Seems like more and more young specialists nowadays are blinded by a thought to become entrepreneurs. The truth is that becoming your own boss is the new career choice of the 21st century.
Although there is a stereotype that people are born with an entrepreneur mindset, still it has never been easy for anyone to develop the skills that guarantee success in business.

What really matters is the mindset. If you’ve come to a decision to start your own business, be sure the first thing you need is a shift of the mindset.

Some very important statistics: According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 27 million working-age Americans start new businesses but half of those small businesses fail within five years. What is the reason?

The obvious answer again is down mindset.
Developing an alternative mindset would require time, effort and ability to see things differently. Below is a list of the most essential entrepreneurial skills that matter in managing a business:

1. Be passionate and never be afraid of hard work.

Entrepreneurs got to be extremely excited and passionate about what they do. Almost in all cases they are building their companies from the ground up, at a great personal sacrifice. Entrepreneurs invest most of their energy and time to the work and this, as a result, blurs the business and home balance line.
There is no doubt, this kind of lifestyle would scare most of us. The fact is that entrepreneurs think outside the box and are not afraid of hard work and dreaming bigger than the average person would. Doing things that other people wouldn’t think of doing, often pays off those great risks.

2. Learn from your mistakes and accept failures

According to the research made by the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, a key characteristic of successful business owners is the ability to bounce back from failure.

A great majority of entrepreneurs have failed so many times before finding that great success that is visible to us. Just like anyone else, entrepreneurs also make mistakes but with a significant difference. Instead of giving up, they learn from them and see something good in every bad thing that happens.

A person with an entrepreneurial mindset won’t let failure keep him from reaching their goals. Next time you make a mistake (hope it won’t happen, though), try thinking of the lessons you can learn from that particular experience and what’s the most important, how to apply them to your future projects.

Eric Ries from the lean startup compares entrepreneurship with “management under conditions of extreme uncertainty.”

There might be numerous difficulties, obstacles and there can be a failure. And again, an entrepreneurial mindset will teach you that failures are opportunities to learn in disguise. IT embraces uncertainty and learning, to leverage the opportunities that emerge from the space between them.
Last thing here: understand that failure is inevitable. If you are not ready to embrace the failure, you won’t be able to come up with fresh ideas. Never ever consider failure as a dead end.

3. Take responsibility for all your actions and decisions. Both good and bad.

Entrepreneurs have an incredible ability of creating something from nothing. Mostly in a way that’s not possible for someone else. Obviously, this means making important decisions about what to do, how and when. As an entrepreneur, you can’t let yourself wait for things to happen, or for someone to tell you what’s right for your business.

You are in charge of making everything happen. Successful entrepreneurs also clearly understand that opportunities may be short-lived, so develop a sense of urgency that could help in achieving your goals.

4. Follow both short and long-term visions simultaneously.

When working for others, you are mainly responsible for ensuring that what needs to be done now, is done. If you are an entrepreneur, you have to project your mind forward constantly. Think about the opportunities and potential pitfalls that lie around the corner, and make decisions that are based on uncertainty.

This requires you to realize the undeniable fact that what you do, or don’t do right now, will have an impact on your business a few months later, even five years down the line.

5. Treat Your Time as Money and invest in yourself.

See the difference: generally employees invest in their future growth by focusing on money, as they are looking for safer returns only. Entrepreneurs are more than sure that Time is Money. Business people shift their focus from money to time for the growth of the company. They are ready to work months after months without any profit. As they believe in generating wealth, they don’t pay attention to the initial months with unattractive results.

Most of the employees are not used to invest in themselves, especially if the company pays for some educational aspects or certifications. As an entrepreneur, you have to invest in yourself.
The best thing would be getting a mentor, joining a mastermind, getting involved with like-minded people who are three steps ahead of you, maybe hire a coach and take courses. Constantly stay on top of your education.
You are your own biggest investment! To cut in short, employees think money is everything, while entrepreneurs know time is everything.

6. Continuously practice discipline

Entrepreneurs need to be extremely focused on their goals and can’t stray away from what they have set out to do. While you need to spend a lot of time managing the business, use time wisely, planning the day and making sure no time is wasted.
Being disciplined comes naturally to entrepreneurs. But for most people, discipline is considered as a punishment. You don’t really need to be too strict but you do need to know what you want and do what you need to do to get it.

The single most important factor for becoming successful is self-discipline. It helps you stay focused on reaching your goals, allows to overcome obstacles and discomfort as you push yourself to new heights.

Start form quitting telling yourself something is too hard for you or you can’t change something. Don’t blame others for your circumstances. Excuse-making is the number one killer of self-discipline. Adopting an “I can do this” mindset will help you to achieve more and more.
If you want your destiny to look and feel in a preferred way, then you must develop the discipline to get there. Right now it may sound a bit counterintuitive to you but be sure you will find yourself happier and healthier the more self-disciplined you become.

7. Entrepreneurs wait for holidays for to strengthen their beliefs.

Employees anxiously wait for the weekend and holidays. They just want to relieve themselves from office stress. Some plan out for a weekend trip before facing the boring Monday again. Entrepreneurs also wait for the holidays. But, they plan out their business plans for coming out from the Monday morning dilemma.

Most of the entrepreneurs don’t pay attention to weekdays and work on weekends as well. Or they would even wake up at 5 a.m. on the weekends to work on business idea instead of staying in bed. They see the distraction-free environment as a way to increase their productivity.

Mindset is probably the major determinant of success in pretty much every walk of life. In other words, the thinking patterns you have habitually adopted govern the results you achieve, especially in business life.
In the end, it is important to mention that there’s nothing like real-world experience, you will for sure learn more by making mistakes. Every successful entrepreneur has learned to develop perseverance and tenacity muscles. Entrepreneur life is never a smooth sailing, and it takes guts to keep going.
It is not that employees are bad and entrepreneurs are great or vice versa, it is more about having a mindset that pushes you to grow all the time. The important thing is to stay relevant to this ever-changing business environment. As long as you stay relevant, you are useful and in demand.