Entrepreneur -- You know them. By name. By reputation. They are the living legends, the household names, the superstars. They are the entrepreneurs who have succeeded against all odds and beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. How did they make it? What catapulted them to the pinnacle of success?
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Was it some genetic mutation, raw brilliance or freakish bit of luck? It was none of these. Yet it was all of these. And it was something more. Beyond their sizzling hot businesses and flashy personal brands, many entrepreneurs have a depth of character.
They think in ways that few others do. The sayings quoted below encapsulate such thinking. These sayings aren’t inscribed, framed in some museum or attributed to any entrepreneur specifically. Rather, these quotations comprise the mental attitude of an entrepreneur who knows what he or she wants, knows how to get it, and knows that success is going to happen.
If the entrepreneurial ethos could speak, here is what it would say.
1. 'I don’t care what they think.'
Lao Tzu said,
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
Successful entrepreneurs know this to be true. It sounds callous to not care what people think, but a healthy disregard for public opinion is essential to doing work that matters.
When entrepreneurs get hung up on how people perceive him, think of them, say about them, write about them and talk about them, they're not on the path toward building an exemplary business. Instead, they are on a path to try to please the crowds.
2. 'I will dream bigger than you ever dared.'
Before a business can be built, a dream must be dreamed.
Dear entrepreneurs: Have a dream and make it a big one.
Good advice. When I myself read the mission of SpaceX, I’m tempted to snicker:
SpaceX . . . was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
Live on other planets. Seriously? But that’s the kind of convention-defying dreams an entrepreneur must possess. My own dreams are smaller, but they are still dreams. They seemed unlikely when I first dreamed them, but, looking back, I’m glad I dreamed, and dared and did it.
Go ahead. Thumb your nose at convention, and unleash your biggest and most insane dream.
3. 'That’s stupid.'
You’ve got to know when something simply won’t work.
Building a business entails a maelstrom of massive change and rapid movement. If you decide to labor over every decision and analyze every move, you’re going to be stuck. Sometimes, you need to label an idea, a plan, a strategy or a decision as “stupid,” and move on.
Steve Jobs once told competitor George Bodenheimer,
Your phone is the dumbest f**king idea I have ever heard.
Jobs wasn’t afraid of ticking people off, and calling a spade a spade. You can be more nuanced in your speech, but you have to be clear in your mind about what’s going to work and what’s not.
Read the rest here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251737
