Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mindset
By: Changwon C.
Tags: Starting A Business, Work Life Balance, Business, Entrepreneurship, Self Improvement

Photo by Bruce Mars on Unsplash

Questioning the world around, and observing hidden opportunities to provide a solution for a problem constitutes an entrepreneurial mindset.

This mindset results in a willingness to move forward and change the surroundings with a revolutionary idea. Questions like “what if” are the daily table talk for such people. Not only do entrepreneurs strive to jump-start a business from scratch, but they are often unaware of a means of stabilized income source.

For example, when the four graduate students who thought of challenging Luxottica started Warby Parker, they were not sure if they could convince anyone to buy cheaper eye-wear. And now, they are the largest online eye-wear sellers.

Granted the benefits of having such an approach towards life, it is not always a bed of roses. There are many hard-earned battles you have to fight when it comes to building a business from nothing.

Entrepreneurial Guilt and How to Deal with It

According to research, 30% of businesses fail in their second year. The factors that boost the motivation to start a business are often the same reasons for burnout. More often than not, these reasons include the attitude of those around us and our self-imposed emotional limits.

If you decide to Google the term “entrepreneurial guilt,” you will find useful information there without a proper definition for the phenomenon. It makes you think how little this behavior is acknowledged even within the business community. It makes sense to some degree because we often disregard something by negating it. In this case, we often hear people say the terms “being workaholic” or “poor work-life balance” instead of using the term entrepreneurial guilt.

Following are some of the classic symptoms of this guilt and their solutions.

Not Doing Enough

The most common factor that generates entrepreneurial guilt is tricking your subconscious into thinking that you are not doing enough for your business. I maintain search engine optimization (SEO) for my projects, print-on-demand (POD), and e-Commerce. Since I do not take any client-based work anymore, I felt like I might not feel the pressure.

However, to my shock, the opposite came out to be true. I usually tackle about 10,000 words for my SEO work daily, and even then, it feels like there is more that I should be doing to stay relevant.

The same feeling arises when I take some time off for other things. It feels like taking time for other things might cost me a huge success, even though I know deep down that it is not the case.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Learning Curves

A classic self-imposed limit is the feeling of not learning a new skill or doing it alone. Since I am doing my own thing, it has enabled me to question my abilities and the extent to which I push them. The root of all such emotionally draining feelings comes down to never giving up. There were some things that I did not know how to do when I started. I thought challenges meant that my business idea was not enough.

People Around Us

When I started my business, I can clearly remember my parents being ashamed of what I did. They would feel my newfound independence to be distracting from what I should have been doing. My “friends” thought I was committing social suicide by not opting for a regular 9-to-5. I believe people around us have a fair share of our motivation levels. It is the environment around us that sometimes makes us suffer.

Solutions

Here are some of the solutions to deal with and overcome entrepreneurial guilt:

Acknowledge the Guilt

The first step to overcoming this guilt is accepting its presence. We need to understand that not addressing such feelings can do more harm than good. Now and then, we need to take a step back and realize that not feeling enough is a perfectly human emotion.

Surround Yourself with Supporting People

I feel that this is the most important solution tip. In your constant struggle to reach a goal, you need a strong team of like-minded people. Your peers go through similar challenges and can give you the necessary support you need. When I surrounded myself with entrepreneurs, I noticed many of them supported me in my business ideas at various events and meetups. I was able to profit from their experiences, and I am grateful for that. I also met my mentor about four years ago, who supported me mentally and, in my actions, to bring about my idea to fruition.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Consider Other Financial Strategies

Whenever you start a new business or start-up, always question yourself if you can rely on other financial assistance. It is another important tip that I have found valuable.

In the start, I was naïve about initial funding, and I was under a lot of financial pressure. I quit my daily job back then to focus full-time on the business, and in retrospect, I feel like that was a mistake. I should have kept my daily job and paid my bills while working on my business. As an entrepreneur, we need to acknowledge that you have to spend a lot of taxes and bills, and you always need a large amount of initial investment to help you with it.

Understand the guilt

As an entrepreneur, I have learned to understand that these feelings will not completely go away. Sometimes we feel guilty for doing overwork, and sometimes we feel horrible for not putting enough, even though, deep down, we are aware that we have set our best. I always use a strategy to ask myself a question: “What do I gain from feeling guilty?”. I write to jot it down on paper for future reference.

Focus on yourself

Since I started facing guilt myself, I resorted to proper research to determine what the professionals recommend. I was happy to see that I was internally synchronous with what I found out. To be a successful entrepreneur who uses this mindset to their advantage for maximum output, I need to take care of myself. This care also meant in the form of time for me. Before taking time for anyone else, it is vital to acknowledge your needs.

Never Compare

I feel like this is an often-neglected tip to overcome entrepreneurial guilt. To survive the business industry, we need to realize that each business and business owner differs by industry, geography, leadership, company culture, skills, etc. I have learned to keep an open eye for observations and learning but not obsess over the other party. An envious attitude forces you to change every essential practice in favor of what is popular in the market, which can be disastrous. Not every new approach is tailored to your business.

Work and Life Balance

For the two years that I have tried maintaining a steady business, I paid no attention to the work-life balance. I worked anywhere between 12 -16 hours every day, and in my case, it works perfectly. A few days ago, I read the newspaper, and I read a new piece that made me smile. I read that most Austrians are at risk of burning out because they work longer hours.

Contrary to the popular belief of pacing yourself in life, I found that I would be working more than 16 hours sometimes and feeling satisfied at the end of the day. If you have found a job that you like and feel passionate about, you will find a way to be up to the task every day.

Since there is no perfect formula for work-life balance and it varies from individual to individual, I stretched out to my entrepreneur peers to see how they handle this complex problem. Some colleagues told me that in addition to passion, you need to have the physical and mental capability of devoting your time and space to be with the people you value the most. Convert your hobby into work, and work along with your best friends.

Others told me that the term “work-life balance” paints quite a sad picture and should be “work-life fit” to make it seem like a compromise.

I also learned that keeping a time management journal helps a lot. As an entrepreneur, a good chunk of your daily schedule is predetermined, and it is easy to predict what the end of the week is. This habit also gives a sense of control over things, leading to less guilt and eventual entrepreneurial burnout.

According to Harvard Business Review, burnout is dissatisfaction at the workplace, displayed as “absenteeism, inefficient decision making and turnover.” The research also lists that entrepreneurs are at moderate risk of getting burned out (about 25%). Still, a high number of entrepreneurs reported passion for their projects. Specifically, those who agreed that their passions go beyond money, i.e., they were doing what they liked and enjoying it.

Researches like this fascinate me because they tell me more about how people like me are tackling common issues, and I feel rightly-adjusted in my work sphere.