10 wise entrepreneurship lessons from being an entrepreneur - Part 2

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 #6: Whatever you really want, you can

This hart learned lesson is about believing in yourself. About effectiveness, as measured in the DISC. This lesson actually refers to all entrepreneurial lessons. It means that if you really want something, you will find a way to take you there.

It is not without reason that there is a well-known saying that there is no road impassable for the persistent person. Where there is no road, you can always build one. But that is only possible if you firmly believe you can create that road. So, it is only possible if you’re highly internally motivated. That’s why you see it in the eyes of successful entrepreneurs. You see, their eyes sparkle and twinkle. They have that rock-solid conviction in what they want and eventually, get it done.

By getting up again every time you have fallen, you’ll eventually succeed. 

Tip: start with the end in mind. After all, that’s what you want. The more concrete your end goal, the easier it gets. So, if you already know what you want. Then you have to do it.

Do what you really like, and make sure you become the best at it!

Jan Aalberts – CEO Aalberts Industries

Wise lesson #7: Make sure you hear yourself talking

This entrepreneurship lesson is about your inner voice. It deals with what you think and what you want. In other words, it refers to your autonomy and creativity and not what others want you to do.

Do you live by your fantasy? Don’t be distracted by what others think or say. By that, I don’t mean you can ignore everyone around you from now on. They want the best for you. Doubtless. However, they also have their filter and interests. They view you and your company from their perspective. Everything they say is related to that.

Listen, consider their advice or opinion, especially if good open questions on their part preceded it, but ultimately make your own decision. No one else is so intertwined with your company. Only you know all the ins and outs. So listen to your intuition, to your inner gut feeling.

Your feeling knows much more than your mind can think of.

Dr. Martijn Driessen

Wise lesson # 8: Do not find yourself successful because then it will be too late

This eighth lesson of 10 entrepreneurial lessons, which I learned, is about keeping both feet on the ground. Of course – you will never hear me say – you can’t celebrate your successes. Please do celebrate. But try not to let it go to your head.

By finding yourself successful, you have a good chance of becoming arrogant. Arrogance is the enemy of every entrepreneur. Don’t get stuck in there. Do not think for a minute that you are already there, because then you relax and you start lacking behind.

The future is always ahead of you, not behind you. Although, of course, there is nothing against looking back and reflecting from time to time.

• What can you do differently?
• Is there anything you can do better next time?
• What options do you have?
• How can you make it happen?

After all, you know very well what you want. Right?

After all, you know very well what you want.

Wise lesson #9: Stop checking, start learning

“I told you so; I knew it better!” Managers and Specialists – as entrepreneurial thinking styles – are more likely to suffer from this way of thinking. They love to double-check – if not triple-check – before moving ahead. They are the first to tell you precisely how things are and should be. It is not good or bad, but it is less effective, depending on the situation.

It is more useful when you ask yourself: what is different, what is actually meant, what possibilities does it offer me, and what can I learn from this? Exactly, here again, it starts with asking the right questions. This time you are asking open-ended questions to yourself. Because that’s where the learning starts! Learning by reflecting and improving.

#10 of my entrepreneurship lessons: Never give up

The tenth wise lesson is not consciously mentioned last. Wise lesson numero uno is no more important or better than number ten. Nevertheless, if there is one personal characteristic that you, as an entrepreneur, should have enough of, then it is the ability never to give up. So, perseverance.

As an entrepreneur, you find yourself in new and unknown situations more often than you would like, which sometimes demand the utmost. Things that don’t go as you expected. That makes a massive appeal to your motivation, to your passion—the reason you ever started your own business. But if the reason you started for yourself is still there – no matter how small or far away – then you will eventually continue. Then you will find the motivation to think of another way that will take you to what you so eagerly and eagerly desire.

Your desires are your friends. Your expectations are your enemies.

an investor and entrepreneur

With these entrepreneurship lessons, I wish you much wisdom and success.

With entrepreneurial regards,

Listen to our introduction to a Sustainability by Design: Sustainable Startup Toolkit