3 Biggest Mental Mistakes to Avoid When Starting Your First Business
Based on my experience with my first entrepreneurial venture.
There’s a ton of advice out there on what to do and what to avoid when it comes to starting your own business. Most of it, however, is related to business acumen: product validation, audience building, choosing a niche, customer acquisition, marketing strategies.
But building a business is as much about mental strength and maturity as it is about business sense and entrepreneurial grit.
I made three crucial mental mistakes in my first entrepreneurial venture that I urge you to avoid. I discuss them below and share some tips on how to avoid them.
1. Having no clear plan and letting “winging it” be a strategy.
Napolean Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich who spent 20 years studying the world’s most successful and wealthiest, wrote:
“Your achievement can be no greater than your plans are sound.”
I’ve learned this the hard way.
When I first launched my business (an e-commerce brand), I was beyond excited about doing so. The mere act of taking a leap and building something defined by my own rules was gravitating. But while I had a vision of where my business can go, I had no definite plan of how I’m going to get it there.
Those are two distinct, but easily and wrongly interchanged terms — the where of the vision and the how of the strategy.
The reality is this: business isn’t always predictable and you can’t just sit back and wait for things to happen. Your attitude of “going with the flow” can destroy you.
You have to be smart. You have to study your market. You have to be hungry to learn every single thing you can about your competition, customers, market, products, and trends. You have to be prepared for the worst. And most importantly you have to know what your monthly, quarterly and yearly objectives are.
You need a well-devised plan of action because your achievements “can be no greater than your plans are sound.” You need to be very specific about what it is you want to accomplish.
And this goes beyond just “sales”; this applies to every aspect of your business.
Do you have a definite plan of action for your customer acquisition strategy? Do you have one for your email marketing strategy? How frequently will you be running those campaigns, who will be managing them and what will the split be between the promotional, educational and informative content be?
This is the minuteness and level of detail you must engage in.
Sure, you are not expected to know everything from the start — we learn, grow and “figure things out” in the process. But the honest truth is this: having a plan implies that you’ve mitigated your risk by taking the time to consider all alternative scenarios and building a roadmap for your success.
Having a plan takes the risk out of risk-taking. “Winging it” transforms risk into reality.
This excerpt from Napoleon Hill summarizes my points above:
“The successful leader must plan his work, and work his plan. A leader who moves by guessing work, without practical, definite plans, is comparable to a ship without a rudder. Sooner or later he will land on the rocks.”
2. Not thinking and acting “like a pro”.
This is one of the 10 things I wish I knew before becoming an entrepreneur. It would’ve saved me months of mental struggles.
One of the most important — but never talked about — aspects of starting your first business is the shift that must happen in your underlying set of beliefs and identity.
Picasso said it so eloquently:
“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. ”
If you’re transitioning from employee to entrepreneur, you must shed your old “self”; you must shift your mindset and start thinking and acting like a business owner. This creation of your new self requires the destruction of your older self and all the bad habits and limiting beliefs that are clinging to it.
People want to work and do business with successful and professional people. So what you need to do is believe, act and see yourself as a successful and professional person. You have to believe in yourself, in your mission and in your business before anyone else will.
You have to shift your mindset from “amateur” to “pro. And what does a pro do?
- A pro focuses on “one thing” and shows up every single day to invest time and energy into progressing his “one thing” because he respects the process (more than the result). As Picasso had said: “inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”
- A pro says no to everything that distracts her or eats up energy from her “one thing.”
- A pro is committed to the long haul and thus understands that temporary defeats aren’t permanent failures. She doesn’t complain about it because she knows that’s the price you pay for playing this game.
- A pro is accountable for his actions. He knows there is no one to pick up his slack and cover up for him.
- A pro believes that he will always be a student of the ever-evolving game and so, he is continuously learning to master his art. This is how he removes himself from external judgment.
- A pro believes in herself and her mission. She is determined to make it happen and will continue to build and follow-through on plans, confront fear and reduce the voice of self-doubt
This identity-shifting should not be confused with the worst advice anyone could give: “Fake it till you make it.”
Don’t “fake” it. Instead, “be” it.
Look like a pro, think like a pro, act like a pro; be a pro.
I was introduced to this idea of amateur vs. pro by Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art. It’s a must-read for entrepreneurs or creatives and it really transformed my perspective. Here’s what he has to say about how to turn pro:
“There’s no mystery to turning pro. It’s a decision brought about by an act of will. We make up our mind to view ourselves as pros and we do it. Simple as that.”
3. Not being “obsessed” enough.
Mark Cuban is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and this is his number one advice to anyone considering building their own business:
“Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.”
I wasn’t “obsessed” enough with my business. I love the mission and I believe in the value it contributes to the world. But with time, I’ve come to realize that my true passion, purpose, and conviction lies more in building a writing business and less in building an e-commerce one.
Obsession is defined as “an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”
Obsession is an unparalleled devotion to your business. If your current business isn’t, then you’re in the wrong business. And whatever idea or thought continually intrudes and consumes your mind — that’s the business you should be in.
In a recent article by Megan Holstein, she writes how she made $8,000 on Medium in one month. This is what she wrote:
“What I’m saying is, the answer to the question of “How I Made $8,000 on Medium in One Month” is this: I was willing to write three to five articles a week, every week, for two years, even when I wasn’t making much money at all.”
Three to five articles a week. Every week. For two years. That’s how obsessed you have to be. In fact, she goes on to say this:
“What made this possible for me was that I gave myself no other option.”
Obsession means wanting it SO bad that you give yourself no other option — no exit strategy. And when you’re obsessed, you’re not motivated by the result, you’re motivated by the process. And as we know:
This is why Mark Cuban said — and I preach — “don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love.” Because it’s going to take sweat, energy, and tears for you to make it happen. It’s going to cost you twice as much as you had planned and it will take twice as long as you had imagined.
The true cost of building your own business is that you have to show up to do the work every single day — for years — regardless of whether you feel like it or not. That’s why you should only do something you are truly obsessed with.
Regardless of what it is, success arrives when you study and build yourself a detailed plan of action, you shift your identity from amateur to pro so you can start thinking and acting like a pro, and you give yourself no other option but to be obsessed — to show up every single day and put in the work.
My Advice:
- Have a definite plan. Set a roadmap for yourself. You can expect pivots, but having a plan means you’ve thought things through. It means you’re not going in on a whim. This is how you minimize your risk.
- Create an identity-shift. See yourself, and act, as who you wish — and need — to become. Bridge the ‘new you’ into your identity — see, and act, like a pro.
- Be obsessed. Be so in love with what you’re doing that failing is not a viable outcome. Whether it takes you 2 or 10 years to succeed in your field of business — you will give yourself no other option but to do so. That’s how badly you should be obsessed with your business.
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