The best entrepreneur advice they won’t tell you
Browse enough entrepreneur advice articles and you’ll start to hear the same advice over and over again. Network! Get investors! Have a plan! Have a lot of money and use it wisely!
That kind of advice is all well and good. But we go a bit deeper than that—we assume you already know a thing or two about your goals and the basic logistics of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Instead, this is about adopting the entrepreneurial mindset required to keep succeeding—even when you hit roadblocks, experience failures and encounter setbacks.
More than that, we will help you create a larger, more holistic worldview that supports the kind of lifestyle you’re trying to live. Instead of a ten foot view of entrepreneur skills, this is a ten-thousand foot view of entrepreneurship as a lifestyle.
So, without further ado, here’s the best entrepreneur advice that others WON’T tell you.
Top entrepreneur advice for business owners
1. Don’t fall in love with an idea—fall in love with opportunities
Ideas are cheaper than starting a business, as you probably know. And yet thousands of entrepreneurs get into the business of, well, business, because they’re passionate and excited about an idea they’ve had.
Here’s some hard news: ideas don’t always work out. If you marry yourself to an idea, you’ll begin boxing yourself into a single business plan with no backup ideas. Should your idea fail to turn a profit or be successful, it can lead to crippling feelings of self-doubt.
More than that, falling in love with an idea can blind you to its impracticality. If your plan to open a vintage brick and mortar bookstore doesn’t work out, you might blame everyone else—the lack of customers, the lack of investment interest, the lack of community support—instead of accepting the notion that maybe there’s not a market for what you’re selling.
Instead, try falling in love with a different idea: the idea that there are COUNTLESS ideas on the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur. You have a limitless capacity to reinvent yourself, your business and your game plan. That’s a benefit!
Maybe your first idea doesn’t work out—congratulations! Now you’re a real entrepreneur. And you’re learning the valuable skill of constantly pivoting, changing and seeking new opportunities when your initial plan gets scrapped.
2. Play the “no” game
In our coaching sessions, we like to encourage clients to play a little something called the “no” game. What is it?
Simple: ask favors of everyone around you and try to get them to say no. It sounds easy enough, right? What we’ve found is the opposite—people have an INCREDIBLY hard time doing this. Most of us have been brought up to believe that asking for help makes us a burden to those around us. But it isn’t.
And if you want to become a successful entrepreneur, it’s one of the most useful entrepreneur skills in your toolbelt.
Our advice? Start with something small. Ask your coworker if they’ll take a small administrative project out of your hands. Ask your neighbor if they’ll lend you some ingredients to make dinner. Ask someone at the dog park to play with your pet while you respond to emails.
Here’s the most important thing to remember: the GOAL is to get people to say NO. Really! You want to try and collect as many “no”-s as possible. Tally them, keep them in a journal—because the more comfortable you get with hearing no, the more surprised you’ll be at the things people actually say yes to.
Things like, “Yes, I’d be happy to invest in your business idea.”
3. Drop the notion of work-life balance
Work-life balance is a common buzzword these days. Our entrepreneur tip? Throw it in the trash along with all the other sensible, middle-of-the-road ideas you’ve heard about finding equilibrium.
Crazy, right? Not really. The idea of work-life balance comes from a good place: we all want to live healthy, happy, enriching lives. But when is life ever balanced? And are we unable to live happy, enriching lives just because it isn’t balanced? If that were the case, all of us would be miserable.
Things will come up. Family problems will arise. Your schedule will always be a puzzle to figure out. You’ll work late some nights, and other times you’ll stop working for days at a time to take a vacation. None of this is balanced, but it’s completely human.
Ultimately, “balance” is boring. You started this career because you’re the kind of person who doesn’t crave perfect balance. Don’t go ruining your health and life to get a business off the ground, but embrace leaning into the energy that new opportunities and ideas gives you. It’s your superpower. Use it to improve all areas of your life: your work, your friendships, your romances, you name it.
4. Think about time management differently
We wrote an article about this one. Here’s the gist—the way people approach time management is completely, totally flawed.
You do NOT need a billion apps on your phone that track, color code, highlight and remind you of your many obligations. You do NOT need to acquire the “perfect” schedule that allows you to do everything, everywhere, all at once. And you do NOT need to spend hours a day thinking about how to be more efficient.
All you need to do is get creative. Let your time management principles be guided by one core belief: If I believe I can find a way to have enough time in the day, then I can make it happen.
When you start thinking about things this way, you start coming up with time management solutions all on your own. You start asking questions like:
- What can I delegate to others so that I can focus on what I need to do?
- What is actually necessary for me to do, and what is work that isn’t necessary?
- What time commitments am I keeping that aren’t bringing me peace, ease or joy?
- What kinds of resources haven’t I considered yet?
- Will I be okay if I don’t do everything perfectly?
- Does it all have to rest on my shoulders, or can I unload some of this burden?
These kinds of questions will help you find the time you think you don’t have.
5. Network using the “right versus happy” principle
Some people find networking hard. They meet people that they should definitely be involved with, but for some reason or other, sustaining the relationship is tough. Maybe a potential investor is uncharismatic or annoying. Maybe a coworker doesn’t completely understand your “vision.” Or maybe you’re afraid of stepping on someone else’s toes.
What successful entrepreneurs do in this scenario is simple—they choose to be happy instead of right. You’re probably right about your gut feeling that someone is annoying, hard to work with or has been “put off” by your ideas. But does that mean you should stick to your guns of being “right” for the sake of righteousness?
No! Instead of choosing to be right, consider what being happy in this moment means. You could decline to work with other people and be righteous in your right-ness, or you could be happy by learning to work with those who can further your vision—even if they’re not perfect.
Of course, this works on a case-by-case basis, and there are times that you need to stick to being right. But the concept does open up new avenues for you to expand your network benevolently and meaningfully.
6. Assume positive intent in others
The best entrepreneur advice when it comes to making judgments of others is that it never hurts to abstain from assumptions. Giving into our negative thoughts about others and assuming what they’re doing is intentionally aimed at harming us is a road that leads to nowhere and offers nothing.
Instead, assume and assign positive intent. Ascribe good intentions to actions that don’t seem positive at first. Presume that others mean well and come from a good place. There’s a chance that these things aren’t true, but you lose nothing by assuming that others are helpful and genuinely want to further your goals. This mentality will make you more open—and more willing to seek advice, help and resources from people who will probably give it.
7. Work with a coach
We believe in entrepreneur coaching because we’re coaches with many years of experience working with the highly-driven population. As entrepreneurs ourselves, it is an honor to guide other entrepreneurs—when we coach others, we are also coaching ourselves. In fact, coaching in and of itself is an entrepreneurial venture.
Coaches like us help people achieve their goals, adopt new mindsets and think flexibly about the world. And the reason they’re so good at what they do is because that’s how they became coaches—by forging their own path and learning valuable skills that other people, especially entrepreneurs, want to know.
Most coaches know a thing or two about starting and running a business. And all coaches know a thing or two about failing forward until they’ve achieved their dreams. If you need help figuring out the basics of entrepreneurship, learning entrepreneur skills or just gaining valuable entrepreneur advice, we’re here to talk.
Let us know what you need.
