The Top 10 Characteristics of the Entrepreneurial Mindset

In their book, The Entrepreneurial Mindset, Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian MacMillan offer insights on the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs in today's fast-paced environment. They encourage us to stop acting by the old rules and start thinking with the discipline of habitual entrepreneurs:

1. Action-oriented

2. Able to simplify

When you are moving fast, complexity only creates confusion and delay. A huge part of becoming an entrepreneurial leader is learning to simplify complexity so your co-workers can act rapidly and with self-confidence.

3. Passionately seek new opportunities

Their greatest impact occurs when they create entirely new business models - how revenues are made, costs are incurred, or operations are conducted.

4. Pursue opportunities with enormous discipline

Most maintain an inventory of unexploited opportunities which they revisit often.

5. Pursue only the very best opportunities and avoid exhausting themselves and their organizations by chasing after every option

6. Ruthlessly disciplined about limiting the number of projects they pursue

7. Focus on execution

They execute, that is, they get on with it instead of analyzing new ideas to death.

8. But it's adaptive execution

They are able to change directions as the real opportunity, and the best way to exploit it, evolves.

9. Engage the energies of everyone in their domain

10. Engage the energies of everyone outside their domain too

So, do you have it ALL????

Capitalizing Enterprising Brain

Recently, I had an opportunity to give a talk on entrepreneurship to the college students. When I asked them "Who want to be rich?", most of them raised up their hands. Then I asked another question, "Who want to be entrepreneur?" None of them!!! So, I told them what if I want to go to London but I bought the ticket to Bangkok? The students replied, I could be an insane man! But I responsed spontaneously that so do you! If you want to be rich, you need to be entrepreneur! Otherwise you're going in a wrong direction...Let me share you some statistics:

Did you know that by the time we hit 65:
1% Are Seriously Wealthy.
4% Are well off.
5% Are STILL working because they HAVE to.
54% Must DEPEND on family or government support to make ends meet.
36% Are dead.

*Statistics from U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare in tracking people from age 20 to 65.

Which statistic do you want to be?

The wealthy top 5% are business owners, earning commission and profit; only a few of the well off top 5% are Highly educated professionals that have been able to build wealth as employees working for a monthly salary.

So, how did our students/graduates acquire these wrong attitudes and mindsets?Perhaps from their parents? I asked the students whether they ever heard about their parents asked them to be so called entrepreneur?None! From childhood their being asked to excell in the study and become lawyer,doctor, engineer, accountant etc. Ironically, all the Top 10 Riches Man in the World and Malaysia are Entrepreneur! Not a lawyer, accountant, doctor.....

Perhaps from the education system?I observed that students know how to acquire knowledge but do not know what to do with it once it is obtained. That's why there are 87,000 unemployed graduates outhere just waiting for the job rather than create their own job!

Yes, I admit that there is a long way to go before we can even consider training undergraduates to be entrepreneurs. But entrepeneurship is all about the process. And entrepreneurship process works best at an early age where students are given ample space to grow, develop and be encouraged. The journey must begins...from all of us.