virtual one that allows you to see the world around you every day. Those virtual glasses are the sum of your upbringing, your norms and values, your character traits, your thinking styles, etc. Actually, everything you have experienced so far. The way you view the world in your unique way, the customer does in his unique way.
So, to sell something to your customer, you need to know their unique glasses. Only then will you actually know whether and how you can meet their needs. How do you do that? Very simple, actually. By asking questions, you find out about his or her glasses. An important detail is to ask open questions. They always start with how, what, who, where, and when.
Another tip: if you are really interested in your customer, it goes effortlessly.
When I say apple, what do you think of?
Wise lesson #5: Listen before you speak
This fifth experience of the 10 entrepreneurial lessons that I learned is about social orientation and communication. So in a way also about the filter. Your customer’s filter; what thinking style does he have? What preoccupies him?
Of course, you are full of yourself and your company. You have gold in your hands. But 10 to 1 that your customer has something different on his mind. For sure, he has something else on his mind. Something that he does not immediately throw openly and honestly on the table, especially when he feels that you want to sell him something.
So, first, you must put him at ease and gain his confidence. That starts with asking questions. Exactly: open-ended questions. If you still feel the urge to talk, bite your tongue, and curl your toes.
Another tip: you listen with your eyes. In other words, look closely at what is not said by looking at his body language.
Listen with your eyes & you listen to the SILENCE!!
This is a split newsletter, I will continue with the next 5 in the next newsletter, so keep watching for it.
Leadership Video
https://www.personalityservice.com/portal/HGNG/video-leadership
Teams Video
https://www.personalityservice.com/portal/HGNG/team-performance
